Wood Flooring Environmental Impact

Wood Flooring Environmental Impact in Denver, CO

If you are looking for a new flooring option or have general questions about hardwood floors, rely on the experts at A+ Hardwood Floors to help you get the answers you need. We have been assisting home and business owners for more than 25 years with our knowledge of the industry. One of the main questions coming through our doors, “What impact will my hardwood floors have on the environment?”. We love explaining all the benefits hardwood floors bring to your home and how they can actually help the environment instead of choosing vinyl or carpet for your home or office.

Our experts can help you discover which variety of wood will be best for your floors, depending on the color, impact, texture, and more. Below are some more benefits and reasons why you should choose hardwood floors for your Denver, CO space. If you still have further questions or would like to speak to a professional, simply give us a call. We provide upfront and honest estimates to ensure you have a positive experience with flooring projects.

Benefits of Choosing Hardwood Floors

Hardwood floors bring more than beauty and longevity to your home. With so many benefits, it is no wonder they have been the popular choice with home and business owners in Denver and worldwide. When either designing your new home or looking to switch things up with a remodel, hardwood floors are the best sustainable option. Their impact on the environment is also not nearly as bad as it can seem since manufacturers do have to cut down trees. You can help reduce your carbon footprint by having our team help you chose and install your new hardwood floors. Count on the following benefits and more:

Sustainable Harvesting: Most people do not understand that harvesting wood for projects such as creating hardwood floors is that there are regulations and rules to protect them. The current supply of hardwood in the world right now can last us up to 100 years, while it only takes 60 years for them to mature and become solid. Whenever a cubic foot is cut down for production, the responsible team plants 1.66 cubic feet is planted back into the Earth. This ensures the newly growing trees have plenty of time to grow before they are harvested. Because of this growing pattern, wood is considered a renewable resource. To retain this title, manufacturers in the industry make sustainability their number one priority.

Manufacturing Process: While there are chemicals and energy used in the processing of your hardwood floors, they are considerably lower than that of carpet and linoleum flooring options. There can also be leftover raw materials which would generally result in waste. Trust A+ Hardwood Floors to safely remove and dispose of them to protect the environment and reduce your carbon footprint. Most of the time, we can break down the remaining wood into chips and dust for other products such as MDF (medium-density fiberboard) boards, paper, plywood sheets, and other composite products. We can also use this material to burn and create bio-clean energy. Because of all these secondary uses for wood, our team can use 99% of each tree we harvest for your hardwood floor project.

Longevity: One of the greatest benefits of choosing hardwood over carpet or linoleum is how long they can last. With proper care and maintenance, your new hardwood floors can provide their other benefits for over 100 years. The laminate options require replacing every 15-25 years, depending on care. You may need premature replacements if there is an accident involving damage from moving furniture, for instance. Carpet is even worse, with a lifespan of only eight to ten years. Spills, dirt, and everyday wear and tear make this option highly unreliable for long-term use. Due to the longevity of hardwood, it makes it more expensive upfront, but you will appreciate it much longer.

Impact on Air Quality: Research provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proves to have hardwood floors installed in your home our office improves the quality of air. Carpet can hold on to VOCs (volatile organic compounds) much longer than any other surface. Even a weekly vacuuming will not remove them from your space. Linoleum and vinyl options use glues and other harsh adhesives in their installation that can introduce emissions into your air and reduce its quality. Hardwood floors are considered hypoallergenic and prevent minimal interactions with mold, dust, animal dander, and more. Breathe easier by choosing A+ Hardwood Floors to install yours today.

Recyclable: You can even give your floors new life by sanding and refinishing. By simply changing the color, you can provide a whole new experience when walking through your home or office. A+ Hardwood Floors provide these services as well to prevent you from spending too much on your next remodeling project. We can match any color scheme you decide on for your family room, dining room, kitchen, and any other area. If the wood is deemed unusable for flooring, we can still reuse it for other decorating or furniture building projects. Reclaimed work is a popular design aesthetic, and we can’t wait to help you achieve it by harvesting your old floors.

Myths About Environmental Impact

While there are plenty of benefits when installing hardwood floors into your home, you will also come across plenty of myths about the cons. A+ Hardwood Floors designers and installers have heard them all over the years and can help clear things up for you to get the facts. Below are some of the myths or misconceptions you may hear when shopping and designing your new floors:

They destroy the Earth’s forest – Using hardwood floors is actually better for the forests because it helps keep them in better control. For each cubic for used, 1.66 cubic feet get planted to ensure our over 100 supply stays ahead of the curve. With rules and regulations from the EPA, we keep the environment safe and the forests of the world full of healthy trees. You can feel easy knowing your hardwood floors are not destroying them.

They contribute to global warming – One of the main reasons the global temperature has been slowly on the rise is because of carbon dioxide. You can breathe easier knowing your hardwood floors are a carbon-neutral product. Trees actually absorb carbon dioxide throughout their life which is what causes hardwood floors to be carbon neutral. Even after we harvest, the wood remains neutral.