Environmental Impact Of Flooring Materials

The environmental impact of concrete flooring.

Environmental impact of flooring materials.

Acclimation also called conditioning is a critical component of the installation process and it is the vehicle for allowing wood flooring to match its installation environment. Usgbc s leed rating system recommends using materials that originate within 500 miles of your home to help keep embodied energy costs low. It does not harm the environment and can be recycled into other flooring projects. A life cycle assessment of flooring materials made of solid wood linoleum and vinyl found the wood flooring had lower energy use and carbon dioxide emissions.

After water concrete is the most widely used substance on earth. Unlike other flooring materials the raw materials used to make them trees can regrow after they are cut down which replaces the material that is harvested. Environmental impacts of bamboo as a substitute constructional material in nigeria. Some flooring materials such as asian bamboo or european linoleum must be shipped great distances increasing their embodied energy cost and total environmental impact.

Stone is a natural product of the earth that is constantly being recreated by natural tectonic processes. Because of the materials used in its manufacture vinyl will sometimes emit various levels of volatile organic chemicals or voc s into the air for a period after initial installation. Sustainable for future generations. Most laminate flooring holds a leed certification of at least certified with some even going as far as silver and above in overall sustainability.

Concrete flooring has many environmental issues in how they are made and this also varies amongst manufacturers as well. Environmental impact after installation. Building materials and techniques are ranked based on their overall impact on the environment with everything from emissions during production to ramifications of installation use taken into account. However stone is quite heavy so the transport impact on the environment for imported materials can be significant.

It also performed better in environmental impact categories such as resource use environmental toxin emissions air pollution emissions and waste generation. In the construction sector of nigeria wood and steel have been the major materials used in the production. If the cement industry were a country it would be the third largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world with up to 2 8bn tonnes. Wood floors are the most environmentally friendly flooring option available.

To make it a bit simpler to understand we are going to break concrete flooring into three types of flooring.