5 Green Flooring Options- Making Your House Eco-friendly

Kevin Vitali is a Massachusetts REALTOR@ with close to 20 years experience.  Kevin serves Essex and Northern Middlesex counties and is a frequent author of articles educating sellers and buyers about home buying, home selling and mortgages.

Posted on Friday 3rd May 2019

“Green” has been a big buzzword in the real estate industry of late. And, no, it is not because the color green is in.

Today’s home buyers are looking for green solutions in a home.  Not only do they want to possibly save on energy costs, they want to also leave less of a carbon footprint on the environment. One way of going green with your home is to use green building materials.

40% of the home buyers purchasing homes are the Millennial generation.  No generation has been more concerned about saving the environment than the Millennials.  When it comes time to do some upgrades use green materials knowing it will increase your homes appeal when it comes time to sell your house.

So, when we talk about green flooring there are some questions to look at:

  • Is the product renewable?
  • Can it be recycled?
  • Is it manufactured responsibly?
  • Does it provide no or low toxicity to the environment?

Of course durability and maintenance are concerns as well, that should be taken into consideration.

5 Green Flooring Options

Below are 5 very viable green flooring options to suit everybody.  While I have only listed 5 there are certainly more to research and consider.  The 5 pointed out are some of your more common options we are seeing today.

#1 Bamboo

Bamboo has become a fairly mainstream flooring option over the past 15 years.  The true green benefit of bamboo is it is highly renewable.

Bamboo can be re-harvested in a quick 5-6 years.  Compared to it’s counterpart, hardwoods, which take 40-60 years before new growth can be harvested to create hardwood floors for your home

The cost of bamboo is between $5-8 a square foot and it is maintained much like any other hardwood floor.  It can also be refinished as well.

When it comes to new construction we are seeing builders use bamboo as standard flooring in their homes.

Bamboo Flooring- Green Flooring Options

#2- Concrete

Concrete has started to become a popular choice for kitchen countertops but consider concrete as flooring option.  If your house already has concrete subfloors consider using the existing concrete.

Advances in concrete have allowed a much thinner application of concrete to be used over plywood subfloors.  The finishes that can be created with concrete can be endless.  Concrete can be giving a high polish, stained, painted and even have aggregate thrown in for texture.

When it comes to green, concrete probably tops the list.  It is renewable, it is manufactured nearby and it is recyclable.  To top it off it is relatively maintenance free and should easily last a lifetime.

Concrete- eco-friendly flooring option

#3 Cork

Cork is another renewable flooring option
Cork comes in a variety of styles

Cork is very renewable flooring resource.  It takes a cork tree 25 years to mature to the point of being harvested.  The cork is actually made out of the bark of the tree.  Once it has matured a cork tree can have its bark re-harvested every 14 years or so… with out the need for killing the tree.

As well as being a green flooring product and leaving less impact on the environment, cork also has many other benefits.  It has insulation value, it is antibacterial and it is fire resistant.

Cork comes in many different styles to suit a variety of tastes. 

#4 Reclaimed Wood

Reclaimed wood floors can come from several sources.  Actual floors can be reclaimed and reused.  But old logs and timbers from old buildings can be milled and used for wood floors as well.

Reclaimed wood floors provide a beautiful look and can be a great addition to any home while keeping your house green.

Oak and old growth pine are some of the more popular reclaimed wood varieties you will find.

#5 P.E.T. Polyester Berber Carpet

Polyester Berber Carpet is made entirely out of recycled plastic including bottle caps and tires.  How great would it be to reduce waste going into a landfill and get a stylish new carpet for your home.

Polyester Berber Carpet comes in many colors and is very stain resistant.

Summary-  Buyers Want Green Homes

If you are thinking of some renovation projects around the home think about making your home more eco-friendly with your renovation by using a green flooring option.

Consider using a green flooring materials and you are taking steps to preserve our environment and are adding features to your home that home buyers find desirable.  An eco friendly home is only going to be more desirable over time as home buyers seek out greener homes.

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