Marmoleum Flooring – Good, Clean And Green

When it comes to green flooring, it doesn’t get much better than Marmoleum – a flooring that is made from flax, sawdust, linseed oil and jute and with today’s retro styles, Marmoleum flooring is about as chic as it gets.

This eco-friendly and sustainable flooring offers you a unique style without any of the harmful chemicals that are  in other types of floors.  You may not realize it, but your current linoleum flooring emits gases that are toxic to you – and not only that but what do you think happens to it when you get a new floor?  You guessed it,  it sits in the landfill where it poisons the earth for many, many years!

Marmoleum flooring, on the other hand, is 100% biodegradable so there’s no worries about it sitting in a landfill and spoiling the planet but you probably wouldn’t have to worry about that too much anyway because the darn stuff is so durable that it lasts about 40 years!

Both comfortable and warm, Marmoleum is also a dust free flooring and it can be installed with solvent free adhesive  so you don’t have to worry about toxic VOC’s being emitted from the glue.

Other benefits include the fact that it has antibacterial properties so that it doesn’t harbor bacteria and it’s also antistatic.   It comes in tiles or sheets and is similar to linoleum coming in a myriad of colors and patterns.  Most often seen in kitchens and schools, Marmoleum flooring has an industrial look at is actually very popular in contemporary homes today.

So why not get a trendy and green kitchen with Marmoleum?  oh, and the best part is that it costs only about seven bucks a square foot!

Natural Cork Flooring In Your Kitchen

Using natural cork flooring in your kitchen is an interesting choice if you want to go with a sustainable flooring material.  Cork floor tiles are very interesting and have an elegant look much different from other types of wood flooring because they have a burled appearance.  This can give your kitchen a unique look that you just don’t find in every home!

While you may not have heard too much about cork flooring it’s actually not that new.  In fact there are buildings right here in the US which are over a hundred years old and still have the original cork floor’s.  So, you can see, cork will hold up pretty good in your kitchen is a flooring material.

One great thing about natural cork flooring is that not only is it durable it’s also a bit cushiony.  When compared to traditional hardwood floors or sustainable bamboo flooring, cork will be a little bit easier on the feet because of its resilient nature.

Cork floor tiles typically come in 12 x 12 or 12 x 24 inch sizes.  You can actually get planks that are  1′ x 3′  if you want to have a floating cork floor.  The planks float on your subfloor and give it more of a hardwood floor appearance where as the tiles will give it more of a parquet flooring appear.

Now, when it comes to flooring for your kitchen, cork is probably one of the better choices because the kitchen is a very busy room.  Therefore, there’s a lot of traffic and a lot of noise.  As mentioned before, cork flooring will provide a bit of a cushion for your feet, it also will absorb the noise better and have less of that “echo” sound that bamboo or hardwood would have.

Natural cork flooring is also an interesting choice because of the way it is made.  Sustainable cork is grown in forests which use sustainable methods.  The cork is actually bark that is harvested from mature trees.  Once the bark is removed, more bark actually grows back!  So whether you choose a floating cork floor or cork floor tiles, you can rest assured that no trees were harmed during the manufacture of your kitchen floor!

Bamboo Flooring – Kitchen Floors

If you are looking to use eco-friendly bamboo flooring, kitchen floors are just perfect! Bamboo flooring is beautiful, trendy and holds up well to daily use so having it in your kitchen can be a great way to keep your kitchen design green.

Bamboo is actually a grass and it grows very quickly so it is a renewable resource. Unlike an Oak tree which may take 120 years to grow big enough to produce boards for your kitchen floor, bamboo grows to maturity in three to seven years. It’s not harmed by harvesting and self propagates via rhizomes which spread underground.

You can get bamboo flooring for your kitchen in a variety of colors. It can be left in a lighter natural color or carbonized to achieve the dark amber color. This carbonizing actually reduces the hardness of the floor so you might want to think twice about this for kitchen flooring. However if you want a bit of color on your floor it can be dyed to achieve a different tone. Bear in mind, however that the graining of bamboo is not like other woods so it won’t take a stain like pine or oak. If you are considering staining your bamboo floor, you’d best do some experimenting on scrap pieces first.

Bamboo Flooring Kitchen Installation

Installing bamboo flooring is the same as installing other kinds of wood flooring. It comes from the factory prefinished and can be glued or nailed but be advised that most of it uses a urea formaldehyde adhesive during the lamination process. You urea formaldehyde is known to be harmful to indoor air quality, but all flooring uses it and bamboo uses a smaller amount.

Just like other types of wood, you’ll want to leave your bamboo inside the kitchen for a few days to let it acclimate to the temperature and humidity before you install it.

Most bamboo manufacturers tout that it is harder than your typical hardwood flooring, however the hardness of your bamboo depends on the species of grass that is used as well as the aged it is when it is harvested. Most of the bamboo that we get in the US comes from the Hunan Province in southern China and is actually harvested from natural plantation groves.

If you are considering bamboo flooring for your kitchen, you want to be sure that it is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council so as to be sure that the bamboo is grown responsibly, without the use of pesticides and meets the criteria for sustainability.

Green Wood Flooring

The green design has become a popular concept for homeowners, almost as popular as the concept of hybrid cars. People, particularly architects, interior designers, and all those who are concerned with the interior design are now opening their doors to green or environment-friendly alternatives to the traditional materials being used which actually emit a lot of harmful fumes or chemicals into the air. The concept of “green” has inspired the creation of green wood flooring, for example, in which many are now opting for to replace the old wood flooring used in their homes. Since wood flooring can be qualified as “green” construction materials in the home, the wood has to meet certain criteria and is categorized under reclaimed wood, fast-growing, domestic hardwood, or certified sustainable wood. More information on each category will be discussed in the later portions of this article.

Green wood flooring comes in many forms and types. By knowing what each category specializes in, you can choose which kind of green wood to use in your kitchen design.

Reclaimed Wood

This type of wood flooring can be found in various places like barns, buildings, warehouses, and vintage houses. This flooring can be reused and recycled since it looks better the older it gets and is typically of the best quality. What’s more, you can give your home that earthy antique ambiance since this type of wood usually comes with marks of nail holes and other surface scars that have lasted all throughout the years.

Bamboo Wood/Flooring

What makes bamboo an ideal choice for green wood flooring is its ability to renew itself rapidly. A lot of professional architects and interior designers love using bamboo because of its durability and its ability to tolerate humidity. Bamboo flooring is usually made from strong and durable bamboo stalks and looks beautiful as a flooring. It makes a great alternative to the traditional wood floors of pine or oak and lends a modern air to the home.

Domestic and Certified Sustainable Hardwood

This type of wood falls directly under the green design criteria since green flooring should be derived from a domestic source, using less resources and energy to harvest and transport to factory. You will know if the material is domestic or sustainable when it is taken from an FSC or Forest Stewardship Council-certified forest. By buying this type of flooring, you are also supporting the goals of the FSC, which is a non-profit organization that provides accreditation for foresting agencies that aim maintain the growth and care of the health of a certain forest.

In conclusion, you are assured of buying environment-friendly materials for your green wood flooring when you see the certification from the FSC, letting you know that you are buying domestic wood materials that are guaranteed to be a great “green choice”.