What does Kevin think is Green In floor Covering?

Everyone in Flooring is going green. Green Carpet made from corn, Green Carpet made from recycled yarn or coke bottles, Green hardwood Green laminate. . . But in reality what is best for the environment? This is an opinion based on facts from my point of view.

Quality Solid Hardwood, Wool Carpet, and Ceramic Tile uses the least amount of Chemicals and has the best longevity. These are the floors I consider environmentally friendly.

Hardwood Is a natural, easily renewable, biodegradable product.

Preferably companies that are regional are better because they use less fuel in shipping the product to you. Our local hardwood mill Country Flooring Direct buys from is Graf Bros http://www.grafbrothersflooring.com/ They are located in Kentucky and make some of the most beautiful unfinished red and white oak available. We also carry Shaw that
manufacturers most of their wood in North Carolina and ForesBec is our Premium wood out of Canada http://www.foresfloor.com/en/en_plvernic.html . There is very little waste in
manufacturing hardwood flooring, if you look at the charts given by ForesBec you will see the country or Cheaper product is the wood left over from making the nicer hardwood and the wood left over from that is chipped into mulch. I have the ForesBec manufacturing video at home if you are looking for something to do on a nice night with your loved one.

Wool Carpets last for a very long time and is natural easily renewable biodegradable product.

Besides the backing there are very little chemicals used in the manufacturing other than most wool either comes from Africa or New Zealand and the cost factor of the Wood Carpet it is a very environmentally friendly floor. The wool alternative is PET Polyesters and Type 6 or "GREEN" Nylons or Corn Carpet these products are awesome and i recommend any of them if you are on a budget. However I recommend them for practicality and price reasons and not environmental reasons.

Tile is pretty explanatory its either rock mud or porcelain not very biodegradable and I don't know if we are in a dirt shortage, but it does last a very long time.

I do not think that engineered nor bamboo floors are more environmentally friendly than Oak or Brazilian Cherry because they use more chemicals in the process are more likely to be made over seas and do not tend to last as long. I do feel that Brazilian Hardwoods have a bad name in the environmental field from over harvesting that took place many years ago. Today Illegal harvesters are prosecuted very heavily and Tree plantations are providing most of the flooring you are walking on today from Brazil.

I do think it is really awesome that we are moving towards environmentally friendly products as a culture, but it is equally important that we do not let marketing divert our attention to products that are only "GREEN" in name.

Thank you for your time,