19 Nov Installing the Natural Floor, Part 3
Cork, hardwood, tile and wool carpet – installed in five days and looking great seven weeks later
As should be done with all new construction projects, moisture levels were monitored for weeks before the hardwood flooring installation began. After acclimating the boxes of flooring on-site for three days, the transformation began. It took five days:
All of the wood meets CARB 2 standards for formaldehyde emissions. The brown, grey and travertine-look cork flooring meet GREENGUARD Gold.
The carpet is chemical-free wool from Nature’s Carpet, which has CRI Green Label Plus certification.
Porcelain tile for the bathrooms and mudroom are always people-friendly. And – like many brands these days — the insulation in the walls and the quartz countertops are also GREENGUARD Indoor-Air-Quality certified.
“A growing number of our customers are asking about low-VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) and natural flooring, and we’re happy we have the experience in working with all materials and we’re able to give them the look and indoor-air quality that they want,” says Nancy Kibbee at Natural Interiors, who supervised this job daily.
A hallmark of the Natural Interiors® program, there also is something noticeably missing from this brand new home – chemical odors and dust. A lot of people say this is impossible when using standard materials. But I would say that many of the materials we used have become standard in the flooring industry.
The concerns we had about getting ¾-inch hardwood to be level with ½-inch cork and tile set at 1-1/16th inches have vanished. So have the worries about not using the recommended T-molds between the hardwood and the cork. 
The flooring was finished six weeks ago. Humidity levels have been maintained at 45 
percent, and none of the flooring has budged, despite the winter temperatures that have now arrived.
No, it is not LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certified. But it is a natural home. ©
See Part 2 here, and Part 1 here
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