TreeHugger Picks: Flooring
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 03.26.07
There are a dizzying amount of decisions to make when working on a remodel or renovation of your home. Though it's underfoot, flooring is a major consideration, affecting your home's aesthetic and air quality. If you're pondering a renovation or new floor, here are some of our picks for what to put down.
1) Bamboo is always among TreeHugger's top choices, but, beware: it isn't always TreeHugger green.
2) Reclaimed wood, like the goods from Trestewood or Pioneer Millworks, lends a timeless, well-loved quality to floors.
3) Both Mioculture's and Habitus' tiles add cork's sustainable, soft, sound-proofing qualities to your floor.
4) Linoleum, originally developed in the late 1800's, is a great long-lasting, sustainable alternative to vinyl floors.
5) Mud floors are attractive, comfortable to walk on, heat-absorbing, and earth-friendly. Really.
Tell US Congress to Strengthen Fuel Economy Standards
|
Most Huggable: City of Bikes, Worried Hunters, and Bush Whacking Science
|
Please don't forget about the social consequences of "harvesting" wood from old buildings, as dicussed on Treehugger here.
We are strip mining teak from buildings in Southeast Asia, and wood from our own old barns in the US, and losing social resources and vernacular architecture along.
I'm exploring the Treehugger site for the first time wondering just exactly what you advocate when it comes to tree farming. Are you opposed to cutting down trees in all or almost all circumstances?
One term currently being used by by those promoting good forestry practice is, "sustainability". I was heartened by the use of the term "sutainable" above. This would seem to indicate that your objectives do not conflict with those of foresters who believe that there are proper conditions under which a tree should be cut down and used as a raw material for products that benefit mankind..
Please advise.
Jim Bralla
--
editor note: The name TreeHugger is not to be taken literally.