Design and architecture inspiration for modern homes from Dwell.

At Home in the Modern World

Dwell › Products

Step Lightly

There’s trouble underfoot if you’re building a green home without considering your flooring. Take stock of these sustainable wood options that let you tread lightly on the land.

flooring expert freed eric corey

It’s a familiar scenario. You’re standing in the checkout line at the supermarket watching your goods trundle down the belt toward the cash register when suddenly the checkout clerk asks, “Paper or plastic?” and you’re stuck: Do you contribute to worldwide deforestation by choosing paper, or do you select plastic and resign yourself to living on landfill?

For homeowners trying to be green while yearning for the natural look and feel of wood on their floors, the issues become ever more amplified. After all, if you’re depleting the canopy by using only one paper bag, imagine the implications of 2,000 square feet of wood flooring. That’s a lot of leafy trees.

There’s no reason, however, to hang your head in shame when selecting a wood floor, as architect Eric Corey Freed, an expert in sustainability, gently chides: “Guilt is no way to approach environmentalism. You shouldn’t feel guilty. What you should do is question where the wood for your floor comes from.”

No one wants their lovely new floor to be the cause of a rare parrot or toad’s extinction, so it’s nice to know there’s a whole spate of tree-friendly products on the market. “A lot of the woods now are rapidly renewable, meaning they’re either sustainably grown and harvested, or they’re like bamboo—a grass that can be cut and continues to grow, as much as three feet a day,” Freed explains.

In addition to the different varieties of wood, there are also different kinds of flooring options, from engineered wood (where thin strips of wood are lain over each other in alternating directions then compressed) to reclaimed wood to wood laminate (plywood with a photo of wood adhered on top)—all of which have diverse levels of green credibility.

Whatever you do, however, once your sustainable solution is installed underfoot, don’t forget to apply an earth-friendly product to its surface. “The worst thing is to have a green floor and then put some nasty oil-based toxic lacquer on it,” Freed warns. And feel free to toss your chemical cleansers; all you really need are water, white vinegar, and a mop.
 

  • neapolitan bamboo smith fong square

    Neopolitan Bamboo Plywood

    • Designed by: Smith & Fong
    • Price: $11.33 per square foot

    Strips of different lengths and widths of bamboo glued to a solid core of plywood with natural adhesive. Bamboo is from managed forests in China.

  • engineered flooring eco timber square

    Engineered Flooring

    • Designed by: EcoTimber
    • Price: $5 per square foot-12 per square foot
    A layer of hardwood bonded to two wood sublayers. More than 15 choices of wood available, including Australian chestnut, White tigerwood, and Chocolate oak.
  • global passage pergo square

    Global Passage Collection

    • Designed by: Pergo
    • Price: $3.77 per square foot
    Photograph of wood grain laminated onto particleboard. Nine choices available, including Indian tigerwood, Brazilian cherry, and African padauk.
  • cork mosaic tile habitus square

    Cork Mosaic Tiles

    • Designed by: Habitus
    • Price: $15 per square foot-20 per square foot
    Two circle sizes. Available in natural or more than 100 custom colors. Made from the waste of the cork bottle-stop industry.
  • sustainably harvested woods plexwood square

    Sustainably Harvested Woods

    • Designed by: Plexwood
    • Price: $12.95 per square foot
    Wood laminated in vertical strips adhered with natural glues. Available in birch, beech, pine, ocoumé, meranti, poplar, or deal wood.
  • reclaimed wood terramai square

    Reclaimed Wood

    • Designed by: TerraMai
    • Price: $12.50 per square foot-13.50 per square foot
    Salvaged from buildings, plantations, mines, and railroads. Stock is sold as mixes of wood sorted by color, such as Cinnamon Mix (composed of merbau, alan batu, and other species from mine shoring timbers in Southeast Asia).
You could and should invest in sustainable wood. Our expert evaluates the options available, so you'll never have to say should've, could've, would've.

Related Items

See All

Dwell Cover
Advertising
Advertising
Advertising

Related Products

See More

Latest

See More

Follow

Dwell

Subscribe Today Don't Miss a Word of Dwell
Dwell Cover

$19.95
10 Issues / a Year

Copyright ©2004-2012 Dwell Media LLC. All rights reserved. Dwell, the Dwell logo, Dwell Homes and At Home in the Modern World are registered trademarks of Dwell Media LLC