Kudos to the Ottawa Sun for running an article on environmentally-friendly flooring on Saturday (January 28). However, the article was hardly a local-to-Ottawa one. The bamboo flooring distributor they list, Silk Road Flooring, operates out of Toronto, and the eCommerce site provided for cork flooring, Fast Floors, is a US company. So let me fill in some of the Ottawa details that the Ottawa Sun left out.
My first stop for any green renovation project is The Healthiest Home and Building Supplies in Ottawa West. In terms of green flooring, they offer the following choices:
- ECO-logo certified bamboo. (Note, some other brands of bamboo flooring are finished with formaldehyde resins that give off a lot of VOCs.)
- Carpeting that has no heavy metals, PVC, or formaldehyde in it and that is made from partly recycled contents in low-impact manufacturing facilities.
- Cork with no formaldehyde, organic solvents, or VOCs
- ”Orchard-salvaged” wood flooring
- Marmoleum, an environmentally-friendly healthy alternative to linoleum
- Reclaimed wood flooring
The Healthiest Home and Building Supplies, 135 Holland Avenue (right behind The Table, vegetarian restaurant), Ottawa, ON, 613.715.9014, info@thehealthiesthome.com

