Hardwood Flooring Health Benefits

A healthy choice. 

You probably think a lot about whether the food you eat is safe. But how safe is the flooring surface in your home? When it comes to flooring, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finds that hardwood floors offer significant benefits, particularly in improving indoor air quality. Unlike other surfaces, hardwood floors don’t harbor microorganisms, allergens in flooring, or pesticides that can be tracked in from outdoors. Additionally, hardwood floors minimize the accumulation of dust, mold, and animal dander, making them a healthy option for your little one’s first steps and beyond.

Allergens can exist everywhere. Some are more common outdoors, like pollen and mold spores, while others are prevalent indoors, such as dust mites and animal dander. However, all allergen sources can be present anywhere at any time. The impact of air-borne allergy-related illnesses can be staggering—up to $17.5 billion in healthcare costs and more than 6 million work and school days lost each year—so it makes sense to prevent and minimize allergy triggers whenever possible.

While outdoor allergens can be hard to control, there are ways to reduce the impact of allergens that occur indoors. Frequent dusting, vacuuming, and washing will minimize many indoor allergens, but these activities can also stir them up. One effective way to prevent allergens altogether is to eliminate areas where they can gather.

Flooring is one area of the indoor environment where the number of indoor allergens can be managed. Certain types of flooring, such as carpet, are simply better gathering places for allergens. Small microorganisms, pollen, dust, dust mites, mold, animal dander, and other substances tend to accumulate in carpet fibers. In contrast, hardwood floors tend to minimize the accumulation of allergens because there are no fibers to trap these substances. By taking steps to reduce allergens in flooring, you can achieve improved indoor air quality.