How Flooring Impacts your Home’s Air Quality

When we consider the impact that flooring has on our home, air quality is usually the last thing that comes to mind. However, your floors can have a surprising impact on your home’s indoor air quality. Whether that’s for better or worse depends on a few important choices made along the way – and proper maintenance. Here are a few important considerations for your home’s air quality the next time you’re considering a flooring purchase.

Carpet and Home Air Quality

In recent years, home air purifiers have become popular among allergy sufferers. These purifiers typically have a high upfront cost, increase utility bills and have filters that need to be changed regularly.

Although carpet is often believed to degrade indoor air quality, newer carpet can have the opposite effect. This is especially true with Stainmaster Pet Protect carpet, which is designed to trap pet hair and dander (along with other particles) until it’s vacuumed. Just be sure to use a vacuum with a HEPA filter to prevent fine particles from reentering the air.

Waterproof Flooring and Mold Prevention

Waterproof flooring is easier to clean, but did you know that it can also help protect your home? Conventional flooring allows spills to seep through if they are not cleaned right away. Eventually, this can cause mold and mildew growth in the subfloor. This is often the source of odors that we often can't seem to identify.

Waterproof floors - including porcelain tile, cork, engineered hardwood, and carpet with the LifeGuard backing - prevents moisture from ever reaching the subfloor. This is true even if spills aren't cleaned right away. No mold spores, and no mildew damage.

FloorScore®: An Easy Way to Vet your Flooring

We’ve covered quite a bit of information here here – and it wouldn’t be convenient or realistic to try and research every consideration for every flooring selection. Fortunately, the third party FloorScore® ranking makes it easy.  Certified FloorScore® flooring has passed stringent testing for reduced emissions a variety of VOCs and ease of cleaning. It’s available for most types of hardsurface flooring.