Just bought my first house....

[AFSCME girl]

and am wondering (for future redecorating purposes)is there and alternative to hardwood flooring that looks similar, but is earth-friendly? Thanks, fellow DUer's!! :hi:

[LisaM]

1. Bamboo flooring

it's really quite nice looking and you can re-grow bamboo quickly.

[AFSCME girl]

3. Hi LisaM,

Thank you so much! I am a sucker for hardwood floors and bamboo sounds like a great alternative! :bounce:

[phantom power]

9. somebody just gave us a bamboo cutting board

it's really a beautiful piece of woodwork. And it's darn hard, too. I bet bamboo flooring would look really good, and be very durable.

[Kolesar]

10. I like the idea of bamboo flooring

I saw it in an eco-friendly building, and I saw it sourced at a local flooring shop. I would describe it as a renewable resource.

[fob]

2. Look for a dismantler or salvage supplier in your area. More and more

houses are being dismantled and their components reused. You can get hardwood flooring and have a net positive affect on the environment!

[AFSCME girl]

4. Another great idea!

fellow DU'ers - you rock! :yourock:

[happyslug]

5. This reminds me of TR and the Christmas Tree

When Theodore Roosevelt was President he actually banned Christmas Tree from his White House. He objected to the tree for it presented to him the wholesale clear cutting of timber so popular at that time.

His Children all objected and went to TR's Head of the US Forest Service, Gillford Pinchot. Gillford Pinchot had just finished his world wide tour of how the rest of the world handled their timber. He realized that for forests to be preserved someone had to have an interest in persevering that forest. The people with the most interest would be the forest owners themselves BUT ONLY IF THEY HAD SOME ECONOMIC INTEREST IN PRESERVING THE FOREST (as opposed to clean cutting and abandoning the forest land).

Leaving people grow Christmas tree was one of Pinchot's plans to save the forests of America. Christmas trees provided an economic reason to keep the trees on the land. People could grow them and sell them after 4-5 years. This meant such people could get a return on their investment (i.e. on planting the Christmas Trees). Thus Pinchot ADVOCATED people buying Christmas Trees so to make a market for the people to grow Christmas trees so that some of the Forest so recently cut down could be replanted (Pinchot also advocated planting slower growing trees, but he knew that could take 50-100 years to mature, Pinchot saw Christmas Trees as a way private people on private land could get a return on their investment within 5 years instead of 50, if that is what the landowner wanted).

The point of this is before you switch from a hard wood floor LOOK AT THE COMPLETE LIFE CYCLE OF THE TWO FLOORS. Make sure your effort to be environmentally correct does not cause more hard to the environment than staying with a Hard Wood Floor. Hard wood floors can last for decades, and when "finished" an often be re-done and used for even more decades. That is better than buying a new "plastic" floor every 10 years or so. Do some research and I believe you will find a hard Wood Floor is probably the most environmental sound floor you can get, given the terrible life cycle environmental of most other flooring (For example Carpets which must be replaced every 5-10 years, plastic following to be replaced every 5-10 years etc).

On the top of my head the only thing that might have a better life-cycle environmental record than Hard Wood would be the various stone or tile flooring.

For more on Gifford Pinchot:
http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/governors/pinchot.asp?secid=31

[AFSCME girl]

7. Very interesting..

thank you happyslug. I definitely plan on researching this before I make a final decision. It will take me a while to save up the money for a project like this, anyway. I like the bamboo idea. Bamboo is part of the grass family and renews quickly. It has been used in China for thousands of years and is quite durable and long-lasting.

[Dogmudgeon]

6. There is carpeting that is Earth-friendly

You have to look around, but it's out there.

Area carpets especially.

--bkl

[AFSCME girl]

8. Thank you, bkl..

I will keep that in mind also. :hi:

[happyslug]

12. Reminds me of the Pittsburgh Mayor's Rug

It was purchased in the late 1920s by the last Republican Mayor of Pittsburgh (Who was opposed by the Mellons and whose followers defected to the Democrats in the 1930s after he was defeated).

The Rug has only been walked on by one GOP mayor (The mayor who purchased it in the late 1920s), a point of pride among Democrats in Pittsburgh.

My point is the rug is almost 80 years old and is still in very good condition. IT was a VERY good Rug. Buy the best you can and you will pay less over the long run, and save the environment by putting less things into landfills.

[DemSigns]

11. EcoSmartUsa.com has a lot of what you are looking for

EcoSmart, Inc. at EcoSmartUsa.com has a bamboo flooring and a lot of Earth friendly and efficient products for the home or even to build a home.