One Eco Home carries a library of eco flooring, including wool carpet with jute backing, natural rubber, linoleum, FSC certified timber and natural UK stone. Please contact us for our postal sampling service.
living@oneecohome.co.uk or tel: 0844 800 4144
There’s nothing nicer than natural flooring under bare feet. But many natural flooring products are not as kind to you or the environment as you might think. We’ve put all our flooring through rigorous assessments to give you luxurious, natural and hardwearing floors that are safe for you as well as the planet.
When deciding on your flooring, natural materials are best. Made from readily available and renewable sources, they’re biodegradable and recyclable.
But beware: many natural flooring products have been treated with potentially harmful chemicals, either during the growing cycle of the raw material or when they’re being finished with dyes and sealants. Also, the extraction, processing and/or transportation of raw materials may cause a great deal of environmental degradation.
Flooring can be divided into two sections – soft flooring (such as carpets, linoleum and cork) and hard flooring (stone, slate, ceramic tiles, concrete and wood).
Most carpets are made of synthetic fibres or fibre blends and contain a cocktail of hazardous substances such as formaldehyde, anti-microbial chemicals, stain proofing agents and fire retardants. One volatile agent, 4-PC, may be the major cause of that lingering “new carpet odour”. We’re exposed to these chemicals via the inhalation of contaminated air, ingestion of contaminated dust or through contact with the skin and there are increasing concerns about the impact of our living environment on our health. Carpet also attracts dust mites – a major cause of asthma and other allergenic reactions.
Carpets are also a main contributor to landfill waste in the UK with over two million tonnes of carpet thrown away every year, most of it non-biodegradable and ending up in landfill sites. Ways of addressing this include reuse, recycling fibre into other plastic products and carpet recycling schemes.
Carpeting and other types of soft flooring are often backed with or contain synthetic materials to improve resilience and wear.
Also bear in mind underlay, which is often made of synthetic materials. Alternatives include cushioning or underlay made of jute and animal hair or of recycled and waste synthetic materials. To cut down chemical exposure, it’s better to lay carpet by stretching and tacking than by gluing.
Natural and biodegradable soft flooring materials such as wool, grasses and reeds make up a smaller proportion of the market but offer many health and environmental benefits.
Wool carpet is luxurious, cosy and hardwearing. It can be designed with pattern, colour and texture to add warmth to your home. Wool is a 100% renewable resource and has good sound and thermal insulation properties. Once a valued commodity, much of UK wool is now treated as a low value or even waste product. When specifying wool carpets try to source those that have been manufactured in the UK. Also look for natural backings such as Hessian, felt, or natural latex rubber. Because wool has natural flame retardant qualities, it doesn’t need to be treated with a fire retardancy finish. However, toxins may be present in non-organic wool from the chemicals used in sheep dips. Remember of course, that wool carpets require regular cleaning which adds to water and energy use.
Reeds and rattan grasses and woody plants are natural and renewable sources of fibres that can be woven into matting, baskets and chair seats. The problem with both reeds and rattan (which come from the southeast-Asian rattan palm) is over-harvesting and habitat destruction, so care should be taken to source products and materials from sustainably managed plantations.
Sisal is a strong fibre woven from a species of agave and typically made into mats and floor coverings. One of the most popular of the natural fibre floor coverings, sisal is hard-wearing enough for areas of heavy traffic but not as rough to walk on as coir. It can be dyed and is available in a range of patterns, but it is not water or stain resistant.
Seagrass comes from a grass native to China. Tough, cheap and anti-static, seagrass weaves are smooth and comfortable underfoot. It’s naturally water-resistant too so it doesn’t stain. It cannot be dyed.
Coir comes from the coconut husk. Coir weaves are made into floor coverings and doormats. It is very hardwearing, but feels scratchy to the skin.
Jute comes from a subtropical plant native to India and has long been used in rope-making, for making coarse cloth such as hessian, and for backing carpet and linoleum. More recently, it’s been used to make floor coverings. Jute weaves are soft and much less durable than sisal or coir. Because demand for jute exceeds supply, similar fibres such as ramie are often used as a substitute, particularly for making coarse cloth such as hessian.
The problem with most of the grass and cellulose-based natural fibre flooring products is that they have a backing made from synthetic latex instead of natural latex and many need to be glued to the floor to fix in place. Also problematic is the embodied energy associated with importing the fibres from overseas. And grass based flooring can be hard to clean.
Bamboo is a fast-growing woody grass that can be harvested every 4-6 years. It makes an excellent alternative to many indoor applications, including flooring. Bamboo is stronger than oak, maple and beech, and very stable, which makes it less prone to the expansion and contraction caused by variations in temperature and humidity. There are over 1000 species of bamboo but the types that are commonly harvested come from managed plantations in the Far East, particularly China. Drawbacks to bamboo as a product are the distances it has to travel to come to the UK, and the formaldehyde binders that are often used to laminate strips together into flooring.
Cork is derived from the outer bark of the evergreen cork oak, a tree native to Spain, Portugal, France, North Africa and Italy. It’s a natural, healthy material that makes a warm, resilient surface for floors or walls. Every decade the cork oak naturally sheds its thick outer bark, which means that the cork can be harvested without any damage to the tree. This is a process that also entails very little wastage. Binders are required to hold the granules of cork together and, while adhesives containing formaldehyde were once common, less harmful binders are often used today. Cork generally resists rot and mould and it also makes a great sound-absorber and insulator. Wax is a good alternative to polyurethane seal.
Linoleum is a wholly natural product with very good environmental credentials. Its raw ingredients are widely available and renewable and the processing entails no release of toxic gases. It’s made from linseed oil (a by-product of flax), pine resin, powdered cork, wood flour, powdered limestone and pigment, pressed onto a jute or Hessian backing and baked at high temperature. Because it is anti-bacterial it’s ideal in kitchens, bathrooms, family rooms or wherever an easy-care hygienic floor is required. And being anti-static, it repels the dust that attracts mites and so is a good option for asthmatics or those suffering from allergic reactions. It can also be used as a surface for desks or tabletops. On the floor, it’s warm, matt, resilient and comfortable underfoot and it gets tougher with age. Today, it is available in a range of strong colours, typically with a matt, mottled appearance. Linoleum is installed using water-based environmentally compatible adhesive.
Natural rubber is harvested from the rubber tree. Originally from South America, 90% of rubber production now comes from plantations of rubber trees in Southeast Asia. Because rubber is simply tapped from the trees, it’s a renewable resource and is biodegradable. Rubber has a low embodied energy during production but then has to be imported into the UK, which carries associated energy costs. It’s worth noting that some people suffer from natural rubber allergies.
Rubber can also be recycled from car tyres to produce flooring. This helps tackle the mountain of discarded tyres that are now in landfill sites. However this type of recycled rubber should be reserved for outdoor use only as it does off gas.
As flooring, both natural and recycled rubber is strong and resilient, highly slip and weather resistant, inexpensive and tough.
Stone is a natural material and has many fantastic qualities, both aesthetically and practically, though it’s generally expensive. Most types of stone are incredibly durable and one of its great advantages is that it stores heat well and can play an important role in houses designed for passive solar gain. Unlike wood, however, stone is a not a renewable or inexhaustible resource. For example York stone will soon become rare.
Compared with metals and plastics, relatively little energy is consumed in the extraction and processing of stone. But energy costs can be high where stone is imported from regions around the world. The associated energy costs are enhanced by the weight of the material. Another and perhaps more obvious environmental problem is the impact that quarries and mines have on natural habitats. In the past, over-exploitation of certain types of stone has ravaged landscapes all over the world, leaving them permanently scarred.
The best source for stone is local or regional.
Be careful of using sealants, which depending on their contents can produce harmful Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) into the indoor environment.
These natural earthen products have a warm, rich quality. While most terracotta tiles are now mass-produced, handmade tiles produced in Tuscany and Provence are still available and are much more characterful. This is thanks to variations that exist in the composition of the local clay deposits, along with irregularities in the shaping and firing – generally done in a wood-fired kiln. Terracotta generally requires sealing with linseed oil or wax for full protection.
Cheap, durable and extremely wear-resistant, quarry tiles were first manufactured in the nineteenth century as an alternative to the more traditional terracotta tile. The basic ingredient is clay, which is pressed into a mould and burnt.
Be aware that ceramic tiles have a high embodied energy; they’re highly processed and are usually transported over long distances. The basic ingredient is refined ground clay, which is pressed and fired at high temperature. We advise restricting the use of tiles to those areas in need of water-protection only, so that walls have the opportunity to breathe and absorb moisture. Many tile adhesives have high VOC content.
Concrete flooring is highly durable and has a high thermal mass (ability to store heat) and can play an important role in houses designed for passive solar heating. However, it has a high embodied energy due to the high temperatures required to process the main ingredient, Portland cement. Another disadvantage is that the cement industry is highly centralised so the use of energy for transportation is high. Concrete has previously been associated with dust problems both in production and use. This has been largely reduced with closed systems for handling the clinker and more efficient dust filters. However, it remains problematic on building sites and concrete finished floors must be coated to avoid the occurrence of dust through wear and tear. Environmental options for using concrete include using recycled aggregates and the increased use of pozzolanna mixtures.
Solid wood flooring adds a sense of warmth, depth and quality to an interior space. Hardwearing and durable, wood is an excellent choice from both a practical and environmental perspective. Wood is a renewable, living source, and if sourced from a sustainably managed resource it’s ‘carbon neutral’ which means it reduces carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by absorbing it as it grows.
However, the use of wood as a material does pose environmental problems. While trees are renewable, ancient forests are not. Deforestation and over-harvesting have endangered certain species and damaged natural habitats, in some cases irrevocably.
Timber is often transported over vast distances, which adds to its environmental impact.
The Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international body that monitors forestry projects worldwide to ensure they’re operating in a fully sustainable manner. The FWSC also seeks to balance ecological considerations with the needs of local communities. FSC-certified foresters and manufacturers meet a set of criteria designed to promote biological diversity and protect native woodlands.
When selecting wood flooring always use wood that has been certified with the FSC. Alternatively reclaimed floorboards can provide a unique and instantly ‘aged’ look.
In addition to solid wood floors, there are many laminate options. If specifying a laminate flooring make sure the glues used are formaldehyde free.