It makes for great footwear and soft, natural-feeling furniture -- but who ever thought of using leather to cover floors?
One innovative company is using leather to create sumptuous floor surfaces that caress the feet and are much more comfortable than the standard tile or hardwood alternatives.
Torlys, a 21-year-old Canadian flooring company with headquarters located in Toronto, is growing fast -- and no wonder. The company's ideas are groundbreaking. Or should I say ground-covering? Torlys claims credit for creating the concept of leather flooring using 100-per-cent recycled leather.
"The floors use excess leather from shoe and furniture factories. We then use resins to bond it together," explains John Kocemba, Torlys vice-president of marketing. This ensures that excess waste generated by factories is used, not thrown away. The leather is then placed on a cork underlay, making the surface very comfortable to move about on.
The floors come in the form of extra-long planks and oversized tiles to create an expansive feel and maximize texture, one of leather's big draws.
"We launched the leather flooring line in October 2008 in Canada," says Kocemba. "It has been so successful that we are expanding to the U.S., and the leather flooring line is now spreading to places like Scotland, Portugal, and New Zealand."
Husband-and-wife team Kristin and Keely Krokis, owners of Edmonton's Absolute Hardwood, are very happy with the floors. "We've been dealing with Torlys for three years and started carrying the leather line right when it was launched," says Kristin Krokis. "We were really excited when we saw it initially. It's a great design element and it has created a real buzz."
"When you open the box (before installing), it smells like leather; it gives off that leather smell, and the texture is just incredible," Krokis explains.
The floors tend to come in darker colours, which Krokis says works well with the continuing trend toward decorating with deeper shades. They're available in glossy or matte, and range in texture from very smooth and uniform to ultra-textured for those who want a high-impact look.
The line has an environmental focus, as Torlys uses leather pieces that would normally be discarded, making the most use out of the raw material. The floors do not emit VOCs (volatile organic compounds that affect air quality) and the cork underlay is also environmentally sensitive. Cork is actually bark harvested from cork oak trees every nine years, so the tree is never cut down to be used as flooring. And since cork is made of 50 per cent air, it is a thermal and acoustic insulator, according to the Torlys website.
Its green nature extends to installation, too. "There is no glue, and no nails are needed," says Kocemba. "We use a glue-less 'Uniclic' installation." Though installers are recommended, do-it-yourselfers can install the floors with relative ease and little cost. Without the added installation materials, the floor essentially floats, so if a plank or tile of leather is ever damaged, it can easily be replaced.
And if homeowners ever want to move and reuse the floor in a different area, they can simply lift and transfer it without affecting its 25-year warranty (this can be done up to three times).
For more information, go to www.torlys.com
-- Canwest News Service
