If you have a child or family member who has allergies to dust, pollen, and other common allergens, you are probably wondering how you can make your home more allergy-free. Some homeowners consider a whole-house air purifier, others choose certain kinds of bedding, and still other homeowners choose to battle allergies with sprays and spritzers.

But you may be overlooking one of the sneakiest causes of indoor allergies: your flooring!

That’s right. Many homeowners choose carpeting and fancy rugs to brighten up a room and create a warm environment underfoot, all the while sneezing and wheezing. All carpets and rugs are safe havens for allergens like pollen, pet dander, and dust. Even if you take your shoes off at the door to avoid letting plant pollen in, pet dander from beloved pets and every day dust can settle in the fibers of carpet and rugs; when stepped on, these allergens erupt from below right up to our noses. Those with allergies may also experience watery eyes and hives – in addition to sneezing and congestion.

Vinyl flooring can also be a culprit when it comes to irritating your body’s defensive systems. Vinyl can be created using dangerous and noxious chemicals, which can put out irritating fumes. These fumes can tickle the nose and set of a storm of sneezing. Dangerous chemicals in carpet and vinyl tiling can also exacerbate asthma symptoms. In addition to the creation process, certain adhesives that are used to glue carpet and vinyl flooring in place can cause irritation as well.

A few great alternatives to carpet, rugs, and vinyl flooring are stone tiles, bamboo flooring, and ceramic tile. All three of these flooring options can be seen in high-end homes all across the United States – and you certainly cannot beat the durability of stone or ceramic tile.

Both of these flooring options are strong and hold up in many different home environments. If you’re looking for an earthy alternative in areas that see a lot of foot traffic (the entryway, the kitchen, the bathroom, or in a finished basement are all great examples), ceramic or stone tile are wonderful and allergy-free choices.

For areas like a living room, bedroom, or other area where you prefer the look of wood, go with bamboo flooring. This option is sustainable, renewable, and durable. Not to mention allergy-free! The allure of bamboo flooring is sure to draw admirable looks through clear and non-watery eyes.

To speak with one of our design consultants, please call us at 1-800-764-1633.

If you choose hastily, your new floor may leave you with regrets on down the road. Flooring, if chosen incorrectly, will haunt you, your family, and your guest for years to come. Do you or your family members have allergies? Do you enjoy allowing noxious fumes to linger in your home like a business deal gone south?

Green floors are a flooring option that is both environmentally friendly and one that comes with few regrets. Let’s take a look at a few of the flooring options in order to evaluate which options are the greenest ones for your home.

Vinyl
While it is true that vinyl floors will not need harsh chemicals for cleaning this common flooring option, harsh chemicals are used in the construction and the installation. This can mean that you will be feeling (and perhaps even smelling) the effects for years to come as the chemicals break down over time.

Carpet
Another common option is carpet. Carpets and rugs, especially ones that come from Asia, can also contain chemicals that are emitted into the air. These chemicals can be especially irritating for those people who have allergies or who are sensitive to certain smells. Additionally, you will need to replace carpeting after the padding has worn down or when the fibers become too dirty to be cleaned. Shipping from overseas also gobbles up lots of fuel, which means carpet made overseas is less green than its domestic competitors.

Cork Flooring
This flooring option is at the top of the green flooring list. Cork flooring is created by harvesting the bark of the cork tree and processing into a flooring sheet or tiles. Don’t worry though, the bark of the cork tree will be replenished in another nine years, allowing for another harvesting. Cork trees themselves can live for around 200 years, giving farmers many years of cork bark. Cork floors are also made from used wine and champagne corks, which might otherwise be thrown into a landfill. This flooring option is completely renewable and a great choice for those who want to mind their eco-conscience.

Bamboo Flooring
Bamboo flooring is yet another brilliant green flooring that has been making a big splash on the luxury flooring scene. Bamboo is a type of tall grass that matures in only five years. The grass stands are woven together to create a strong and durable floor with a smooth, glossy finish.

To speak with one of our design consultants, please call us at 1-800-764-1633.

But there is a different kind of bamboo flooring that has been creeping onto the luxury flooring scene—carbonized bamboo flooring. While you may not know what it is, this treatment of bamboo flooring has slowly gained acceptance in the world of luxury flooring.

Carbonized bamboo flooring is created by taking strips of bamboo and boiling them. This heating process changes the processes of the natural sugars within the bamboo fibers. When this process is completed, you have a different type of bamboo product.

Carbonized bamboo flooring is mainly done in order to achieve a different type of color within the bamboo strip. Naturally, bamboo is a light tan – almost yellow – color. You can compare this coloring to the color of straw. This kind of flooring can lighten up a room, surely, but it is not for everyone or every flooring situation. Some people want a deep, rich hue to add elegance to a room.

Manufacturers will use the carbonizing process to broaden the amount of options available to homeowners and interior designers. After this process has been completed, you will find many different flooring options available – from dark tan to a rich, dark mahogany color.

However, there is a negative side effect. As bamboo is carbonized, it will lose some of its strength –up to one third of its strength, actually. However, the rest of the treatment of carbonized bamboo flooring works to re-strengthen it. Part of this re-strengthening treatment includes the application of an aluminum oxide finish. You will want to consider very carefully where you place carbonized bamboo flooring in your home, as it is probably more suited for an area that doesn’t get too much traffic, like a dining room or a study. If you are still concerned about the strength of bamboo, be sure to get bamboo plants that are strand-woven, which is the stronger bamboo option. This means that the actual fibers of bamboo are woven together, creating a stronger product than typical bamboo flooring planks.

Carbonized bamboo flooring is a beautiful way to personalize your home, and is a great choice for those choosy homeowners who want a greener flooring option.

To speak with one of our design consultants, please call us at 1-800-764-1633.

Other folks are making a concerted effort to recycle glass, paper, aluminum, and plastics at home. Many cities are even getting in on the act, offering free recycling programs to residents. You can also find many compost piles in homeowners’ yards. This compose is then put to good use in home gardens, with many consumers choosing fresh ingredients from right outside their doors – whether it’s in a home garden or bought from the local farmer’s market.

Perhaps you want to do more for the environment. Have you been fortunate in life and want to somehow give back? Ensure that you are making the most environmentally friendly choice when it comes to decorating your domicile? Then you will definitely want to investigate green flooring options.

Green floors are both environmentally friendly and exquisitely beautiful in their own right. For those consumers who are choosy about what goes into their homes, green flooring is an excellent option that will have all visitors marveling at the beauty underfoot.

Cork flooring and bamboo flooring are both environmentally-friendly products that can be used residentially; both choices are functional, durable, and utterly renewable. Cork can be used where ever you desire a soundproof floor, such as in a basement or on a stairwell.

Bamboo flooring can take on the look of hardwood, so you may want to consider using this elegant flooring option in rooms such as a sitting room, living room, or dining room. Bamboo plants can be harvested about every five years and need no replanting. Cork is harvested from the cork tree’s thick bark, and this does not hurt the tree; it simply re-grows its bark, which allows for re-harvesting in another ten years.

If you want to make a statement in your home while still being mindful of the environment, choose green flooring – a statement in itself.

To speak with one of our design consultants, please call us at 1-800-764-1633.

Bamboo Flooring by Duro Design

Today, the trend in home improvement is all about bamboo flooring. It is a sustainable, green product that has an exclusive allure to all those who tread upon it. Bamboo flooring is a durable alternative to traditional wood floors, and all your visitors who come for a friendly game of pool or one of your dinner parties will want to know more about your beautiful and attractive floor.

If you have already made the decision to have bamboo flooring installed in your home, you may have run across two different types of bamboo flooring grades– commercial grade and consumer grade. Perhaps you are now trying to decide which of these two grades of bamboo flooring you should have installed.

The answer is simple. Do you expect to use your floor? Walk upon it? Place furniture upon it?

Of course.

Then, the only real choice is commercial grade bamboo flooring. Commercial grade bamboo flooring is more durable and harder than typical consumer grade bamboo flooring. While bamboo flooring is hard anyway, you want to be sure that your flooring looks attractive for years to come. And a commercial grade bamboo is made in such a way as to stand up to years of traffic, and maintain its beauty throughout.

While the commercial grade bamboo flooring will cost more up front, this cost is recouped when you see how well the commercial grade bamboo flooring holds up over time. Rather than pay for brand new flooring and yet another installation usually found with lesser-quality materials, your commercial grade bamboo flooring will stand the test of time. You may also want to consider the amount of time that you won’t spend picking your way around your displaced furniture as it is moved a second (or even a third!) time.

What makes commercial grade bamboo flooring so special? Unlike consumer grade bamboo flooring, commercial grade bamboo flooring contains smaller pieces and strips alike that are woven together, molded, and glued together under intense pressure. This added step increases the strength of the flooring, and keeps your floors looking gorgeous for years.

To speak with one of our design consultants, please call us at 1-800-764-1633.

This is where the certification of wood flooring comes in.

This process of evaluating wood products and their origins can date back to the early nineties, when choosy homeowners wanted to be sure that they were choosing wood products created by ecologically reputable companies. It was difficult to discern a high-grade product from a wood product created by Bob’s Discount Lumber. Today, if you go to any reputable lumber yard, you will see planks of wood with the stamp “FSC Certified,” which tells you that this product meets the highest standards for eco-friendly wood.

FSC is an acronym for Forest Stewardship Council and is the most recognized of the three major certification program sponsors (the others being the Sustainable Forest Initiative [SFI], and the Canadian Standards Association).

The Forest Stewardship Council developed first out of the three sponsors, and has received the most support from worldwide recognized environmental organizations; these include The World Wildlife Fund and Sierra Club. The FSC upholds its reputation by contracting with third-party auditors to get independent examinations and evaluations. These third-party organizations include Smartwood and Scientific Certification Systems.

The Sustainable Forest Initiative was created in 1994 from the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA); this organization oversees the standards in the paper industry.

Finally, the Canadian Standards Association works in Canada and provides certification and stringent standards to follow for wood products from all over the world. The Canadian Standards Association is also responsible for the National Standard for Sustainable Forest Management of Canada.

If you are looking for ways to help the environment, seek out wood products that were created with the environment in mind — look for certified wood flooring products. When you purchase certified wood flooring products, you are not only getting a beautiful floor, but you are being eco-conscious as well. They may cost a little more, but you are helping to ensure that the expansive and marvelous forests will be around for years to come.

To speak with one of our design consultants, please call us at 1-800-764-1633.

IndusParquet has the flooring you want — beautiful hardwood floors that have a durable hardwood core.

Just some of the species of engineered hardwood that IndusParquet offers include: Amendoim, Brazilian Cherry, Santos Mahogany, Tauari, Tigerwood, Timboana, American Cherry, American Maple, Red Oak, and White Oak. Whatever kind of hardwood you’re looking for, chances are, IndusParquet has got it! Colors of IndusParquet’s flooring choices range from reddish brown (check out the Brazilian Cherry!) to beige-pink (look at that Amendola!).

IndusParquet knows flooring they’ve been in business since 1894. This company is the brainchild of two Italian immigrant families living in Brazil, and over 100 years later, IndusParquet is still going strong. Today, this thriving business distributes products to 23 different countries worldwide, and manages manufacturing and distribution sites over five different continents.

IndusParquet offers a seven-ply cross grain construction for extra durability, and is kiln dried and precision milled. For those do-it-yourselfers, IndusParquet flooring comes in tongue-and groove fit and is end-matched to make installation a snap; you can install this flooring above or below grade following glue down instructions over concrete or sub-flooring. This kind of exquisite flooring also comes with a 10 coat aluminum oxide finish and UV cured. This means it will withstand the test of time! You can find this in 5/16″ x 3″ and 5/16″ x 6 1/4.”

IndusParquet is environmentally conscious, too; they work to use all wood material that is harvested from sustainable sources. Unlike some companies, IndusParquet walks the walk they adhere to the Principles and Criteria of the Forest Stewardship Council.

In addition, Ibama (the Brazilian Institute for Environment and Renewable Resources) approves the usage of all their raw materials. Not only does this company look out for Mother Nature, but IndusParquet also helps out its local communities by offering education assistance to impoverished kids. IndusParquet also invests in our youth by offering work programs to our communities teenagers, teaching them valuable life lessons and the ability to learn trade skills. So when you invest in a product coming from IndusParquet, you are making an investment in your community.

To learn more about IndusParquet, please contact one of our design consultants at 1-800-764-1633.

If you envision a truly old-world, vintage look for your new room in your home or office, than Bois Chamois is a perfect match for your vision. This company specializes in providing top-quality French white oak hardwood flooring, and they do it in a rich, traditional style that will make your new floor a centerpiece of conversation, and will certainly be unlike the “standard” hardwood flooring seen in homes and offices around your community.

What makes Bois Chamois unique and so brilliant is the classic, traditional methods and treatments used on their hardwood flooring selections. The planks are distressed, which creates a well-used, rustic worn appearance that so many people are after today. Unlike manufactured boards, the scarring and surface marks you see are produced without repetition, and the boards’ edges are irregular as well, which accentuates the distressed look. Bois Chamois’ hardwood flooring takes your room back in time, but because of their technical expertise and precision milling, the flooring has perfect tongue and groove fit, making installation and maintenance easy.

Bois Chamois offers their hardwoods with a variety of parameters. All of their hardwood planking is kiln dried, and if color is ordered, then the boards are “fumed” with color, which allows the color to permeate the thickness of each board with their rich, natural, handcrafted colors. So the first detail to decide on is color. Bois Chamois provides a palette of colors to choose from, which includes dark, red tones with choices such as “New America Rosso,” midtone browns and tans with “Antique Metal Brass,” all the way to what they call “Stonewashed ” or “Shabby White.” You can even select natural oak with no color or finish. There’s certainly a color that will set the tone for your look.

Once you’ve decided on color, you can then decide on formatting of the hardwood flooring planks. Bois Chamois can provide custom widths up to seven inches. The boards can also be finished with oil or wax. A wax finish is easy to maintain. After the initial waxing and buffing, you just need to annually (more or less often depending on traffic) and buff to a shine. The oil finish is a bit more involved at installation, but is maintained by cleaning with a simple soap mixture. Both methods help to permeate and protect color if it has been applied as well as works as a barrier to moisture.

Bois Chamois is the standard in vintage, traditional hardwood flooring.

Stile’s products are in used decorative products, medallions, borders, floor and wall tiles, table tops, sinks and architectural elements such as fireplaces, statues and much more. Imagine a silky smooth white marble tile that is inlaid with pewter in swirling or geometric designs of varying widths and thicknesses. They even combine wood flooring with metal inlays, like something you would see in a palace hall.

Stile also merges hardwood flooring tiles with actual stone, the stone weaved into a floral or vining pattern or more modern, angular designs. They offer several of their products in round “tiles” in varying diameters a well as in square and border shapes that can be 36″ x 36″ for tiles or down to 3″ x 12″ narrow borders. There’s a border to match with every design and color scheme, floral patterns, designs that look like rectangular chain links, starbursts, and flourishes, just to name a few.

Stile has a huge array of styles and designs, but they can also create a custom design that fits your precise needs. Their mosaic creations are amazing, combining different shapes, materials, and colors in stunning designs that end in a unique and dazzling look that puts your home or office on an elite list of customers with Stile’s tremendous style.

So whether you need a kitchen backsplash, a new floor for a foyer, a marble bathroom floor or wall, or even a facing for a fireplace, Stile has the upper echelon of specialized tile that will set your room apart from any other. You can bring a little bit of the rustic Italian beauty right into your home or office or church, and you’ll certainly have a look to be admired.

To learn more about Stile Artistic Design, please contact one of our design consultants at 1-800-764-1633.

The artisans at Listone Giordano have successfully embraced the challenge of taking the benefits of traditional hardwood flooring and creating for us their unique engineered hardwood flooring. It takes the best of nature and technology and produces a product unmatched in looks and use.

Listone Giordano, a company located in Umbria, Italy, with offices all over the world, including Boston, not only provides a functional and beautiful product, but at the heart of their mission is the protection and sustainability of the natural resources they use.

With multiple thousands of acres in areas in Italy, France, and South America, Listone Giordano prides itself on its commitment to replenishing and managing their forests properly to make certain the forests that have painted the beautiful landscape in the respective countries for centuries continue to thrive and produce raw materials for responsible human consumption, the harmonious relationship we should have with our environment. In basic terms, when a tree is taken, one is planted. And the methods and timing of their forestry also protects the ecosystems involved, for a product you can be proud of and confident didn’t come at too high a cost.

For quality and versatility, you don’t need to look further than Listone Giordano. They offer their top of the line hardwood flooring in innumerable combinations of species, finishes, colors and textures, and widths. Most people prefer the durable, highly resistant varnish finish because wood, by nature, is a soft material, and Listone Giordano provides just that. But they are also sensitive to the desires of some to have a more traditional approach and offer some of their products with a simple oil treatment, which can bring out the wood’s amazing, natural beauty unlike any other treatment, but the trade-off is a floor you have to patiently protect day to day.

That’s what’s great about Listone Giordano…they give their customers the options they want. And with the strength of their design and cutting-edge sealants, you can even install a Listone Giordano hardwood floor in a bathroom. Bringing technology and beauty together in a tremendous product you can be proud of for years is what they do.