Off Gassing Laminated Flooring

[Robin Michetti]

I am 3 weeks away from the start of a huge addition to my house. The main floor will be hardwood and tiles. That is settled. The choices I had for the basement rooms are carpet...too much formaldehyde offgassing unless I choose wool carpeting which is too expensive. Or another choice is something rough like coir...not very comfy underfoot...or cork which although excellent for the environment is rather ugly...OR engineered flooring which costs a fortune. What I had hoped to use is laminated flooring but it is made with formaldehyde glues just like melamine and this has been proven to be unsafe. I want to follow the Ei, European standards but don't know if I can find a laminated floor that is made with some other glue (latex?) rather than formol/formaldehyde. Does anyone have any idea which company might make such a product? I have written to Kronatek and am waiting for an answer but I don't know that they are suppliers of such a product. THanks for any help.

[Chris Hill]

So, why are you worried? If it is smell- our install didn't smell a bit. If it is paranoya, I can't help you.

[Robin Michetti]

I won't need to be paranoid if I don't use off-gassing, carcinogenic materials in the construction of my house. Read up on formaldehyde and you may become paranoid about laminated floors and most IKEA furniture which gives off toxic emissions. Smell is the least of my worries. It is the offgassing of these materials including the adhesives and press that are used in their manufacture of them that are cause for concern. "Formaldehyde is classified as a human carcinogen and has been linked to nasal and lung cancer, and with possible links to brain cancer and leukemia. Short-term exposure to formaldehyde can be fatal. Long-term exposure to low levels of formaldehyde may cause respiratory difficulty, eczema, and sensitization." If I can avoid exposing my family to these serious health hazards, I want to do it...but it is not easy to find a solution.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Sure it is. We all make choices. Your choice is to avoid certain potential hazards so that means you don't use many man made products. Just use a different flooring material.

[Robin Michetti]

[e-mail] wrote:-

I think that all of us who are interested in renovating our homes should consider using materials that are the absolute safest possible. If we live in a northern climate we spent a lot of time indoors likely in an airtight house. This is not a matter of allergies or sensitivities. Formaldehyde which is in pressed wood, MDF, melamine and laminated floors is a carcinogen plain and simple. Childhood cancer is on the increase...why?.. because children are exposed to more and more environmental toxins..formaldehyde being one of the most toxic. We put our babies down on carpeting and flooring that offgasses without realizing the serious impact it can have on their health. So I think that information about the kinds of safe materials we want to build our houses with is very important and should be included in DYI sites such as yours.

[HeyBub]

He's not sensitive to the smell. He's a hypochondriac.

[Robin Michetti]

..hopefully a healthy and living hypochondriac at least with no mutant offspring!

[Cindy Hamilton]

First, let me say that I'm no more interested in breathing formaldehyde than anyone else.

Not everybody has children. I consider childhood cancer rates to be irrelevant in my flooring purchasing decisions. It's not always about babies.

Cindy Hamilton

[Morvin Stayner]

"Cindy Hamilton" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

And who gives a f*ck about the babies that may live in the house after you sell it! Right?

M

[Cindy Hamilton]

innews: [e-mail]:

Not me. I expect my estate will sell the house. Probably not to a family, as it's small and has only one bathroom. Despite the fact that the original owners raised a family there, people nowadays don't seem to think that one bathroom is sufficient.

However, I doubt I will replace the original red-oak hardwood floors in my 60-year-old house, and certainly not with laminate. Remember, I started off by saying I don't want to breath formaldehyde.

And, no, I don't particularly give a f*ck about other people's children. They're somebody else's problem.

Cindy Hamilton