# How Much Cork Bark



## mmandajade (Feb 13, 2017)

Hi all, 

Lots of websites - NEHERP, GlassBoxTropicals, PangeaReptile etc. - sell cork flats by the pound. 

People who have bought in bulk before, can you give an estimate for how much square footage your shipment actually covered? (i.e. my 5 pound shipment was enough for my "x by x" background and some extra) I'm having a really hard time getting a sense of how much cork I need to purchase for a 'cracked' cork background that's about 20" by 48". Also GlassBoxTropicals has a 10%off sale today that I don't want to miss, haha. 

Thanks!
Amanda


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## jarteta97 (Jun 13, 2014)

For a background that's 24" by 36", it took about 3 to 4 cork gallon bags, if that helps.


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## chibisan713 (Dec 8, 2017)

I bought the 1lb from Glass Box Tropicals and was overwhelmed with how much I got haha. I mean, they were huge pieces and only used 1/4 of what I bought. I did not do the cracked bark but if you're breaking them up you'd get even more, I think the 1lb would be plenty if you got the same amount as I got. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of how much I got, but he sent me a huge box because the pieces were so large. most were well over a foot long


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## artgecko (Dec 6, 2016)

I've purchased from NEHERP and Pangea. Both have good cork and give you what you request (if you tell them in the comments what you are looking for). 

It is hard for me to say, as I had multiple partial remnanats left when I built my last background, but when I did the background for my 36x18x36 exo and 18 cube exo (built at the same time), 10lbs and a couple "gallon bags of scraps" were enough for me with a good bit leftover.. That said, I had requested flats and rounds, so if I had requested all flats from pangea, I'm sure I would have had a lot more left over. More recently, 5lbs has been enough to do a couple 18 cube exos, but again, I also buy a bag of the small scrap pieces to fill in gaps and request all flats.

Never purchased from glass box before. pangea has the cheapest shipping on cork of the 2 vendors I've tried ($4.99 flat rate).


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

How likely are you to need cork in the future? If you ever intend to do more builds or think you might be able to sell or trade it, it might be worth ordering from Maryland Cork directly. I have done that about 4 or 5 times and always find a use for the leftovers. It costs roughly $130 for a huge box of cork and you can specify if you want small rounds or flats or both (that's what I usually do, and medium rounds are too big for most of our purposes). You would have a ton leftover, but I have always been able to sell or trade it to other frog folks. The other advantage is that you can pick just the right piece from all of the different pieces they ship. You are never stuck with using something because it's what you had. I have a Maryland Cork order on its way right now 

This maybe too much cork/expense for you, but I wanted to mention it just in case. Little pieces of cork can do a perfectly fine cracked cork background. It will come out pretty flat, though, so you will need other wood to make things interesting. Using large, slightly rounded flat cork pieces adds a lot of interest to the background.

Hope you find what you are looking for,

Mark


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## mmandajade (Feb 13, 2017)

Hi everyone, I've got a quick update about this question. I reached out to Pangea Reptile to get their take on how much cork is needed, and I've pasted my question and their reply below:

Me - "Hi there! I'm hoping to purchase enough cork flat to cover the back of a 60 gallon vivarium. I'll need to cover approximately a 48" by 20" area. Would 5 pounds be enough? I'm thinking about purchasing 10 pounds total, with 50% by weight being rounds used for "branches" and other decor. "

P.R. - "To cover that much space you would need a minimum of 10 lbs. of flats, and that would be cutting it close. It would be worth it to start with that, and if that’s not enough you can always order more. Let us know if you have any other questions."

Hope this helps anyone else looking for answers to this question!

-Amanda


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## chibisan713 (Dec 8, 2017)

Wow, I never bothered to weigh mine from Glass Box Tropicals, but here is literally a 1/3 of my order, I had sent this pic to someone else trying to get rid of some of mine since it was so much (I have a 65 gal hex myself but only used like 3 pieces for ledges I did not do the whole background in it) so I used 3 pieces these size, sold these 4 and I still have 3 or 4 large pieces left. This was a one pound order, which is what I based my answer off of. Perhaps I really got sent more than a pound, it was a lot of cork, the biggest pieces aren't even pictured here, I still have them.


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## DaveMorris (Sep 23, 2017)

We are lucky enough here in San Diego to have two shops, Mike's Pets and LLL Reptile, that both sell cork flats and tubes individually. It's great to be able to go in and cherry pick the pieces you want from the shelf. In both shops their pricing seems to be very good as well.


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## mmandajade (Feb 13, 2017)

Wow Chibisan, that really is a lot of cork! Nice haul  Now if only I could find ghostwood/driftwood like that!


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## Ravage (Feb 5, 2016)

I just got my order of Cork from Pangea Reptiles- $4.99 shipping. 5 pounds ( I weighed it, it is) for a great price. This is a mix of flats and tubes. I highly recommend them if you don't want to buy a really bulk amount of cork bark.


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