Hardwood Floors August/September 2018

Wood Flooring’s Sustainability Story (Continued)

Trimming, sawing, sanding, and moulding. During this process, veneer panels are cut into un nished wood ooring. Panels are trimmed to standard dimensions, sawn into individual boards, sanded, and then moulded into tongue and groove ooring. Inputs include fossil fuel for forkli s, and electricity to operate saws, sanders, conveyors, and grinders. Outputs include trimmaterials, shavings, and sawdust. ese outputs are burned as fuel or are manufactured into other items like wood pellets. Pre nishing. During this process, individual boards are primed, stained, lled, cured, sealed, and top coated. Inputs include electricity to operate drying ovens, conveyors, and dust collectors. Outputs include air emissions, including hazardous air pollutants, also known as HAPs, and VOCs. In summary, the study revealed that factory nished engineered wood ooring also has two signi cant advantages over non-wood substitutes. One is that wood is a low-carbon product because of its minimal fossil fuel consumption, and two is that wood sequesters carbon during its service life as ooring. is is not the case for other ooring materials.

In addition to these two reports, Dovetail Partners Inc. published a Life Cycle Assessment of Flooring Materials in 2009 comparing a variety of di erent ooring options. e report cites a 1995 study conducted at the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden comparing linoleum, vinyl, and solid pine wood ooring. e research conducted analyzed production, transportation, installation, maintenance, and end-of-life disposal. e study conclusively showed solid wood ooring to have the lowest environmental impact of the three ooring types studied. e analysis also showed wood to be the environmentally preferable material even if the service lives of the three ooring types were the same. Two other studies included in the Dovetail report, conducted by Peterson and Solberg in 2003 and 2004, compared oak wood, linoleum, vinyl, and carpeting. Wood was determined to have the best results for low greenhouse gas emissions and the best results for low environmental impacts. Want to show your customers that wood oors are an environmentally friendly ooring option that is both renewable

Peeling and clipping. During this process, the logs are placed on a rotary lathe and sliced or peeled into veneer sheets. ey are then clipped to the needed size. Inputs include fossil fuel for sheet haulers, and electricity to operate lathes, conveyors, clippers, grinders, and waste equipment. Outputs include material lost when peeling and clipping the sheets to size. ese outputs are burned as fuel or are sold for items such as feedstock for other wood products. Veneer drying. During this process, the veneer sheets are placed into large jet dryers or kilns to bring the sheets to the correct moisture content. Inputs include fossil fuel for forkli s, water or hot oil to produce steam for drying, and electricity to run fans. Outputs include air emissions, including VOCs. Layup. During this process, the sheets are stacked with each veneer grain perpendicular to the one above and/ or below it. e veneers are then glued together to form panels. Inputs include fossil fuel for the forkli s, and electricity to apply the resin and run the presses. Outputs include air emissions from pressing and heating processes, curing of the resins, and the boilers.

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