Underfoot: A (LOL) Look at Eco-Friendly Floors

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Underfoot: A (LOL) Look at Eco-Friendly Floors

Blog Of The Week

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Toni Morton of Toni’s Treehouse:

Today we’re going to talk carpet.

Huh?

Carpet. I promise you’ll learn something.

What’s there to know? It’s carpet. Fuzzy stuff under your feet making your home look good.

But it’s bad.

Bad? I have evil carpet?

Yes, you do. Most of us do. Think about it. Conventional carpet is created using something like a gazillion dangerous, toxic and carcinogenic (i.e. cancer causing) compounds. As soon as that stuff is put into your home, it’s off-gassing into your air.

My carpet farts? I hope it’s not as bad as husband!

:::sigh::: No, your carpet doesn’t fart. Just being there doing what carpet does it gives off millions of volatile organic compounds or VOCs. And then you walk on it.

Well of course I walk on it. I ain’t Spider Man.

But you walk on it with your shoes. Shoes that have been outside picking up who knows what from where and now you’re mushing all that into the carpet with all of the toxic sludge already in there. And then you’re breathing it. Every day, every night. Your kid is rolling around on it. Actually, your kid is licking it.

HEY! STOP LICKING THE CARPET! But I can’t replace my carpet.

Neither can I. I’m stuck with the ugliest of ugly mossy green carpeta stained and abused by a husband, toddler and cat. But I can dream and educate until the glorious day someone generously donates brand new flooring (hint, ahem, hint). So let’s learn more.

Okay. I’m interested.

A quick Google search for “eco-friendly” carpet reveals quite a few options for those thinking of greening their floors. Mohawk, Flor and Antron are just a few. Of course you also have to take into account the padding, installation and disposal of your old carpet. The whole process can be greened simply by taking time to research the options. Green Building Supply for example, offers organic padding which “contain[s] the lowest total volatile organic compound emissions available today.” Safecoat has a carpet glue which also has very low VOCs. And to find out how to recycle your old carpet, just stop by CarpetRecovery.org.

That sounds like a lot of work.

It is, but it’s worth it for your family’s health and the environment’s.

Maybe I should just skip the carpet.

You can, you know. There are lot of really cool alternatives now to carpet like bamboo, cork and even natural linoleum.

Cork? Like wine corks?

Sort of, yeah. There are examples of cork floors in public buildings installed over a hundred years ago still around today like The Library of Congress. There’s a lot of great information at the site US Floors about cork floors in general, not just their specific brand. They have some excellent information about bamboo flooring as well.

Man. I really wish I could get that nasty carpet out of my house now.

I know what you mean because I would love to as well. In the meantime, however, I try to be mindful. I have our carpet cleaned at least once a year by a green carpet cleaning company who basically uses carbonated water. I open our windows every chance I get to let those nasty VOC buggers out. I’ve started asking people to remove their shoes at the door. And when I have a small mess that needs cleaning, I usually just use baking soda and water.

Dude. Have you seen my carpet? Have you met my kid? I don’t think baking soda is going to do it.

My kid recently threw up in his bedroom carpet. I cleaned it thoroughly with water and Borax (make sure you blot and not scrub otherwise you’ll make the stain bigger and damage the carpet fibers), then sprinkled (okay I completely covered and saturated) the spot with baking soda. The next day I vacuumed it up and the smell was completely gone. This isn’t one of those urban legend stories. It really happened. Trust. I also make sure I vacuum at least once a week if not twice.

Twice a week? Who are you?

I am not Superwoman, I assure you. But the more you vacuum the less stuff gets ground into the carpet to cause breathing problems, grow mold and such.

Oh my. My carpet is a petri dish.

Yes.

Anything else I can do?

Absolutely. One of my favorite quotes is from Sir Francis Bacon, “Knowledge is power.” Arm yourself with knowledge and education. Stay in the loop using helpful Web sites like HealthyChild.org, read the news every once and a while and always look for safe, green alternatives before you buy mainstream.

Wow. Thank you for all this advice. Now do you know anything about removing spaghetti stains from ceilings?

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Editor’s Note: This is part of our new Blog of the Week series where we ask our network of bloggers to write about a hot topic from our community and then we choose one awesome blog post to feature. Interested in participating? Sign-up to be a Healthy Child blogger.

Interested in learning more about carpet? Here’s what some of our other bloggers wrote:

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of

Healthy Child Healthy World.