Bamboo Composite Decking Material

Getting new bamboo flooring installed in your home is fun and exciting. You will be able to redecorate and give your home a face lift. Floors are important, and it is important that you get quality flooring installed in your home so that they will last a long time. Having to replace your flooring often will end up costing you a lot of money in the end. If you have a family that is a little rough on flooring you might want to protect your floors in high traffic areas so that you are just replacing a rug year after year and not your entire floor. You will want to be sure that you have a rug covering your bamboo flooring at all doorways that lead to the inside of your home. You just never know when someone will come stomping through the door with something stuck to the bottom of their shoes and mess up your new floors. This way when someone comes inside from the outside, they will have to step onto the rug that is placed at the doorway, and your flooring will not be ruined. Replacing a rug once a year is not near as expensive as the floor. Another place that you will want to be sure and protect your bamboo flooring in your home is any hallways that you have. You can buy a long hallway rug that is often referred to as a runner, to be sure that the flooring is not messed up from so much walking in the hall. Because everyone uses the hall and walks down the hallway to get to their bedrooms, the floor in the hall is considered a high traffic area. Protecting your hallway flooring from mishaps is a great idea. While you are making sure that your bamboo flooring is protected in your home, you will want to think about two other areas that may need protecting as well. The kitchen, and the dining room, or rather, the area under your dining table. Because messes happen in the kitchen, you may want to consider placing a rug at the stove and at the kitchen sink. These are areas in the kitchen that are used frequently, and if you have bamboo flooring there, you will want to protect it as well. Placing a rug under the dining table and chairs is great to make sure that the dining chairs will not scratch your flooring when they are being pulled out and pushed into the table. Visit http://www.qualified-publishing.co.uk/bamboo-floor for more information and advice.

question:

Eco-friendly home project..?
I'm doing a project at school with 2 other people and we have to make a model of an eco-friendly home. What are the best eco-friendly products? And what is the best eco-friendly insulation, caulk, window panes, doors, fire/safety alarms, and radon detectors? Thanks a bunch! (please include websites if possible!)









answer:

For the greatest Eco-friendliness, you want to select products that require the least energy and raw material to produce, systems that require the least energy to use and products and materials that preserve the air and water quality of the space.

Re-purposed materials are prime candidates for eco-building materials. For insulation, options include recycled cotton such as Ultra-touch http://www.ecohaus.com/C-121/ultra+touch. It is basically shredded blue jeans. Another option that is gaining in popularity is straw bale house construction. Straw bales are set onto wall foundations and are framed. Then the bales are covered with stucco or cement. The result is a structure made of renewable materials that has very good insulating properties. Here's an informational site about straw-bale construction: http://www.strawbale.com/

For framing and walling, alternatives such as Wheatsheet is an eco-friendly alternative to virgin wood products. Wheatsheet is made of recycled wheat chaff instead of tree wood. It also does not off-gas (produce fumes) like some glued and treated wood construction materials, helping maintain clean indoor air.
http://www.ecoproducts.com/top/price%20sheets/wheatsheet.pdf

For decking, recycled composite products such as ChoiceDek are eco-friendly because they use recycled plastics and wood fiber instead of virgin tree wood and they last longer than most wood products. http://www.choicedek.com/

For floor-covering, hard surface floors are usually preferred to carpet because they are easier to clean and do not trap allergens and contaminants. Bamboo flooring is an eco-friendly option because bamboo is a fast-growing and renewable wood source. Other options are cork flooring, recycled rubber flooring, natural linoleum and recycled glass tile. If you do decide on carpeting, use carpet made of recycled PET (pop bottles) or wool--they are renewable products and do not off-gas as much as new, conventional carpeting.

There are several alternative adhesives, paints and finishes, including solvent-free Titebond adhesives, Timbertek wood finishes, Osmo Color wood sealer.

Most of this information came from Eco-products. I have a binder of theirs. Although most of the material on their website is about plates and cups, you might be able to find construction-alternatives in their site or register in the "training" section. www.ecoproducts.com.

Also, try to make use of passive solar energy in your design. It is the simplest and least-resource intensive method of building. Strategies include using south-facing windows to heat rooms using the sun, brick or cement walls on the south side to absorb heat during the day and radiate it at night (called a Trombe wall) and properly-placed windows and skylights to provide natural lighting to every room of the house. Planting deciduous (leafy) trees around the house provides shade in the summer to keep the house cool but allows sunshine through in the winter when the leaves fall to help warm the house. The National Renewable Energy Lab has many strategies and suggestions for green building. Their visitors center employs many eco-friendly strategies: http://www.nrel.gov/visitors_center/eed_model.html

There is so much more to green building but hopefully that's a helpful introduction. Have fun with the project!

bamboo composite decking material