Make Your Wintertime Warmer with the Right Flooring

By Romy LeClaire Loran

The eco-friendly flooring market has never had so many winter options. If you want a warm, livable floor, read on.

Sink Your Toes into Eco-Friendly Carpet
The carpets of yesterday were created from petroleum products. Manufacturers today can create carpet from old carpeting, empty soda containers, and even corn. Eco-friendly carpet comes in many styles and colors.

Combine Radiant Heat with Eco-Friendly Flooring
Radiant or infrared heat is the heat you can feel from a stovetop across the room. When hydronic tubing is laid in a pattern under a flooring surface like ceramic tile, the radiant heat warms the tile, and the tile gently and quickly heats the room. Today's tile can be made from recycled materials. Although tile's thermal capacity outranks some of your other eco-friendly options, radiant heat can even be used with carpet. Additional popular choices include:

• Linoleum Created over 150 years ago, linoleum flooring is back in style. Composed of linseed oil, pine rosin, and pigments, radiant flooring and linoleum's bright, colorful possibilities can add warmth to any room.
• Hardwood Sustainable and renewable, a hardwood floor can last over 100 years. Engineered wood, smaller boards, and darker species tend to work best with radiant heat. Check to see if your hardwood has been green-certified before you buy.
• Bamboo With its natural warm tones, bamboo is a quickly growing renewable resource. With its tough layers of bamboo strands, bamboo flooring can provide a hard, beautiful, and durable surface. Use a contractor who works with radiant heat.