prefinished-floors / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

The floors you choose really create the atmosphere in your home and give it its identity. The first considerations should be to choose a durable and non-toxic floor to ensure safe indoor air quality. When you are making choices, find out the estimated lifespan and what maintenance is required to keep it in good conditi...

How much insulation does a basement floor need? Insulating a basement is a great idea if it wasn't insulated when built, as before we began insulating foundation walls and below slabs (see slab on grade), it was generally estimated that basement heat loss accounted for about 1/3 of the total heat loss of a house. It is...

Polished concrete floors are extremely durable and non-toxic; silicate-based densifiers keep them that way and make it a great start to safe indoor-air quality in a home. This is an excellent flooring option for anyone with chemical sensitivities who wants a beautiful and durable eco-friendly floor in their passive sol...

Sanding and refinishing a hardwood floor, when is the best time to do it? It may seem weird to say, but the best time to refinish a hardwood floor is before it shows severe signs of wear and tear. Hardwood floors and hardwood laminated or engineered floors are durable and can withstand a lot of traffic, but over time, ...

Outdoor wood burning boilers: Is this the right home heating system? For homeowners seeking energy independence, outdoor wood burning boilers offer a smart solution for centralizing heating away from the living envelope. Also known as hydronic heaters or outdoor wood furnaces, these units are designed to burn stove woo...

The pros and  cons of cork flooring Cork is a renewable resource, harvested from trees without killing them. Although it comes from far away (mostly Portugal), its carbon footprint from transportation is quite reasonable given that it is light-weight and can be made very thin - so a lot packs into a shipping container....

Radiant heating systems are very common in concrete floors now because they provide a very balanced and comfortable distribution of heat. Those systems are most commonly hydronic, meaning heated liquid is pumped through tubing in the concrete which then radiates that heat into the house. View the slab on grade foam for...

Remember linoleum? Meet marmoleum! Remember linoleum, that durable but boring material found on most kitchen and bathroom floors of older homes? These days, its called marmoleum and it comes in bright colors and faux finishes. Whatever name you call it, it’s generally considered both the greenest and healthiest floor c...

Is polyurethane floor seal non-toxic? In North America, polyurethane varnish is used almost exclusively as a wood floor finish, but the majority of them are high in VOC's which are detrimental to interior air quality and health. For this reason non-toxic wood floor finishing oils are gaining in popularity. There are a ...

Home floor tiles: a homeowner's and pro's guide When it comes to choosing the right floor tiles for a home, the decision goes far beyond aesthetics. The ideal tile balances durability, maintenance, cost, and most importantly, environmental impact. As a builder when I chose tile surfaces for my own home, I used handmade...

Should I renovate, remodel or rebuild? This very question comes up a lot for me during site consultations with clients. Some people buy an old home, maybe inherit an old home, or are just tired of living in an old home and aren’t sure of the best course of action. We toil over the same decision with old cars; sometimes...