The Health Benefits of Choosing Hardwood
The benefits of hardwood floors are pretty remarkable. What other flooring option never goes out of style, lasts for generations, goes with all décor, and is easy to maintain? What most people do not realize is that hardwood floors actually have significant health benefits, too. Wood floors improve the indoor quality of air in your home significantly compared to other flooring options, is easier to clean, uses fewer chemicals to produce, and also improve mental health.
Improve Indoor Air Quality
According to a study conducted by Harris Interactive, a majority of people believe that wood floors are most effective in improving indoor air quality. The EPA reports that hardwood floors are hypoallergenic because wood floors do not harbor microorganisms or pesticides tracked in from outdoors like other flooring options do, like carpet.
Hardwood floors also improve the quality because they are a carbon-neutral product. Most people know that as a tree grows, it takes in carbon dioxide from the environment around it and produces oxygen. What most do not know is that wood holds that carbon during its service life, even after the trees are cut down and manufactured into the wood floors that are installed in your home.
Easier to Clean
A study done by Harris Interactive reported that most U.S. homeowners believe their family’s health is directly impacted by the cleanliness of their floors. Hardwood floors are relatively easy to maintain because wood floors do not trap dust, dander, or other pollutants, which makes routine cleaning more effective at reducing contaminants in your space. After a simple sweep or vacuuming to collect the loose debris, then tacking the floors with a cleaner that is approved for your floors finish, your floors are as clean as they were the day they were installed.
Bring Nature Indoors
Adding hardwood floors to your home introduces a Biophilic Design to your space. Biophilic means love of nature that focuses on human’s innate attraction to nature and natural processes. This term was popularized by American Biologist Edward O Wilson in the 1980s.
Introducing Biophilic Design into your home gives positive benefits such as reducing stress levels, improvement in cognitive function and creativity, and improvement of your overall well-being, along with expedited healing. As the world population continues to urbanize, the qualities wood brings to your space are even more important.
Use Fewer Chemicals
Hardwood flooring is produced using fewer chemicals, per the wood flooring industry’s strict guidelines set by both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). Along with those regulations, formaldehyde emission limits are set in all aspects of the flooring projects. Compliance with this law is mandatory nationwide, ensuring that your hardwood floors are meeting health and safety standards.