What you walk on is more than just a floor…

By Albert Kwon

Renovating your floors can be a quick and cost-effective way to update your home or increase its resale value. While the main factors are usually cost, durability, appearance, and ease of installation sustainability is often overlooked.

Solid hardwood

Pros: Long lasting; Can be re-finished; Greatest added value to resale of home; Can be sourced from sustainable suppliers

Cons: Expensive; Not a simple D-I-Y project; Prone to shrinking and swelling; Caution needed when looking at FSC certification

Solid wood flooring is the more expensive choice for flooring. Depending on the source of the timber, the environmental cost may be even greater; local is better. Despite comparable costs to exotics, choosing North American wood reduces your environmental impact. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label offers consumers assurance the wood comes from a responsibly managed forest.

Michael Boulger of Nadurra Wood Corporation suggests asking flooring stores if they have FSC Chain of Custody (COC) certification. This means that the store purchases from FSC certified forests and suppliers. Worth noting: FSC Mixed Sources label indicates the supplier buys and sells FSC products, but not every single product is made with FSC certified wood.

Salvaged or Re-claimed

Pros:   Environmentally friendly; Embedded character and history

Cons: Can be expensive; Blemishes may be undesirable

Wood suppliers and flooring specialty stores will often carry salvaged or re-claimed wood. This type of wood can come from old buildings, timber cleared for land development, and even discarded wood products that are re-manufactured. Many people find the marks and blemishes part of the charm of salvaged wood.

Engineered-wood

Pros: Less expensive than solid hardwood for material and installation costs; Dimensionally stable; Can be refinished (but not as often as solid hardwood)

Cons: Adhesives can off gas volatile organic compounds (VOC); Commonly certified with FSC Mixed Source which may mean there is no certified wood in the product

This is a durable and inexpensive option since it is made from plies of low grade wood while the top layer is a veneer of higher quality wood. The glues used to bond the layers together may contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which off-gas into the atmosphere.

Like solid wood, the source of the top layer and core layers is important to consider. FSC Mixed Sources certification is common with engineered flooring which may mean that none of the wood comes from sustainable sources.

Laminates

Pros: Least inexpensive in material and installation costs; Long lasting

Cons: Medium-density fibreboard for core layers may contain formaldehyde; Adhesives in manufacture and installation may contain VOCs; Cannot be refinished

Laminate flooring is the best compromise between price and long life. Environmentally however, it is the most questionable. The core layers of laminates are typically made of medium or high-density fibreboard (MDF or HDF) which may contain formaldehyde. Another concern is the use of melamine plastic resin or aluminum oxide which increases the durability of the top or wear layer.

Bamboo

Pros: Bamboo matures quickly (3 to 9 years as opposed to 120 for oak); Can be as hard as oak, depending on how its made; Inexpensive in material cost and possibly installation costs

Cons: Comes from China so transportation impacts are a concern; Adhesives in manufacture may contain VOCs

Bamboo is another affordable and durable flooring option. It’s touted as harder than oak but that depends on how it’s manufactured. Carbonization forms the bamboo under high pressure steam but weakens the bamboo. Strand woven bamboo is stronger but may have formaldehyde or VOC in the adhesives.

Bamboo’s main advantage over wood is that it takes about three to nine years for the grass to mature while oak can take 120 years. Almost all bamboo comes from China so the environmental impact of transportation is a consideration.

Some alternatives are cork, palm wood, coconut timber, or cocowood.

Albert Kwon is an industrial designer with a passion for sustainability.

Albert Kwon, ECO, flooring, guide, sustainable, Wood