Getting the flooring right
Bamboo parquet and ceramic tiles are the two flooring materials that have been selected for the loft.
The screed used on the floor has both thermal and sound insulation properties.
Natural bamboo parquet has been used throughout the loft. Bamboo is not harmed by harvesting and can regrow into mature fiber in three and a half to seven years. By comparison, Oak takes approximately 120 years to grow to maturity. Compared to a fast-growing pine forest, about twice as much fiber can be taken from a bamboo forest per year. Bamboo flooring is easy to maintain, and harder than standard hardwood. This supplier of bamboo parquet does not use fomaldehyde based glues, so there is no impact for indoor air quality.
The floor tiles in the kitchen and bathrooms all carry the ECOLABEL.
According to the European Commission, the advantages of the Ecolabel are:
- Harm to natural habitats is minimised during raw material extraction.
- During manufacturing, pollution of the environment is minimised or stopped.
- Producers of natural stone tiles must limit their chemical pollution.
- Producers are required to separate their waste for easier recycling and for safer disposal of hazardous
- materials.
- Hard floor coverings with the Eco-label are made from recyclable materials wherever possible.
- Eco-labelled ceramic and clay tiles are fired at lower temperatures to save energy.
- Eco-labelled floor coverings contain no substances or preparations with a risk of causing cancer, inheritable
- genetic damage, or impaired fertility.
- The glazes of tiles cannot exceed threshold contents of heavy metals such as lead or cadmium.
- Producers are forbidden to use health-threatening asbestos in the production of floor coverings.
- Eco-labelled products will not cause harm to unborn children.
