Choosing to "Go Green" is not only a popular trend in home design, but is a valuable and impactful way to help the environment around us. Eco-friendly flooring materials cut down on environmental waste, reduce the use of harmful chemicals, and keep the air in your home clean and safe to breathe. If you are looking for a cost effective, eco-friendly alternative to hardwood in Vancouver or Portland, you have many choices. Here are a few of the most popular types of woods that also promote sustainability.
Bamboo
Bamboo is one of the most sustainable sources of flooring in the world. It is also highly durable and flexible. Its sustainability comes from the fact that it is a grass, not a wood, and can shoots can regenerate and grow to maturity within a mere 5 years. As a matter of fact, the harvesting of bamboo actually helps bamboo forests to flourish. Moving older bamboo allows sunlight to reach the newer stalks more quickly, resulting in a healthier plant.
Engineered Wood
Sustainability is at the core of engineered wood, with a process that uses only forest products that have been defined as fully renewable and sustainable. For instance, the top layer of many engineered wood products only use slower growing trees as a flooring top layer in order to limit the amount of product that is needed to replace scratched and dented floors. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) serves as a certification standard for all wood that is harvested and labeled as sustainable, so clients can always be sure of the content of a flooring choice.
Tile
Much of the tile that is made today comes from recycled content. These floorings do not compromise on aesthetics or durability. Tile even has the ability to copy the beautifully colored texture and look of exotic wood grains and natural stone veins, splashes, and markings. Tile is also quite cost effective regardless of scale, and with improving recycling techniques, it will only become a more viable solution in the future.
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is one of the most affordable and fastest growing sustainable wood products on the market. The look of eucalyptus is rich and full, which is why many designers use it as a direct alternative to classic hardwood. The trees that eucalyptus comes from take only 14 years to fully mature, compared with 50 years for many other hardwood producing trees.
Get to know your sustainable flooring options from the experts at Floor Coverings International® of Vancouver. We will help you choose the perfect style that provides the look and durability you want, while still being friendly to the environment. We proudly serve the greater Vancouver WA, Portland OR area. Call us today!
Photo Credits: © yampi, © Elena Elisseeva