A Complete Guide to Eco-Friendly Flooring

Achieve sustainable sophistication with eco-friendly flooring for any application.

When you think about eco-friendly home design, minimalist visions of pale earth tones, repurposed materials, and lush green plants – everywhere – might spring to mind. However, as the environmental movement becomes increasingly mainstream, designers and homeowners alike have far more eco-friendly building options. In fact, we’d wager that there are sustainable flooring options for every style out there. So, whether your dream home encapsulates the cozy nostalgia of an English farmhouse or the sleek neutrals of a Scandinavian apartment, there are dozens of eco-friendly flooring options available to you.

What is Eco-Friendly Flooring?

Eco-friendly flooring is sustainably produced, renewable, contains recycled content, or leaves a small carbon footprint. Elegance doesn’t have to come at the expense of the environment anymore. In fact, for many interior designers and homeowners, sustainability is almost as important as the look and feel of a space. Eco-friendly flooring ensures that your home not only looks sophisticated but also supports a healthy and sustainable environment.

Finding eco-friendly flooring doesn’t have to be expensive, but it might take a little research to find the best supplier for you. And while some materials may be marketed as eco-friendly, like bamboo, it’s important to keep a savvy eye toward the details. For instance, while bamboo matures faster than other renewable materials, it lacks durability – with only a ten-year lifespan on average – and requires a lot of adhesives to produce, which can contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

There are many types of eco-friendly flooring materials, so whatever your target look, feel, and price point is, there’s a sustainable and beautiful custom option for you.

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Popular Eco-Friendly Flooring Styles

Selecting a custom flooring style means that the options are nearly limitless. Here are just a few popular eco-friendly flooring styles to consider.

Cork
Cork flooring has been around for decades, but savvy homeowners are starting to bring this eco-friendly material into their flooring designs. Originally, cork was primarily used as an insulation material. However, it was later popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright, who used the material as an organic and sustainable flooring choice.

Solid cork floors are sourced from the bark of cork oak trees and can be harvested without cutting down or damaging the tree. Because of this, cork floors are renewable and incredibly eco-friendly, and more affordable than traditional hardwood options. For the discerning home or business owner looking to balance eco-friendliness with elevated style, engineered wide plank cork floors offer the same sustainable material with a protective top layer to guard against wear and tear. Cork floors have a subtle softness underfoot that’s perfect for padding barefoot into the kitchen for a cup of coffee on a lazy Saturday morning.

Reclaimed Hardwood
As the name suggests, reclaimed hardwood comes from recovered or restored hardwood—often decades or even centuries old. Reclaimed hardwood can come from a variety of sources ranging from old factory floors to the joists of a barn. The aging process imbues reclaimed hardwood with a distinctive natural character that simply can’t be reproduced. Every plank of reclaimed hardwood has a rich visual history proudly displayed through unique color variations, saw marks, or even small cracks and splits. Before reaching your home or business, reclaimed hardwood is carefully processed and restored so that imperfections don’t impact longevity or function. This restoration process gives new life to existing lumber, reducing demand for deforestation and preventing unused wood from reaching the landfill. Reclaimed hardwood adds rustic lived-in elegance to any home, and it’s an especially striking fit in Cottagecore or Shabby Chic designs.

Hardwood
While you might be surprised to see hardwood on the list, it’s actually one of the most eco-friendly flooring options out there. Like cork, hardwood is manufactured from a renewable resource. Hardwood has an extremely low carbon footprint compared to other flooring materials when sourced domestically. The U.S. Department of Agriculture actually classifies wood flooring as a carbon-neutral product.

One primary environmental benefit of hardwood is its longevity. Some hardwood floors have been in homes for hundreds of years—an artisan heirloom piece. Hardwood can be refinished multiple times, restoring its original beauty and extending its lifespan, which is far more eco-friendly than a complete flooring replacement. And if you ever do decide to take your home design in a new direction and replace your hardwood floors, you can rest assured that if the wood is not utilized for reclaimed wood, it’s biodegradable and will return the naturally retained carbon back into the earth.

To reduce your environmental impact, make sure to ask potential suppliers about their sourcing process. Hardwood flooring is renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable—but a selective procurement process is necessary to ensure this supply stays around for future generations. Make sure that the wood is sourced domestically from sawyers who don’t practice clear-cutting, which has a negative environmental impact

Picking Out Eco-Friendly Flooring for Your Home

Every eco-friendly flooring option is slightly different, so it’s best to think about each space of your home to figure out the best fit. After all, you can use multiple flooring materials throughout your home to give each room a different look, feel, and functionality.

For instance, consider looking at cork flooring options if you’re building out a home gym. Not only is cork environmentally friendly, but cork flooring also offers more flexibility and give, providing the perfect foundation for an elevated workout experience.

For high-traffic areas in the home, like the kitchen, look for a flooring material that’s as durable as it is eco-friendly. Sustainably sourced hardwood or reclaimed wood are both environmentally friendly kitchen flooring choices. The result is a kitchen that’s easy to clean, long-lasting, and invites natural inspiration.

Considerations for Installing Eco-Friendly Flooring

As with every element of your home, thoughtful intention makes the difference when it comes to picking out and installing flooring.

While beautiful and cost-effective, some oil-based flooring finishes can release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air—gasses that can be harmful to health and the environment. Don’t rule them out completely, as they offer a deep richness to hardwood that’s hard to find elsewhere, but make sure to weigh the pros and cons of each finishing option.

During the flooring installation process, make sure to ensure good ventilation. Some adhesives, sealants, and varnishes contain VOCs, which can cause temporary air quality issues in your home. To help mitigate this impact, look at the VOC information on packaging and try to look for products with VOCs of less than 250 grams per liter.

Some flooring providers can prefinish your new custom floor, which can reduce or eliminate the risk of VOCs in your home entirely. Carlisle prefinished wood flooring has no measurable VOCs and no urea formaldehyde added during the manufacturing process, making it a safe and sustainable flooring option.

Sustainable Flooring for Long-Lasting Elegance

Luxury doesn’t have to come at the expense of style. In fact, sustainability is so popular that choosing eco-friendly flooring might even enhance the ambiance of an already-stylish floor. Whether your home aspirations are modern, rustic, or anywhere in between, there’s a sustainable flooring option that fits your vision and the environment. Whether you choose domestically sourced hardwood, reclaimed wood, or cork, you can feel confident that you’re investing in a stunningly distinguished floor that your family will enjoy for generations.