Eco-Friendly Flooring Options

The Handyman's Dream came with tile, laminate, and carpet throughout the main floor. The carpet is in the three upstairs bedrooms, and has seen better days. These days were a long time ago. Perhaps in the pre-Cambrian era.

Looking to replace the carpet, I did some research. And, after reading about carpet, and all of its benefits like trapping allergens, being hugely wasteful, and giving off volatile organic compounds (VOCs) - more here - I was completely turned off replacing carpet the with carpet. In terms of the environmental impact, the salespeople will say that nylon carpet is recyclable, but regardless, I still hate the waste involved in having to replace carpet every 10 or 15 years, if not sooner. Also, we have cats, and love being able to vacuum the tile and laminate and get rid of all of their hair. If you want, you can check out what the carpet industry has to say about this - but I'm not sold.

Since we were looking at replacing the carpet (about 450 sq. feet) it didn't seem to make sense to leave the laminate, which runs in the hallway, and the living room. It is in similarly bad shape. There are many scratches in it, and there's one spot near the bathroom where, when I hit it just right, and am wearing just the right socks, the splintered "wood" catches me and I get a sliver. It would really improve the look of the Handyman's Dream to have only one other floor covering (besides the tile) on the main floor. As such we've decided to explore some eco-flooring options.

At first, I had a line on some reclaimed maple flooring from an old church, but it still had the nails in it, and would need a LOT of cleaning up. I would probably have had to plane 1/8" off of each piece. Since my time becomes more and more valuable every day, this option was rather unappealing. However, a maple floor would surely outlast 2 or 3 carpet installations before it would need refinishing. As my dad put it, "Maple is a lifetime floor." However, the guy selling it would only sell me 1500 square feet (I need 700) and at $1.50 a square foot. Yikes. I did some digging, and, generally, reclaimed, unfinished maple, sells for between 25 and 75 cents a sq. foot. If you can find it. I still watch, but am losing faith that I will find any. Quotes on refinishing the floor range from $4 to $6, and installation comes in at about the same. Luckily, I'm handy, and would do the work myself.

To replace the laminate with new hardwood seems wasteful when considering how long it takes a tree to grow, and when you take into account that there is some reclaimed floor out there.

Another option is bamboo. However, there are many horror stories about bamboo flooring out there. Cheaper bamboo may have been harvested early (after 3 years, instead of 5 or 6) resulting in wood with a high moisture content that is softer than older bamboo, and will be more prone to expansion and contraction. Also, some bamboo is taken from panda habitat. And we all love pandas. Also, most bamboo on the market is bonded with adhesive that gives off VOCs - kind of missing the point here! Formaldehyde (which is in all particle board, MDF, OSB - read, every piece of furniture in your house!) is the most common VOC, and is in many sealers as well.

I was able to find a few lines of bamboo flooring that are sustainable, or market themselves that way, anyway. One is a company based in Vancouver - Bamboo Direct - their line isn't in retail stores, which keeps costs down (Bamboo Direct being their name!), but the shipping required to get the bamboo to us in the Prairies is cost prohibitive. Their floor is more expensive than the cheap stuff at Home Depot or Costco, but it gives off less formaldehyde than found in the air naturally! Teragren bamboo flooring is another brand that stands up to the low-VOC and sustainable production test. Their site has a bunch of information about the legislation of VOCs. I found a store in a nearby city that carries (or can order) the Teragren line, but it is over $8 a square foot, which is too pricey for this Handyman. The third line of bamboo I found was Silkroad carried by Nadurra - located in Toronto. This company has been around since 1994. They offer all kinds of wood, and had a very reasonable shipping cost. Their finishes are low-VOC and their bamboo is grown sustainibly. We've ordered samples of Silkroad and from Bamboo Direct, and will see how they look before we decide what to do. Hopefully at the end of it, we flooring that is eco-friendly. Or as eco-friendly as can be reasonably expected within our budget. The Handyman's Dream needs lots of TLC...

Carpet: The Devil in Disguise?

The Handyman's Dream has carpet in the three bedrooms upstairs. Gross carpet. I don’t think it is that old (the color and style are contemporary-ish) but it is worn. And stained. And, according to Ecoholic, trapping dust containing heavy metals, pesticides, and persistent fire retardants. Not to worry, though. An environmental engineer told New Scientist magazine that you’d only have to vacuum it 25 times a week for several weeks to bring the levels of contaminants below safety standards. USC did a study in the 90s and found DDT imbedded in 1/4 of the carpets they tested. Even if some of this is conjecture or hyperbole or, well, downright false, I’m still not interested in having carpet in my house. We’re not sure when it will go, but it will go. And we will enjoy it going. But, what to replace it with?

Bamboo is much more sustainable then hardwood, as it grows more quickly. However, a lot of bamboo has formaldehyde in it. If that scares you away from it, consider this – all MDF board (except that from IKEA) has formaldehyde in it as well! Take a look at your kitchen cupboards. Oh my. Reclaimed hardwood is great in theory, but at upwards of $10 a foot, no teacher I know will be installing it any time soon. So, we’ll keep investigating our options. I found a company out of Seattle, Bamboo Hardwoods, that owns a factory in Vietnam, and works with local farmers to ensure sustainable farming practices of bamboo. Another criticism of bamboo is that it is soft – in fact, the darker the color, the longer it has been cooked (carbonized) and the softer it will be. Also, if bamboo is harvested early (called Green bamboo) it will be softer than older bamboo.

So, we have some choices to make. But I doubt we'll choose the Devil's floor covering...