02 Jul Choosing Your Natural Mattress
...
low-VOC Tag
17 Aug Diary of a Healthier Home Reno
Couple chooses chemical-free carpet, dustless sanding and low-VOC finishes for 1960’s ranch makeover, and gets it all done between closing and move-in.
The hardwood floor in the living room and front hall had been refinished. They were welcoming upon walking through the front door of the ranch home Pam and her husband, Jim, were buying in a Cincinnati neighborhood.
The spacious kitchen, with an older tile floor, also was inviting. But the great room, back hall and three bedrooms were covered with worn carpet and ready for an update.
Pam had a plan to pull it all together into a cohesive, flowing look. But like most people who contact the Natural Interiors® program, she had specific requirements: Any new carpet preferably would be made of natural fibers, and it would be free of stain-proofing chemicals. Any floor finishes or paint would be as low-VOC as possible for the application.
“I wanted help finding products and properly vetting them for chemicals of concern and hazardous air pollutants,” Pam said. “I wasn’t being a purist. I just wanted to take all reasonable steps to minimize possible toxins.”
06 Mar When It’s Natural and They Know It
A growing number of flooring consumers know more about people-friendly products than mainstream flooring salespeople do
When a consumer is intent on finding a specific product and spends hours researching it, she might be more knowledgeable than the salesperson when she gets to the store.
Jennifer Lutz recalls how frustrated she was when she went to a mainstream flooring store, asking about natural carpet and hard-surface flooring that had third-party indoor-air quality certification. This drove her back to the computer and her Google searches, which put her in contact with Natural Interiors.®
“I didn’t feel like the salespeople at the store knew what they were talking about or even understood my questions in regard to certifications and VOCs,” says Lutz of Lebanon, OH. “It is very important to me, and I do not want to spend money to buy a product that does not meet my standards.”
20 Jul Part 2: Natural Is …
Once frowned upon by healthy-home experts, engineered hardwood flooring is becoming a people- and planet-friendly choice
If you are looking for a new hardwood floor in today’s popular, wider widths, you most likely have seen engineered flooring.
Unlike solid hardwood flooring, an engineered floor is put together in layers, using adhesives. And when the healthy-home movement began more than a decade ago, these products were a no-no.
But with today’s No Added Urea Formaldehyde (NAUF) adhesives, used by many leading manufacturers, concerns about unhealthful chemical emissions are diminishing. And because engineered products use the premium wood species only on the product’s surface, planet-friendly product seekers can make a stronger case for engineered hardwood.
21 Sep It Started With the White Lye
Low- and zero-VOC hardwood finishing program expands with architect’s vision
Cincinnati Architect Adam Fosnaugh was in awe of a wood floor made in Denmark. It was the look he wanted for the first floor of the Clifton home he and his wife are remodeling. Could we recreate this aesthetic?, he asked.
It was White Oak plank, bleached in color, not too white, but no yellow tones that are typical with traditional hardwood finishes. Oh and yes, it had to be low- or zero-VOC. Adam is a LEED AP at MSA Architects. His wife, Margot, is a chemical engineer and air quality consultant, and they have a 1-1/2-year-old daughter.
Indoor-air quality, in addition to the perfect color, also would be important for the cork flooring they would select for the second floor.
17 Feb Have You Seen the Light?
Onsite, UV-cured hardwood floor finishes are starting to beam
We talk a lot about low-VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) floor finishes, and the scientific advancements that have produced less-toxic polyurethanes and natural oil floor coatings. But the truth is that our search for the perfect people-and planet friendly option continues daily.
“Water-based” and “waterborne” now are second only to “low-VOC” on the list of buzzwords that put our minds at ease. But when you consider that zero-VOC paints are readily available, the VOC content in floor coatings can seem high, in addition to other chemicals that some formulas use.
This reality has made the ultra-violent curing machine the latest proven weapon in our arsenal of remedies for unhealthful indoor air. It stops chemical emissions by instantly curing the finish that would ordinarily take days to weeks to completely dry and stop off-gassing. In addition, waterborne polyurethanes with VOC content as low as 17 grams per liter are now available.
19 Nov Installing the Natural Floor, Part 3
Cork, hardwood, tile and wool carpet – installed in five days and looking great seven weeks laterAs 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.
09 Feb Natural Oil Trending
Natural oil hardwood flooring finishes gain popularity as consumers get more familiar with product benefits
Some would say that using plant-based oils to finish a hardwood floor is unique. Not the norm, the road less-traveled and, possibly not suited for standing up to high traffic.
But with the number of customers who are beginning to ask about oil or low-VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) floor finishes, I would have to say that a trend is emerging.
And floors that are standing up to customers and spilled drinks in a downtown Cincinnati bar where the floor was finished with plant-based oil last fall is debunking doubt about durability.