healthy flooring

When you next have to make a choice about the type of flooring to use in your home or office - start thinking natural. Ask what chemicals have been used in the manufacture of the flooring you are considering; this includes glues which may contain formaldehyde, a known carcinogenic. Man-made carpets use petrochemicals containing toxins which can outgas into your home and affect your health. Paula Baker Laporte’s Prescriptions for a Healthy House describes how in the States – and similarly in the UK – there is no mandatory health testing for carpets or construction materials. We live in constant contact – breathing in micro-particles - from flooring and other materials in our homes and offices.

Be aware that old carpets – often manufactured using petrochemicals– occupy vast areas in landfill sites; many of these will take years to disintegrate. Think carefully if you are making the right choice for the environment and for your health. The environmentalist Professor Tom Woolley describes a landfill site in Northumberland which stored over 3,000 tons of old carpets; this caught fire in 2013 and unbelievably burnt for a year. ‘Some carpets have hazardous backing materials and are heavily impregnated with flame retardant chemicals.’ Natural materials will however biodegrade without polluting the environment.

The healthiest option for carpet is 100% wool with a 100% wool underlay, as opposed to a rubber or synthetic underlay. Wool has many extraordinary qualities; it’s healthy for the planet and emits no toxins. Rather wonderfully wool assimilates and holds toxins, such as formaldehyde, which it ‘absorbs and neutralises’. Unlike man-made carpet it also burns slowly. Professor Woolley suggests that wool carpets significantly improve indoor air quality and ‘may continue purifying air for up to 30 years’. Be aware that rubber underlays can in time disintegrate. A friend was suffering increasingly with lung problems. A eureka moment came for her when she decided to take up the carpeting in her house, including the ageing and disintegrating underlay. After laying wooden floors her lung problems noticeably improved – it was only then that she linked the underlay to her latex allergy. Micro particles of rubber – invisible to the human eye but potentially problematic to someone with a latex allergy – had been outgassing into her home environment for many years.

healthy flooring options

·      Solid wood flooring or reclaimed wooden flooring used with natural preservatives are  a sustainable and viable choice, and will not harbour dust and mites in the way carpet can. 

·      Linoleum, made from linseed, can be a useful product in kitchens and bathrooms. 

·      Tiling made from sand and glass provides another sustainable and design led option.

·      Old rugs, recycled rugs, in wool, cotton and bamboo look great on natural floors, are transportable, easily cleaned, can be hung outside to air.

Tom Woolley Building Materials, Health and Indoor Air Quality (2017) pp. 40, 142 & 143.

Paula Baker-Laporte, Prescriptions for a Healthy Home (2014)

Sofie Pelsmaker, The Environmental Design Handbook (2012)