Our Dream Green House: I'm Floored

So a girl walks into a tile store, and she asks, "Do you have any recycled tiles?" and the guy says, "Uh, no." "What about tiles that are made locally?" "No." "Any tiles made in America?" He shakes his head. "Too expensive. People don't want to pay for that."

Eventually I found what I wanted, but it felt like a journey through the Amazon jungle in search of a rare and reclusive monkey.

The reason for my search is that we are heating the ground floor of our new house with radiant heat, which works best with tile, marble or slate. But tile customers need to look beyond the cheapest deal and consider that some products have been shipped halfway around the world, produced by people working for a less-than-living wage.

Instead, here is what we are putting on our floors:

Local Slate: Even though we live in the Slate Belt of Pennsylvania, none of the tile stores I visited carry local slate. Finally, we went directly to the quarry and bought slate and bluestone (which comes in blue, green and lilac) for about $2.50 a square foot. We're putting the slate in the mudroom, foyer, library and powder room. The bluestone is going outdoors, on our porches.

Recycled Tile: In our bathrooms we are placing a white floor tile made by Terra Green, for about $12.50 a square foot. In the kitchen and family room, we're using a parsley-colored Kepcor tile for $12-$15 a square foot. It's not fancy, but it's fine with us. For our kitchen-counter backsplash we found a lovely recycled glass tile from Bedrock Industries, who were very helpful on the phone. Oceanside Glasstile also makes lovely tiles, a few of which have recycled content, for decorating our bathroom walls. For our kitchen counter we found a tile handmade in Seattle from a byproduct of the bottling and glass industries. And I just discovered some Moravian tile, handmade nearby, to decorate the powder room.

Cork: The yoga room will have a cork floor, even though cork is an insulator, so it won't conduct heat as well as tile. But the soft, squishy surface will protect my old bones when I fall out of a headstand. My husband is going to have cork in his office.

Reclaimed Wood: Most of the upstairs will be floored in reclaimed wood, including 2,500 feet of cypress recovered from a barn in nearby Gettysburg. I am going to finish the floors with wax rather than polyurethane, having tried both: Wax holds up way, way better and is easier to maintain. We decided against bamboo flooring, since it mostly comes from China and is, I think, a very hard and unforgiving surface.

Marmoleum: For the laundry and basement playroom, we chose Marmoleum, a natural linoleum made from linseed oil, woodflour, pine rosin, jute and limestone. It's a resilient, "giving" surface that's easy to maintain.

For the upper-floor porches we used Trex, a combination of reclaimed wood and plastic, in a nice dark brown that matches the real cedar we used for trim. Around the pool, we will be using concrete with exposed aggregate, which means studded with pebbles.

My advice to floor planners: Don't just buy what they say in stores. Find nearby resources by reading local publications and talking to old folks who remember when things were made in America.

Resources:

Terra Green recycled tile: www.terragreenceramics.com

Oceanside Glasstile: www.glasstile.com

Bedrock Industries tile: www.bedrockindustries.com

Cork flooring: www.corkfloor.com or www.expanko.com

Reclaimed wood: www.trestlewood.com or www.terramai.com; 800 220-9062. Check your yellow pages under "lumber." For OS Hardwax Oil (finish) and other treatments, see www.environmentalhomecenter.com and the Wood Finishes product report.

Marmoleum: www.forbo-linoleum.com

Trex decking and railings: www.trex.com