8 Eco-Friendly Flooring Options To Transform Your Indoor Space

Eco-Friendly flooring uniquely transforms the interiors of your home.

You’ll see how eco-friendly flooring does wonders to your indoor space.

What is the first thing you see when you enter your home? It is most likely the flooring. 

The floor covers the entire carpet area of your home. 

Your floor is a crucial determinant of your home’s indoor aesthetics. The flooring material can even affect your health in both good and bad ways.

As such, flooring is that critical housing element that deserves your detailed attention.

Importance of Flooring:

When it comes to indoor housing space, we cannot overstate the importance of flooring. 

There are many reasons why flooring has come to occupy such an important place.

So let’s see them in detail.

Flooring impacts the overall design of your home

When you walk into a home, its flooring creates a subconscious sense of indoor space. 

Done right, and it can significantly enhance the indoor beauty of your home.

Different flooring materials can make your home look large or small, warm or cool, cozy, welcoming, and luxurious. 

Given that most of your indoor space is covered by the floor, it becomes key in aesthetics.

Your home experience is influenced by flooring

The flooring determines whether you have a good or a bad day at home.

How?

Your floor can affect your mood in a significant way. 

For instance, waking up on a winter morning and walking on a soft and warm carpet floor can positively impact your mood. Such flooring would have insulation properties, meaning you’ll need less heating and thus save energy. 

Flooring also affects acoustics in different rooms of your home like the family room or home workstation, letting you enjoy family time and work more efficiently. 

As you can see, your experience at home is directly related to your floor.

Your floor affects your health

Flooring has a direct impact on your and your family’s health. 

Suppose you or any of your family members are allergic to things like particulate matter, dust, and dander. In that case, you should look for a flooring material resistant to these elements.

Flooring will determine your maintenance expenses

The amount you spend on maintenance can become a huge financial burden. 

That is especially true for floors that need regular maintenance, the reason why you should look for flooring materials that are long-lasting and easy to maintain.

Can increase the value of your home

Aesthetically pleasing floors can make your home look more inviting and comfortable. 

These can help make your home more lucrative to buyers and increase its value.

Sounds interesting, right?

Eco-Friendly Flooring 

Our conventional flooring options are unsustainable. Their manufacturing comes at a huge environmental cost.

More so, many toxic chemicals are used in their production, which stands to harm your and your family’s health.

Take the traditional timber flooring, for instance. Entire forests have been chopped down over the decades to make timber floors. 

Today most homeowners are environmentally conscious, and their houses reflect this sentiment. 

But, are such eco-friendly alternatives available that match the design and durability of traditional floors?

Yes, you do get such sustainable flooring materials. 

Manufacturers are coming up with innovative solutions to cater to an increasingly environmentally savvy consumer base; the reason why we now have a great diversity in eco-friendly flooring options. 

8 Best Eco-Friendly Flooring Options:

You see, eco-friendly flooring isn’t supposed to be dull and damp. Instead, it can uniquely beautify your indoor space, enhancing the aesthetics of your home manifold.

Here are eight environmentally friendly ways to make your floor elegant and enhance your experience.

Let’s get started.

1. Cork flooring

Amongst the many sustainable flooring options, cork flooring is relatively new.

You might have seen cork on wine bottles. They are even used on walls for insulation and noise-proofing purposes. 

But did you know cork can be an excellent eco-friendly flooring material too?

Cork flooring is made by harvesting cork from the bark of cork oak trees. These trees are commonly found in the forests of the Mediterranean.

You might ask what exactly makes cork flooring sustainable. 

Unlike traditional timber floors, trees aren’t chopped down to harvest the bark of cork. Instead, the trees would grow back entirely in three years. 

That is what makes cork a sustainable and renewable source of flooring. 

Interesting, isn’t it?

There are many natural advantages of cork flooring. 

For instance, cork has antimicrobial properties that significantly reduce allergens in your home. Also, cork is naturally fire retardant, meaning your cork floor would be fire-resistant. 

You can easily maintain a cork floor as it acts as a natural insect repellent. 

Like timber flooring, you can get cork finished with multiple colors and stains. You can choose ones that suit your taste and beautify your home.

Floors of cork are also durable, and you can have them in any part of the house. 

With a good quality cork floor, you won’t have to look back on flooring for the next 30 years. 

Wait, there’s more to the story.

Cork flooring can be made even from recycled cork waste, meaning your floor will have absolutely zero environmental cost.

If you are looking for a similar flooring solution, you should consider floating cork floor.

2. Linoleum as an eco-friendly flooring option

When you think of linoleum flooring, vinyl floor materials might come to your mind. 

However, the two are entirely different. 

Vinyl flooring consists of synthetic materials made of chlorinated petrochemicals that are harmful to the environment and hazardous to your health.

On the other hand, linoleum is made from a concoction of tree resins, linseed oil, ground limestone, wood flour, cork dust, and pigments. These ingredients make linoleum a fully sustainable flooring solution.

Just as cork flooring, linoleum floors are also fire retardant and water-resistant. 

Vinyl materials can be rather prone to fire hazards as they are made using petroleum products.

You might think of linoleum flooring as new in the market. But you will be surprised to know that they have been in use since 1860.

Linoleum lost its popularity in the 1940s when vinyl was introduced as a cheap alternative.

However, as demand for ecologically sound flooring options has increased, linoleum flooring has made a remarkable return. 

You now get linoleum in a vast array of colors and a much longer lifespan. You can choose linoleum worry-free as it will last up to 40 years.

Now you’d indeed consider linoleum over vinyl flooring.

3. Bamboo flooring

Bamboo is fast becoming popular as an eco-friendly flooring alternative. 

You’ll be amazed to hear that bamboo is natural grass with all the hardwood features. 

Meaning your bamboo flooring will have all the characteristics of a timber floor, even replicating its texture and appearance.

Bamboo floors are highly durable, easy to install, and low-maintenance. 

A good quality bamboo floor can last much longer than many timber floors, giving it a clear edge over traditional wood floors. 

How is bamboo flooring eco-friendly?

Bamboo flooring is made from natural vegetation that grows fully in three to five years, much less than the average twenty years a regular tree takes to grow.

Bamboo is an incredibly lightweight material compared to timber. 

You get bamboo flooring in many colors, and design finishes, making it ideal for any setting or decor.

There you have it, customization options, unlike any conventional flooring. 

4. Rubber flooring 

Rubber floors made from recycled tires is an excellent eco-friendly flooring option.

Your rubber flooring will prevent tires from being dumped off and in turn help the ecology. 

You can find sustainable rubber flooring at your local gym or the neighborhood playground.

People are increasingly using them in their kitchens, sunrooms, and bathrooms. 

Recycled rubber floors are tough, strong, and last up to 20 years. 

They’re available in multiple designs and finishes and can even be custom-colored to your preference. Meaning you’re sure to enhance indoor aesthetics by choosing this sustainable flooring alternative.

5. Eco-friendly flooring with glass tiles

Do you know what happens to all our used glass bottles sent to recycling plants?

Those scrap glass bottles are turned into elegant glass tiles that amplify the beauty of your home apart from providing an impressive alternative to conventional flooring. 

Glass tile flooring is fast becoming popular among homeowners.

Glass tiles have similar benefits as other eco-friendly flooring options. 

They are non-absorptive and don’t lead to mold and mildew, even in moist environments. Ease in maintenance is another advantage that glass offers.

You get glass tiles with various colors, designs, and finishes. Whatever be your specific flooring requirement, glass tiles have you covered.

Want more?

Floors of glass tiles have light-reflective properties, meaning they reflect light and make your indoor space even brighter.

If a beautiful craft flooring is your choice, recycled glass tile is your one-stop solution.

6. Polyester Berber carpet – a distinctive eco-friendly flooring

Carpet flooring of Polyester Berber is another eco-friendly flooring option you can consider.

But how come polyester became eco-friendly?

Well, Polyester Berber is made from recycled plastic bottles. As such, your carpet flooring goes on to reduce the number of plastic bottles sitting in the dump yards that pollute the environment. 

That’s uniquely eco-friendly, isn’t it?

There are several other benefits of Polyester Berber carpets apart from their eco-friendly credentials. They are durable, spill-resistant, and can last for 15 years. 

You get carpets of polyester Berber in multiple patterns and colors, so the aesthetics of your home will get enhanced for sure.

Also, they are much cheaper than other flooring options. 

There you have it, eco-friendly flooring on a budget.

7. Reclaimed hardwood is an eco-friendly flooring alternative to timber

So, you can’t get over the elegance and aesthetics of classical American wood flooring. 

But wood isn’t an eco-friendly flooring choice, right?

The environmental costs of wood flooring are indeed enormous. 

However, with reclaimed hardwood, you can do wood flooring guilt-free. 

Reclaimed hardwood can be made in two ways. The first method involves recycling discarded wooden materials, while the second one uses timber from trees felled in a natural process, thus providing a sustainable alternative to regular hardwood. 

You should, however, ensure that the hardwood you purchase does not come at the cost of ecology.

8. Concrete flooring

Flooring made of concrete has minimal impact on the environment. However, you can compare it with other flooring options that substantially increase your carbon footprint.

People already use concrete as a sub flooring in many residential spaces. 

With concrete you can be simply tint and polish your floor to your taste, and you won’t need to put any traditional flooring over it.

You can try multiple designs and finishes, from inlaying glass tiles to using colors to give a tile look to your floor.

You can even replicate the looks of a wood floor on your concrete flooring, making it effortlessly elegant.

The best part of concrete flooring is that they are incredibly durable and easy to maintain. 

You may never need to replace your floor ever.

Conclusion

You have seen why flooring is so important when it comes to the indoor looks of your house. 

The fact is your indoor space is predominantly flooring. As such, your floor sets the tone of your house. The reason why you should never overlook flooring. 

But the environmental costs of conventional flooring materials are enormous. 

Fortunately, 21st-century technologies combined with sustainable traditions create incredible eco-friendly flooring alternatives. 

The eco-friendly counterparts to conventional flooring materials fare better in innovation, style, durability, overall lifespan, and most importantly, sustainability. 

With a rising demand for eco-friendly flooring, we have a market with a diverse range of sustainable flooring materials.

Some manufacturers may even label their unsustainable flooring materials as eco-friendly. 

That will surely confuse you. The reason why we have compiled a list of the eight best truly eco-friendly flooring options for you. 

This should guide you to choose the right eco-friendly flooring for your home.