Green Floors Help Make Your Home Eco-friendly
Since a floor is so much more to a home than just something you walk on, you may be considering green flooring. Your floor sets the tone and creates the character and style of your home. It covers a large surface area and believe it or not, there are health issues to consider. Green flooring isn't just the eco-friendly thing to do; it's about creating a happy and safe place to raise your family.
Regular floor materials can pollute your home. Binders, adhesives, substances applied to floor top surfaces etc. can all give off chemical vapors. When you are shopping for flooring discuss your interest in eco-friendly and healthy products.
You no longer have to cut down a forest to have an attractive and serviceable floor. Wood is wonderful and a good choice, but popular new materials are available that aren’t made of trees at all.
What makes a floor green?
One way is to reuse or salvage materials. If you're buying new, make sure that the flooring you buy is FSC certified, comes from a rapidly renewable source, gives off zero or low emissions, is produced locally, and is long lasting.
As for the materials themselves, you have a lot more options than you may have realized. Some of the most popular ones include wood, bamboo, laminate, linoleum, rubber, cork, concrete, tile, brick, stone and terrazzo.
Wood floors are probably the most popular flooring available and can be found in whatever hues and tones fit your decorating plan. The greenest options are antique floorboards or FSC certified products, and they are more expensive, but it's worth it if you want to create an eco-friendly green home. FSC certification ensures that the harvesting has been done from well managed forests and plantations. Be sure to check out your existing floor board covering. Many older homes have beautiful hard wood floors that are easily refinished.
Solid wood flooring is expensive because each board contains a thick strip of top-quality wood which has been harvested from older and more valuable trees. Engineered wood, on the other hand, uses a thin hardwood veneer as the top wear layer. While the veneer may come from old trees, the under layers are made from faster growing, smaller-diameter trees.
Laminates are popular, easy to install and look quite nice. Laminates are made with a printed image of wood that is glued to a fiberboard substrate (ground up wood particles bound with an adhesive). It is topped with a plastic coat for protection and made into planks that fit together. Not all laminate is green however. Be sure that the manufacturers are using FSC certified fiberboard cores and zero or low urea formaldehyde emissions.
Bamboo is another green option. Bamboo looks and feels much like wood but is actually a grass. It is beautiful, it holds up as well as hardwood, and it is reasonably priced. Bamboo is fast growing and can be harvested every 3-5 years.
Linoleum is a smooth floor covering typically used in kitchens and bathrooms. Genuine linoleum has no vinyl in it, and comes from natural renewable resources. Today’s linoleums come in dozens of colors and textures. It comes in sheets or tiles and is easily installed.
Cork is harvested from the outer bark of the cork oak trees without cutting down the trees. The tree regenerates its bark and can be harvested again in 10 years. Cork is durable, cushioning and naturally insulating.
Terrazzo is more often seen in commercial buildings than in homes but contains recycled content, is durable, and is and easy to clean. Terrazzo consists of small chips of marble, granite, quartz, or glass in cement or resin based matrix.
Ceramic tile is made primarily of clay, which is an abundant natural resource. Ceramic and glass tile are low-toxic and inert although the caulking and sealant may be less kindly to the environment. Be sure that eco-friendly grout and sealants are being used.
Three other possibilities are brick, concrete and stone. Brick is green and healthful, and it comes in an array of colors and patterns. Natural stone is lovely but expensive. Fortunately, it ages well and can be expected to last a lifetime. Concrete is available in a wide array of colors and patterning techniques. Concrete floors are serviceable but expensive and not for everyone.
We've talked about a lot of interesting options here, but before you run out to buy new flooring for the whole house, do remember that--from a resource conservation standpoint--it is better to maintain or restore the floor that you already have rather than tearing out and installing a whole new surface. But if you need to replace your floor, try to salvage what you tear out to be reused on another project, or find ways that the material can be recycled.
More information in Good Green Kitchens
by Jennifer Roberts.
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