Environmental Flooring

Environmental flooring overview

At PC Flooring, we are sensitive to the needs and demands of the environment. We endeavor to live in harmony with nature — now and in the future. If you have concerns about the world’s ecosystems, some of the more environmentally preferable products you may want to consider include cork, bamboo, Bentley Prince Street carpet and carpet tile, and reclaimed wood flooring. We invite you to view our selection of environmentally friendly flooring products in our showroom in Richmond (just outside of Vancouver), British Columbia, Canada.

Cork flooring

Benefits of cork flooring

Cork floors and cork floor tiles are soft and warm underfoot, and they have natural sound-deadening and insulation characteristics. Cork is antimicrobial, is resistant to mould and mildew, and is a naturally sustainable resource. With the help of today's manufacturing technology, cork flooring is now offered in many colourations in both planks and tile constructions. Cork floors can be glue-downed and/or floated over a wide variety of subfloors, including wood, concrete slabs, and some types of existing floors. Cork floors are also offered with a glueless interlocking system for faster, no-mess installations.

While some cork floors come unfinished, most come with a special vinyl finish layer to help protect the cork and make cleaning easier. The majority of cork planks and cork floor tiles have a specially designed, tongue-and-grooved, moisture-resistant inner core to secure the planks or tiles together. Cork floors are used both residentially as well as in many commercial applications where they have lasted under heavy traffic for many years.

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Cork floor maintenance

Cleaning cork floors requires no special equipment or harsh chemicals. The basic steps are as follows:

  • Wipe up spills immediately. Cork is a wood product and therefore will absorb moisture.
  • To reduce scratches, sweep or vacuum regularly to remove abrasive debris.
  • To clean a heavily soiled area, use only a cleaner formulated for pre-finished hardwood floors as recommended by the manufacturer.

It is important to remember that cork is a natural product and will fade in direct sunlight. Cork will generally yellow with age and cork floors will react to changes in relative humidity and heat. Wet mopping is never recommended as it may cause the seams to swell.

If your cork flooring should lose its luster due to high traffic, check with the flooring manufacturer for refinishing recommendations. With proper care and adherence to the flooring manufacturer’s instructions, you’ll have a beautiful and long-lasting floor.

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Bamboo flooring

Bamboo floors are becoming a popular alternative to the traditional hardwood-type floors. Bamboo flooring is manufactured from fast-growing giant bamboo (which is a grass, not wood) specifically for the construction industry.

Most bamboo floors come in both a natural and carbonized colouration. After cleaning and purifying the long grass bamboo strips, the natural colour is a light honey-blonde shade. To achieve a natural-looking darker colour bamboo, strips are subjected to high pressure and steam, which completely saturates the bamboo fibres and creates a soft medium-brown colour. This process is called "carbonized." Both types of bamboo floors wear extremely well. Your PC Flooring Professional can provide more information on the finishes that are available in this very eco-friendly flooring option.

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Benefits of bamboo flooring

Because bamboo grows so quickly, bamboo flooring is a "green," environmentally friendly product. Although bamboo is really a type of very long, hollow grass, once it goes through the manufacturing process, it is difficult to tell a bamboo floor from a hardwood floor. Floors made from bamboo are a great choice for many areas of the home where you might use hardwood. Bamboo floors are installed and maintained in the same manner as the better-grade hardwood floors and are available in both solid bamboo and engineered bamboo planks.

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Bamboo floor maintenance

Bamboo floor care is the same as for other types of hardwood floors. Regular sweeping and an occasional treatment with a damp mop is all that's required. Use area rugs with non-abrasive or felt backing in high-traffic areas. Move your area rugs occasionally to maintain a uniform appearance in the floor’s finish, which may be affected by abrasion, sunlight, or other factors. Installing felt pads on heavy furniture is also recommended. Check with your manufacturer’s specifications on maintaining particular humidity ranges. Many bamboo floors can be refinished to restore their original beauty in the event of fading over time.

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Bentley Prince Street Cool Carpet

We are proud to carry Bentley Prince Street carpet and carpet tile. As indicated on their website, Bentley Prince Street is rapidly becoming recognized for its industry-leading sustainability practices as well as for its design-leading products. They are committed to environmental excellence and to becoming a restorative company.

Among one of their innovations is Cool Carpet. Their Cool Carpet program was developed in response to concerns with the long-term effects of their product choices and investments. Issues of particular interest are greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their contribution to global climate change. The Cool Carpet option results in a "climate neutral" product, meaning that the GHGs emitted during the life cycle of the product are offset or balanced. The product life cycle includes raw material acquisition, manufacturing, transportation, use and maintenance, and end-of-life disposition. By purchasing Bentley Prince Street’s Cool Carpet, you can effectively offset or balance the environmental impact that the product's lifecycle has on the environment.

In addition to their Cool Carpet program, Bentley Prince Street has implemented a "re-entry program." ReEntry is Bentley Prince Street’s internal reclamation program. Through this program, they can take back any carpet at the end of its useful life. The reclaimed carpet is repurposed, recycled, or used for energy capture and conversion. They also reclaim competitors’ carpet!

Bentley Prince Street shares our commitment to environmental responsibility. We encourage you to come into our showroom and see some of the incredible colours and patterns available.

For more information on how Bentley Prince Street is striving to save our planet please visit their website.

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Reclaimed wood flooring

Reclaimed or recycled wood flooring comes from a few different sources.

The most common type of reclaimed wood flooring is from large beams and lumber culled from a building slated for demolition. This reclaimed lumber is re-milled into solid wood, flooring saving the wood from the garbage pile while providing a great-looking plank style wood floor.

The other common type of reclaimed wood floor is wood floors removed (or "reclaimed") from old buildings that are then de-nailed and used in a new flooring application. This method is more common in matching an existing wood floor for a repair or an adjoining room.

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Local flooring products

Long distance transportation of flooring products contributes to their environmental impact, so we at PC Flooring choose locally made products (close to the Vancouver, Canada area) when possible. It is also easier to source the origin of wood floors in Canada to determine if the lumber was harvested in a sustainable way.

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