Green Homes Have Eco-Friendly Flooring

Eco-friendly flooring is made from renewable or recycled materials. Choices for eco friendly flooring that will help turn you home into a green home include cork, rubber, recycled glass, recycled hardwoods and bamboo.

Cork Flooring has many advantages over hard wood floors. First, the cork tree is not harmed in the harvesting of the cork. All that is removed is the bark, which grows back in as little as 6 years and is ready to be harvested again. With hard woods, the trees are cut down and new trees planted, but, depending on the variety of weed, it can take as long as 120 years for the new trees to reach their maximum growth. Cork flooring also has more give, making it comfortable to stand on, is easy to install and can be used in places with high humidity.

Rubber Flooring is made from recycled rubber tires, but does not look anything like it did in its previous life. It comes in tiles or in rolls, can come in a large variety of colors or can even be made to look like stone. Rubber flooring is easy to stand on and install and can be used in the wettest of places such as a garage or basement.

Recycled Glass Flooring is made from the bottles you take back to the supermarket. It is not only eco friendly, but attractive - it can be made to look like just about anything even mosaic tiles- as well. It is also cost effective and has an expected life span of 40 years or more, another eco friendly feature for a green home.

Recycled Hardwood Flooring is made from boards salvaged from old buildings or from very old trees or from wood that is salvaged from the bottom of rivers and lakes such as old logs lost in logging operations. The wood can be almost any type. Chestnut, maple, hickory, cherry and oak are just some of the choices Using wood that would other wise be left to rot is a very eco friendly thing to do.

Bamboo Flooring is another great eco friendly choice. Bamboo is a fast growing grass, making it a source that will never end and every eco friendly. The finished product bares a remarkable resemblance to wood, can be installed as a floating floor or be glued, nailed or stapled in place and comes finished on unfininshed.

Sources ; Bamboo Flooring
Recycled Wood
Recycled Glass
Recycled Rubber
Cork