For an eco-friendly floor - try a floating floor

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by: Ava Kelly
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Word Count: 556
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 Time: 5:42 PM
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As people aim to both cut costs and be more environmentally aware in their home, there is a growing feeling that more environmentally friendly flooring is a viable means by which not only to keep stay eco-friendly but it is also safer, cheaper and easier to assemble than many other types of flooring. Ideal for this is a floating floor which rather than using nails to be assembled, is comprised of pieces which are glued together.

Floating floors are ideal if your sub floors are uneven as they can be glued together. Installing a floating floor is becoming increasingly popular and is seen as an eco friendly contemporary floor installation. It is easier than traditional methods especially with hardwood floors that have to be professionally installed. The floor needs to be smooth so it is easy to apply. The advantages of the floating floor is that it can be installed over other flooring materials, it can also reduce the number of noises the floor makes which is due to the absence of floor nails. Laminate flooring, for example, is easily connected together and therefore very straightforward to assemble.

Hardwood flooring can be installed as a floating floor. It is a floating floor if the floor is not glued directly to the sub floor but more the case if the floorboards are individually glued. There are two types of floating hardwood floor. What is known as Anderson flooring is traditional, and has environmentally friendly material that makes it look worn, displaying a vintage feel to the floor. The other kind, known as Bruce flooring, comes ready assembled and can be installed by yourself. Floating hardwood flooring can be installed over traditional hardwood flooring.

There are four eco friendly types of flooring, which can be used as floating flooring. The first is engineered wood flooring. All the wood on this floor type comes from sustainable forests. Some do not use real wood but wood designs, while some are not cut down from real trees. Cork floating floors also has many eco properties. Cork is a renewable source and does not cause long lasting environmental damage as it is stripped from the tree without having to destroy the tree. This can also be self installed. Linoleum is also a renewable resource that is used for floating floors. It is great for anything heavy and for maintaining foot traffic. Bamboo flooring is a natural material, it is able to replenish itself and as well as being sustainable, it can expand.

It is also important on floating floors to have eco friendly floor cleaning products. A lot of people clean their floors using the wrong materials. There are several eco friendly cleaning products that can be used on floating floors such as Citrus oil which can be used to clean wooden floors; this can specifically be applied to cleaning hardwood flooring. Other cleaning products can include eco friendly stain removers, carpet fresheners and surface finish.

Therefore it is best when thinking about eco flooring to think of using a floating floor. This is not just because of the ease of installation, but also because there are environmentally friendly materials through which some floating floors are made, as well as renewable materials.

About the Author

UK Flooring distributor Floors Online supply a range of solid wood floors, laminate flooring and vinyl flooring products. Contacts For information, sales and advice on flooring solutions, contact Floors Online 0800 731 2374 / 01827 283 184 http://www.floorsonline.co.uk