week six- flooring

 From the reading and powerpoint something I took away was how soft surfaces and resilient flooring sections mostly taught me which questions to ask. Carpet is made of pile and backing, has excellent acoustical qualities, and can be wool or a synthetic like nylon or polyester, so the questions are whether there is a reclamation program to keep it out of landfills and whether it meets the Carpet and Rug Institute Green Label guidelines. Wood comes in strips, planks, or blocks, and the questions there are whether it comes from a sustainably managed source and whether the finish is low VOC. Vinyl is the one the slides flatly call not sustainable.

For my flooring store, I visited the Home Depot. On the surface this might not seem like the first choice to go for most people, but once I went, I was shocked to find a lot of different alternatives as well as a bigger than expected show room for their special-order carpet selection.  I started out with the hard surface flooring. They have a lot of luxury vinyl, and 3 main vendors. They call it the good, better and best, based on quality, thickness, mil and price. Their lowest mil on vinyl planks was 6mil, the next one that followed it has 12 mil and last residential vinyl plank flooring is 22mil. Their selection for commercial flooring was rather small, but they did have a few 30mil luxury vinyl planks that say are commercially rated. These vinyl planks are click and lock, easy to install and they are waterproof on the top layer. If there is concreate sub floor they mentioned potentially adding a moisture barrier underneath the flooring. This can be beneficial since if these floors get humid underneath, they could get damaged. It is interesting that even though vinyl flooring is not a sustainable product, it is what they had the most of. 

Next, I looked at some laminate plank flooring very similar to vinyl, but laminate had a more realistic wood feel. With vinyl, you can immediately feel the plastic. For laminate, they recommended not installing it on wet areas, such as bathrooms, kitchens, or laundry rooms. The reason for this is that if the floor gets wet and gets in between the cracks it can lead to the floor to bubble or lift on the edges of the plank. 

Home Depot had samples of hardwood and engineered wood flooring, but very few sold in store. Hardwood flooring is much thicker than either laminate or vinyl. The pattern on hardwood flooring is just so much better.

Now, transitioning to Carpet, they have a lot of different options. Their carpet materials varied from Nylon, polyester and triexta, and the ounce ranged from 35lb all the way to 90lb. They had patterned, looped, and plush. Something that stood out to me while in their carpet showroom was the padding options. While talking about sustainability, the Nike step ahead carpet padding came up. This padding is made with 90% recycled materials, mostly including end-of-life footwear. Really taking into consideration cradle to cradle instead of cradle to grave.