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Most every flooring company is making efforts provide products that are green as well as provide information to consumers about their green manufacturing processes. This is by no means a complete sampling of what’s available, but it may provide some inspiration for you to consider an eco-friendly floor when making your next flooring purchase.

Mirage Floors – Click here for more information on Mirage’s sustainable development commitment

DURO DESIGN CORK – Click here for more information on Duro Design’s green efforts

Armstong – To search for green flooring products, click here.

Shaw – Click here to browse Shaw’s Eco Friendly Floors and for a coupon to save $100 on eco friendly floors

Mohawk Flooring Click here for green flooring product options

Mannington – Click here for their environmental position

Eco Timber FSC Certified Brazilian Cherry

Forbo Residential – click here to view Forbo’s social and environmental responsibility statement

To locate a dealer in your area that can help you choose the right eco friendly floor for you, click here. To view other posts on green flooring, click here.

Wear-Dated® Introduces New Display to Abbey, Floors To Go and The Floor Club

Features 20 Royalty carpet styles

KENNESAW, Ga.—May 8, 2008—This spring, Wear-Dated® introduces to Abbey Carpet & Floor, Floors To Go and The Floor Club a new carpet display featuring Royalty Carpet Mill products. The display, a 20-pin rack of Wear-Dated carpet fiber products, will be called “Lifetime by Wear-Dated” in Abbey Carpet & Floor and The Floor Club showrooms and “Enduring by Wear-Dated” in Floors To Go showrooms. Featured just weeks ago at the Abbey Carpet & Floor convention in Anaheim, Calif., during which the organization celebrated its 50^th anniversary, the new display garnered rave reviews.

“We’ve gotten wonderful feedback on this new display,” says David Goldschmidt, director, Wear-Dated retail sales. “It tells a great story about Wear-Dated and the value that the brand offers consumers. It also showcases Wear-Dated products at a variety of price points and constructions. Regardless of what a consumer needs, she’ll be able to find something that fits her lifestyle.”

The new Royalty display contains an extensive range of products in heavy, medium and light constructions. For example, in the “Lifetime by Wear-Dated” Abbey display, textured carpets include Socialite and Socialite Berber, Grand Heights and Family Tree. Patterns include Cotillion and Four Corners, and Cut/Loops include Royal Promenade and Regalia. In the “Enduring by Wear-Dated” display for Floors To Go, textured carpets include Navonne and Navonne Berber, Penrose and Hiwassee. Patterns include Dialogue and Sojourn, and Cut/Loops include Naturally Chic and Terrace Way.

The display presents an exceptional value for retailers. Just $199 delivered, the cost of the rack is fully rebatable. The first four 50 yard orders for carpet from the display will generate a $50 credit on the retailer’s invoice.

For more information about the new Royalty display, contact your Wear-Dated representative or your Royalty representative.

Note to Editor:

• Wear-Dated is a registered trademark of Solutia Inc.

Corporate Profile

Solutia is a market-leading performance materials and specialty chemicals company. The company focuses on providing solutions for a better life through a range of products, including: Saflex® interlayer for laminated glass; CPFilms® aftermarket window films sold under the LLumar® brand and others; high-performance nylon polymers and fibers sold under brands such as Vydyne® and Wear-Dated®; and technical specialties including the Flexsys® family of chemicals for the rubber industry, Skydrol® aviation hydraulic fluid, and Therminol® heat transfer fluid. Solutia’s businesses are world leaders in each of their market segments. With its headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., USA, the company operates globally with approximately 6,000 employees in more than 60 locations. More information is available at www.Solutia.com.

Royalty Carpet Mills, Inc.

For more information about Royalty Carpet, visit http://www.royalty1.net/home/ .

Solutia Inc.

Kennesaw, Ga.

T/W

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Changing the color of your walls is the least expensive, yet most powerful way to change the look of a room. However, the process can be daunting! If you have ever transformed a white room by painting it a rich color, the end result is worth the often lengthy emotional process.

Here’s how it’s likely to go:

You are flipping through your favorite magazine or you attend a home sales party and see a beautiful room that remotely resembles something in your home. AND YOU WANT IT.

You decide to paint. So, off to the paint store you go……..Being the prepared consumer that you are, you go straight over to the 1000 sample chip chart and hold up your magazine to match the color. Funny though, nothing quite looks the same. Hint: The problem is, the glossy paper from the magazine is showing a photograph of a color which is ink on paper, much the same as the traditional paint chip you are looking at in the store on the massive display rack. If you are the person that comes in knowing for sure that you can remember in your mind exactly what color you saw and exactly what color you want, you find out quickly after looking at the big bad display rack that you have completely lost the mental image.

Never fear, you can do this! So, you grab a couple of samples and start narrowing them down. At this point, some people are so sure and so excited that they order a gallon and wait patiently, (tapping their foot the whole time) while the paint is being custom made. Others are still not sure, so they order a quart in case the color doesn’t work. (more…)

Question: (comment from earlier Bamboo post)

“This is about the third time I have been told bamboo flooring is NOT the best for flooring, and we were considering it for our downstairs. What is the BEST flooring for heavy traffic areas? My husband doesn’t wipe his feet, my mother drags her feet, and our carpeting of one year looks bad. I don’t want to put more tile downstairs…”

Answer:

I understand your dilemma! In my experience (10 years of floor covering sales) bamboo has been a great product IF a quality product was purchased. Also, the carbonized bamboo is softer than the non-carbonized. However, I understand your hesitation after hearing stories of it not being the best choice! The good news is, you have several great choices since it’s easier to get new floors than a new mom and husband! J

Cork :

• There are many many patterns other than the bulletin board look

• Very resilient

• Hides dirt very well (the more movement in a pattern, the more it will hide dirt, unless of course you choose a white floor)

• Very quiet

• Easy to clean

Laminate:

• Scratch resistant (not scratch proof) if mom drags her feet with dirt and grit on them

• Great for high traffic areas

• New technology (if you haven’t looked at it in a while) that looks just like hardwood and is not hollow sounding like it used to be

• Easy to clean when husband doesn’t wipe his feet

Hardwood:

• Choosing a wood with lots of grain will help hide dirt and minor scratches

• Prefinished hardwood will have an extremely durable coating

• Bamboo’s hardness is about the same as black walnut. There is a hardwood scale that measures hardness and a few woods that are harder than both bamboo and black walnut are: white oak, hard maple, hickory, Jarrah and Merbau. (this site is helpful – )www.hardwoodinstaller.com

• Hardwood, like bamboo will scratch and dent, but the harder the wood, the better your chances are of minimizing this.

This seems to be a popular topic – if you have experiences, please share them with us!

 Glass Tile – one of the hottest trends in tile for artistic and creative expression. It’s design capabilities are endless and can bring unique personalization to your tile project. If you are not familiar with the types, sizes and applications, read on.

Glass Tile can be sold by the piece, sheet or square foot. Be careful when pricing to know if the price is by the piece or by the square foot. Finishes are typically either gloss or matte and are sometimes etched. Because there are so many handmade products, there are endless options of sizes, shapes and designs.

Common sizes:

1×1 (typically sold on 12×12 sheets)
1×2
2×2 (typically sold on 12×12 sheets)
3×3
4×4
5×5
6×6
3×6 (popularly called “subway” tile)
4×8
12×12
Geometrics

Opacity

Glass tile comes in a variety of opacities. The transparent glass can range from clear like a window to green like a Coke bottle to vibrant colors like deep sea blue, emerald green or cherry red. The thicker the transparent tile, the more intense the color. Tiles can be full of color even adding a metallic or iridescent effect.

Texture

Flat – completely smooth
Rippled – textured variation
Low – small continuous dimples
Random – irregular ruts and peaks
Relief – molded into shapes

Custom sizes and patterns

Anything you can think of. A picture, a painting, a logo, a name, multiple colors, no limit on size – the only design limitations are the ones you set!

Flexibility

Another benefit of glass tile other than its design capabilities is its flexibility. Glass tile can be installed on curved walls, round columns, curved tub fronts, mirror frames, countertops, table tops and other furniture in various shapes and sizes. It is even being made into jewelry!

Glass tile can be installed:
Inside
Outside
Floors (not all glass tile can be installed on walking surfaces)
Walls
Pools (not all glass tile can be installed outside)
Curves
Showers
Backsplashes
Sink splashes
Tub fronts
Accents with natural stone or ceramic tile

Design ideas

Since glass tile can be expensive, it can be very effective in small quantities. Some ideas are:
Instead of the whole floor, use glass tile for borders, dots in intersections or create an area rug and use glass tile in the center. Powder room floors are typically small and it can be a huge impact to tile the whole floor. Instead of tiling all of the walls in a bathroom, tile just the area above the sink and behind the mirrors. Instead of tiling all of the walls in a shower, create a picture frame on the back wall and fill the center with glass or cut down sheets of mosaics to create stripes in between tiles. (horizontal or vertically)

For a more significant impact, glass tile is one of those products that can be used to cover floors, walls as well as objects all in the same room and still be stunning.

Whether you use a handful of glass tile or a room full of glass tile, their impact will be artful and expressive. Use these tiles to express your personal style in any space that calls to be covered. Have fun, use your imagination and enjoy the world of glass tile!