Healthy Home Basics - Interior Floors

99. Why don’t you like certain types of carpeting?

Some carpets are high emitters of VOCs. Choose low-VOC types.

100. What’s the best kind of carpet to buy?

Look for those rated by the Carpet and Rug Institute's Green Label Program. Otherwise, the best advice we can give is to look for a product with as little odor as possible. It’ll help to take someone along with you who has a good sense of smell when you go shopping for carpet and padding. This is imperfect advice because some of the chemicals outgassed don’t have an odor. If you can’t find a low-odor carpet, you can roll it out in an uncontaminated garage and let it air out there before you bring it indoors for installation. Furthermore, you should install the carpet with tack strips rather than an adhesive.

Many people believe natural-fiber carpets are inherently healthier. Sometimes they are, but that’s not always the case. Natural fibers are often chemically dyed or treated and wool carpet is routinely treated with mothproofing chemicals. Actually, some 100%-nylon carpets are less bothersome than some natural carpets. Whatever kind of carpet you choose, we highly recommend using a central vacuum cleaner to maintain it.

Area rugs may offer advantages over carpet. First of all, you can often find them locally made of cotton or other natural fibers at reasonable prices. Some may even been dyed using natural plant dyes. If they have any odor when new, they can usually be laundered in a washing machine or hung outdoors until odor-free. As a result, they're much easier to keep clean than wall-to-wall carpet. If a larger area rug won’t fit in your washing machine, you can take it outdoors and beat it over a line—but be sure and wear a good dust mask.

101. Wood floors are always a healthy flooring choice, right?

Traditionally, wood floors were made of tongue-and-groove boards that were individually nailed down, sanded in place, then finished. These were often low-tox floors—as long as low-tox finishes were used. Today, some wood flooring is made in a sandwich—like plywood—and held together with a glue. It's often attached to the floor with another glue. Many products are now prefinished using a variety of different materials. We prefer solid wood.

For very sensitive people the choice of wood is important. That's because they may react to one type of wood but not to another. Oak is the most common wood-flooring material, but it can have a strong natural odor. Many sensitive individuals can tolerate oak—once it’s been finished. For those who can’t, maple, beech, birch, or another hardwood may be a better choice. If you aren’t bothered by softwoods, a yellow-pine floor can be an attractive, less expensive option.

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