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Finding eco friendly flooring is on the minds of many more flooring consumers today than ever before. Gone are the days of labeling one as a "tree hugger" because they are looking to make and environmentally responsible choice or asking for an earth friendly flooring option when making a purchase. This growing earth friendly consumer attitude is poised to become the norm rather than the exception.
If you are concerned with making a responsible choice with regard to your flooring we can help. I must tell you though, like any other marketable idea a good consumer must be educated on a topic or it would be quite easy to be misled by some greedy companies. The good news is The flooring professor is here to inform you of the facts so you can make a good eco friendly flooring choice, and feel good about your choice without being taken advantage of.
Major manufacturers in recent years have changed the way they consume our resources, everywhere you look now (especially this year if you pay close attention to corporate advertising campaigns) you will see an obvious trend toward "green" marketing. This is a double edged sword of course, but we have researched it carefully and with regard to green flooring options or buying a "green floor" if you will, we have the information you need to make a wise choice.
Well, now there's the Million dollar question! and frankly it depends who you ask, so we will try and put it into some kind of order for you. First there are the obvious choices that you may have heard about...
I want to share with you a thought I have had about the guidelines of environmentally friendly flooring or any other green building materials for that matter. As I stated earlier we must be careful of marketing experts and big corporate ad budgets that try to "tell us what is green" let's step back for just a moment and ponder....
is Laminate flooring = eco flooring? most would say no, but what if I said hmmm.... if you buy glueless snap together laminate flooring with a quality uniclic locking system for example like is available from quickstep or Mohawk... couldn't you un "clic the floor at a later date and store it for future use, give it to a family member or friend, sell it to a stranger, or just pack it up and move it to your new place and use it again? Yes you could. So is that enough to call it environmentally friendly?
Don't answer yet! Let's move along...
Can Solid Hardwood flooring be considered environmentally friendly flooring? Again Most would say NO way, it takes over 150 yrs to grow a good hard maple tree and once it is gone there wont be another in my lifetime! BUT... what if I said...hmmm what if it is a Lyptus wood floor? harvested from trees that are grown on farms specifically for such uses, that grow to maturity in about 8 years? Some may say Yes to this as it is a very renewable resource with limited impact on the eco system.
OK so....
What about all the other species of wood, do I have to buy Lyptus to get green flooring?
NOPE!
How about engineered wood floor as an eco friendly flooring option? Well many flooring manufacturers are saying why not? Think about it once, if you only have an 1/8" or even 3/16" or 1/4" layer of the "slow growth" Hard wood on top, and much faster growth more renewable and eco friendly lumber making the core and the backing, is that not conserving our resources? is that not using "less" of our precious slow growth forests? You be the judge.
As you can see there are a tremendous amount of considerations for the consumer to think about when deciding what eco friendly flooring choice to make, we all must be conscious and try to responsibly support the companies who pay attention to our environment. Now it is up to you to take this info and use it to find a "balance" or the "place" that you are comfortable. I hope this information makes it easy for you to make an informed eco friendly flooring purchase.
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