Environmentally conscious home owners and buyers are taking up larger and larger segment of the market, so designers and engineers keep coming up with some new and some surprisingly simple ideas how to make a home more eco-friendly. Not only that, but these clients are often seeking designs that are affordable and stylish looking at the same time. When it comes to wooden flooring, it also plays an important role in keeping the right temperature levels – especially if underfloor heating is being used, like in many modern homes.
But what are the wooden flooring solutions we can classify as environmentally friendly?
Engineered wood flooring
Made of multiple layers of timber with the top layer featuring real wood, engineered wood offers a cheap, practical and solution with minimising the environmental impact of wood usage. It’s very elegant as any wooden floor, because it looks like real wooden floor, thanks to the top layer. Can enhance both a traditional and modern looking room. Engineered wood floor contracts and expands with the changing moisture and temperature levels without affecting the floor. This makes the planks compatible with underfloor heating as well. They last from 20-100 years, so it’s very ecological. You can browse discount engineered floors online.
Cork flooring
Although, it’s quite an expensive choice and they can last anything between 10 to 30 years. Cork is a natural sound and thermal insulator. Cork floors are quiet and soft under the foot. Cork can be harvested from the same tree for about two hundred years. The harvesting is made with minimal impact on the environment and no trees are cut down.
Bamboo flooring
Bamboo is an environmentally friendly, renewable resource that has been used as a construction material for thousands of years. Bamboo is a natural alternative to traditional hardwood flooring. Manufacturers apply a highly durable finish to make it last longer, so it would last for about 20 years. It definitely has a unique and modern look, which can be painted and coloured too.
Reclaimed parquet flooring
Manufacturing floors with reclaimed and recycled wooden material is a relatively new concept. It helps to prevent the destruction of new trees and the landfill of other materials such as carpet and laminate. Often, almost 100 years old wooden flooring is being used for this, which means that the wood is very good quality and the timber was slow-grown often from virgin forests. These wooden pieces have a character that not everybody would like and it’s not a cheap process, but definitely a very gentle one on the environment.
Comments
Love these ideas. Would love to have eco-friendly wooden when I buy my first house.
I’ve been looking at cork flooring for some time. In fact, I’m pretty confident its what we shall replace our floors with at some point in the next couple of years x
I want engineered wood flooring when we move home as I think it will last a long time x
Love these ideas, I have lino at the moment but would love proper wooden flooring
There are so many lovely flooring options these days. We spent a fortune having flooring imported that wouldn’t mark and guess what, it has! I’d definitely try one of these options next time 🙂
Louise x
I have wooden floor and I couldn’t have anything else I love it
I love these ideas, we are moving into a house soon and we are wanting some engineered wood flooring throughout the ground floor x