Is it only the looks or what is inside that matters most?
Well, the answer is both.
A flooring material is bought for the obvious reason that a floor is required as a base. So surely it must be strong & long lasting. At the same time, it must look nice to take care of the beauty aspect. And last but not the least, it should be healthy as well.
Health & wood flooring? How do they relate?
Very much. This is where the insides of the material have a major impact. As a flooring material forms a substantial part of a room, it makes sense to know what goes it & if it has an impact on our body. Each material, when it comes in contact with the air in the room or when the occupants walk on it barefoot or interact with it in any way, has a reaction. The reaction may be barely noticeable or one may perceive it more acutely.
For example, a freshly painted room has a pungent smell sometimes. Some may find it offensive and others may not. This smell comes from the chemicals that go into the paint. So it would be good to know what exactly are we inhaling? Similar is the situation with other materials. A good quality wood floor, for it to be safe for the room occupants, must use high-quality raw materials which do not have any long-term negative effect on the human body. Span floors only those floors that have been certified E1 or E0 where E stands for ‘emission’. This European certification basically regulates the amount of formaldehyde that is emitted from a product. Formaldehyde is a chemical preservative which is commonly found in many products such as beauty & cosmetics, building & construction, fuels, glues etc and in nature. Excessive Formaldehyde is a potential carcinogen & hence it is extremely important that it is used within safe limits.
At Span floors, we publish the Formaldehyde rating of all our products so end users and specifiers can make informed choices. Since raw materials containing less or no harmful chemicals are generally more expensive, they tend to be a bit higher in pricing. So next time you are choosing your wood floor or for that matter any other building & construction material, it would make sense to ask about its impact on the indoor air quality & factor in this information while making your purchase decision.