What is the 'greenest' type of floor?

jimbob_3

hi,

im currently doing up my kitchen and have decided to also replace the floor covering. Currently it is a vinyl laminate covering concrete but i would like to get something that is reasonably 'green'.

The kitchen is small (approx 4m2) and the actual floor space is about half that so i am not looking at huge amounts of anything.

Does anybody have any suggestions or links

thanks

tr3mor

Grass

It's green in both senses, a nice turfed floor would be fantastic!

Seriously - I suppose some form of wooden floor would probably be best, provided it's localish wood from a sustainable source.

krishna

tr3mor wrote:

Grass

It's green in both senses, a nice turfed floor would be fantastic!

Not sure about that. Me thinks it might be rather heavy on water consumption.

starlite_2

Bamboo! and it looks great too

edit - or you could try buffing up the concrete thats already there as that can look lovely too!

Seakay

Do you need a special machine to buff concrete? If so, can you hire or do you have to buy?

starlite_2

if it is farly decent already, you can fill in any large cracks/holes with concrete filler (we left ours as they added character!) and use a product called 'red tile liquid shine' which polishes and enhances the stone, and also provides a watertight seal.

Seakay

That sounds like my sort of solution - quick and easy!

JenHen

I have a copy of Ethical Consumer magazine from last year which has an article on environmentally/ethically friendly floor coverings. As I remember, one of the recommendations was cork flooring, which has many benefits including helping to sustain the cork industry, which is under threat because of a decline in use due to the advent of plastic wine corks amongst other things. To use it for kitchen flooring you'd need to seal it with a (low-VOC) varnish.

arkonite_babe

I'm doing my bathroom floor with cork tiles.

Apparently it's best to lay them on hardboard if you have floorboards underneath as the tiles can be uneven otherwise. Then seal with a waterproof varnish (Hardware shops sell one for cork tiles, looks like milk in the tin) to protect and be washable.

AFAIK, cork tiles can be laid straight onto a concrete floor as long as it is clean and smooth.

ktpie

We did our bathroom last year with cork tiles and we are really pleased with it, it took a bit of work putting it down, we put down hardboard which we then sealed with watered down PVA, stuck down the tiles and then did about three coats of varnish.

As far as I know cork is harvested from oak trees and trees can be repeatedly harvested making it sustainable.

We also found it was one of the cheapest options!

arkonite_babe

warmer on your feet too than vinyl or tiles