Hardwood is an enduring staple in our homes. Find out how you can opt for a more sustainable floor with reclaimed hardwood.
Sustainable floors for your home
Whether you are designing a new home or renovating an older one, sustainable flooring choices are an important option.
In our most recent blog post, we wrote about why we so often turn to concrete flooring on the ground floor of EkoBuilt homes. We mentioned that hardwood is the most frequently chosen material for upper floors or when homeowners choose to cover the concrete in another layer.
Wood is frequently seen as a natural accent in EkoBuilt homes, as shown in this photo of a finished interior of a home using our ever popular Hummingbird passive floor plan.
It’s easy to see why. Wood brings natural warmth and when used in flooring it’s fairly forgiving underfoot.
Healthy, natural material selection
With our first model passive home, back in 2016, we went with concrete on the main floor, and reclaimed wood flooring on the upper floor, which housed the secondary bedrooms, and an open gallery space that looked over the main floor.
The reclaimed hardwood came from a local firm, Logs End, which specializes in flooring made from wood recovered largely from the rivers and waterways in and around Ottawa, Canada, where EkoBuilt is based.
Logs End reclaims timber primarily from 19th-century Ottawa Valley logging operations, and also makes use of reclaimed wood from barns. The company is Canada’s primary supplier of historic, old-growth wood flooring.
The quality of our river-recovered wood – its strength, durability and consistency – surpasses anything available from today’s new growth forests. With an unsurpassed quality, your Logs End hardwood floor will look beautiful, and last a lifetime.
From Logs End
Pros and cons of hardwood flooring
Hardwood is so popular for all of the obvious reasons: it’s natural, it’s healthy, it’s easy to clean, and it looks great. There are many natural grains to choose from and stain choices will affect the final look you want to achieve.
Hardwood floors will add more to your home’s bottom line, and they are susceptible to moisture (in the case of leaks or flooding) and are more easily scratched and gouged. Dust and water marks will show up quickly on dark floors, dirt and stains more so on light floors.
If you have pets and newly installed hardwood flooring, you may be painfully aware of the scratches accumulating over time. Embracing a more lived in look with your hardwood floors can ease some of that pressure.
Large area rugs are a great accent feature in higher traffic areas and this can help with the longevity of wooden flooring.
See and feel a sustainable home in person
We’ll be opening the doors of our passive and net zero model home in Ottawa’s rural west end this coming weekend: September 9th, 2023 from 9 to 5pm
We offer dates a handful of times each year and can make private appointments with folks committed to working with us.
Reading about concrete floors is one thing; feeling and seeing them first hand is another. This is true for the passive home difference generally, one we encourage you to try in person if you can.
For everyone else, fear not! We also offer a virtual tour.
Ready to talk about your passive or net zero home? We’d love to hear from you.
