At Real Wood Floors, we are dedicated to the mission to find every child a home. We believe strongly in the stewardship of young people. In that same spirit of compassion, we believe all of us can be stewards of our planet. As we help homeowners and builders create beautiful, warm, and inviting spaces with wood, we realize that we have a responsibility as manufacturers to serve the planet in the best way we can. This is why conscientious harvesting practices are so important to us. We take heart knowing that when we source lumber materials for production, we are using a renewable, natural resource.
When you are ready for your next building project, we believe there are 3 solid reasons to choose our engineered flooring over other floor coverings.
Natural carbon storage.
Trees are nature’s carbon sponges. The National Alliance of Forest Owners reports that approximately one billion trees are planted per year in the US. (1) These trees give off oxygen and reduce the carbon dioxide in our environment. When it comes to building, using wood is advantageous compared to alternative floor coverings that are made of carbon-creating materials
After being harvested, wood continues to store carbon and is ideal for building houses for that reason. London architect, Andrew Waugh, is a firm believer in wood structures because they have a lighter carbon footprint than steel and concrete buildings. Waugh argues that given the heavy carbon dioxide emissions from the production of concrete, that wood is a much better choice. (2)
Sustainable harvesting practices.
At Real Wood Floors, we are committed to environmental stewardship. We work to achieve this by manufacturing intelligently designed hardwood flooring. We partner with like-minded lumber suppliers and make our products with a thick wear layer of hardwood to last for years.
By utilizing multiple widths, grades, and species, wood flooring specifications can keep resource stewardship in mind. According to the U.S. Forest Service, there were 119 percent more hardwood trees in America in 2007 than in 1953, with a growth-to-removal ratio of 2.00 (two new trees for every one removed). Hardwood flooring is the only truly sustainable flooring product.
As trees are harvested from well-managed forests, they are replaced with new saplings which will grow to replace each tree and in turn, be available for future generations. We know that a shortened harvest cycle impacts our environment as mature trees and older forests are more carbon-rich than their younger counterparts. So we utilize our engineered process, where we can produce 3-5 times more square feet of flooring per board foot of lumber.
Environmental efficiency.
A solid wood floor uses a single piece of wood for each piece of flooring. In contrast, an engineered hardwood is composed of multiple layers of wood and, in the best scenarios, from several different species.
Premium wood flooring comes primarily from maple, walnut, hickory, red oak and white oak that are harvested in North America and Europe. The growth cycle for one of these hardwood trees is 50 to 70 years until it’s large enough for efficient harvesting. However, fast-growth species like eucalyptus grow to usable dimensions in a fraction of time compared to the above-mentioned hardwoods.
Engineered flooring maximizes the slow-growth hardwood and uses it for only the top layer veneer and uses fast-growth hardwood species for the base material. This provides the same aesthetic and functionality of a traditional hardwood floor to the user while using less slow-growth materials in its construction. We believe engineered flooring is the most resource-efficient method for making beautiful and versatile floors.
Check out our engineered flooring options.
This month, we are featuring Garret from our Brick and Board Collection. This engineered floor features five-inch wide smooth, gently brushed boards that work with almost any design style.
If you’d like to know more about our engineered wood flooring options or would like to order samples of our Garret floor, please contact us today through our website or by phone, 877.215.1831.