161–170 of 207 posts
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Because planting a tree in your yard has nothing to do with the deforestation of the Amazon and the impact it has on this very unique ecosystem?
They can plant trees too.
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I would argue there is zero point in using real hardwood on floors these days given vinyl planks are way cheaper, way more durable, and look nearly indistinguishable from real thing.
Hardwood floors can be re-sanded and refinished many times over, generating no waste. Vinyl floors get scratched and then thrown away. Wood is renewable, vinyl comes from oil wells. I'm not certain this is actually logical.
Vinyl is cheaper, stronger, less prone to scratches than wood, more water resistant, and requires minimum maintenance and upkeep cost. Vinyl is also recyclable...
Realistically no-one will tell you that the thing you want to buy is illegally harvested wood. Most sales people won't know, won't understand the question to begin with, and won't care enough to provide the information. And if they do know, incentives go against being honest and transparent. So I doubt this is very useful
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The problem is that in many cases tropical hardwoods are so slow growing and so intertwined with other species (both physically and metaphorically) that there isn't a way to harvest them sustainably. As a planet, we need to decide how much of these forests we are going to save, and then actually protect them. That may sound idealistic, but as someone who has spent a significant portion of my adult life working and st…
Certainly not in the volume for people to be using it for all their decks and flooring. Actual sustainable harvesting would probably price out everything but musical instruments and maybe some expensive outdoor furniture.
Take the area of land we're willing to give over to lumber farming, divide by how long it takes to grow a tree to harvest and that's how much lumber demand can be met. Adjust price to make demand meet that limit.
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Ceramic flooring is so much colder than a real wood floor to me. I have no numerical data to offer as evidence to how it feels to me. However, walking into a house that has solid tile flooring vs a house with real wood flooring has a night/day difference in feel. I'm not necessarily just talking about F°/C° "colder". It's just a lot less "feels like home" with tile flooring.
Yes you need to have floor heating. Here in the netherlands pretty standard in new houses. The tiles can look really like wood. Its expensive though and not easy to replace. No floor heating would be too cold indeed.
> [as a consumer, ask] Where exactly does the wood come from? Is there documentation of the origin of the wood and its path through the production chain? Realistically no-one will tell you that the thing you want to buy is illegally harvested wood. Most sales people won't know, won't understand the question to begin with, and won't care enough to provide the information. And if they do know, incentives go against bei…
It becomes useful if a big enough percentage of potential customers ask this question and if an insufficient answer is given decide to shop elsewhere (at a place that can provide a sufficient answer).
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Hardwood floors can be re-sanded and refinished many times over, generating no waste. Vinyl floors get scratched and then thrown away. Wood is renewable, vinyl comes from oil wells. I'm not certain this is actually logical.
> generating no waste Have you ever redone flooring? Because there's definitely waste when hardwood floors are refinished. Arguably equal to replacing a segment of PVC flooring. But... The amount reflooring we do, it's not even a concern. Even if PVC comes from oil - flooring has years of service and isn't burned for fuel. It's what we call "durable goods". Quality PVC flooring doesn't scratch easily and doesn't requ…
> [as a consumer, ask] Where exactly does the wood come from? Is there documentation of the origin of the wood and its path through the production chain? Realistically no-one will tell you that the thing you want to buy is illegally harvested wood. Most sales people won't know, won't understand the question to begin with, and won't care enough to provide the information. And if they do know, incentives go against bei…
They might tell you if it has been harvested legally though, as that is often a selling point. And if they don't know and can't find out then you could move on to a different supplier.
After the earthquake in 1906 san francisco basically burned down. And that led to all the redwoods on all the bay area mountains being clear cut for wood and lime.
In Henry Cowell state park (and others) you'll find some trees that survived.
One that was cut down is shown in a cross section with the rings marked.
Some rings are marked:
- 1 Birth of Jesus/Modern Calendar Begins
- 105 Chinese Invented Paper
The redwoods you see now are still giants, hundreds of feet tall. But notice they are clustered in groups around a stump or an empty area where an old-grown redwood used to stand.
it is sort of like walking in a graveyard.