There’s a growing market for sustainable hardwood floors and flooring products. As a hardwood floor contractor, it’s important to stay updated about the newest eco-friendly products so you can make recommendations to sustainability-minded clients.
In honor of Earth Day, we’ve compiled a list of some eco-friendly hardwood flooring products and trends.
Eco-friendly hardwood floor finish, stains, and gym floor paint
When it comes to hardwood floor finishes, the biggest question about a product’s eco-friendliness usually revolves around its VOC (volatile organic compound) content. VOCs are released during the off-gassing process, impacting indoor air quality and health while the finish cures.
If you’re looking for an eco-friendly finish, the recommended products are usually water-based. Oil-modified hardwood floor finishes have a bad reputation because of their high VOC content.
But certain oil-based finishes have little or no VOC content. These products are the perfect solutions for clients who want the durability of an oil finish without all the chemicals:
Rubio Monocoat is a VOC-free oil-based floor finish. It gives the floor lasting color and durability with just one coat. Read more about Rubio Monocoat.
WOCA oil finishes: WOCA’s low-VOC and VOC-free oil products hit the market in 2008 due to increased consumer demand for environmentally friendly coatings products. Now, even the most durable WOCA products, like Master Oil, can be used in places with stringent VOC regulations.
WOCA oil finish won’t disappoint. Low-VOC and VOC-free WOCA oil finishes give hardwood floors lasting reliability without compromising on environmental friendliness.
Following are two sustainable water-based flooring products:
As we’ve covered before, Vermont Coatings PolyWhey is an eco-friendly floor finish in every sense of the word. PolyWhey products have extremely low VOCs, and the packaging is made from recycled materials and is 100% recyclable.
Since it’s a single-component product, PolyWhey finish has a shelf life of up to a year after you open it. This creates less waste and saves you money.
SuperSport gym floor paint is always a great choice. Bona SuperSport is water-based, which means low VOC content and quick drying time.
Dustless sanding equipment
Dustless sanding is an increasingly popular demand from homeowners who wish to preserve their indoor air quality while their floors are installed. Luckily, you can take a number of routes to provide your clients with the dustless sanding process that they want.
The Lagler TRIO features an integrated dust collection system, which picks up dust right away and sends it through a filter, where it’s trapped in a bag for easy collection. Watch our video review of the Lagler TRIO.
If you can’t shell out the money for a specialty machine like the TRIO, there are ways to make dustless sanding happen with your current equipment. For example, you can attach the ProTeam
MegaVac to a dustless buffer like the Clarke RS-16 DC. Connect a Festool CT-model vacuum to an edger with dust containment, like the Clarke 7R, for dustless edging.
We rent dustless sanding equipment in case you don’t get dustless sanding requests very often and don’t want to spend too much to make it available to your clients.
Reclaimed wood floors
If your clients want their hardwood floors to be eco-friendly through-and-through, they might request that you install reclaimed flooring.
Reclaimed flooring is essentially repurposed wood. Sometimes it comes from driftwood. Other times, it’s from old houses or fences that have been ripped down.
Reclaimed wood flooring is a popular choice for sustainability-conscious homeowners because it’s made of recycled wood rather than being cut from trees. Plus, it’s easy on the eyes. The rustic appeal of reclaimed wood is currently a huge trend in the real estate market.
Earth Day should be every day. Invest in sustainable products for your safety, for your clients’ safety, for the environment, and for the future.