[GBlist] flooring for the chemically sensitive

[Emma Morgan <emmaloo@earthlink.net>]

Hi Everyone:

I have a flooring puzzle.  After much waiting (and pressure), my
mega-corporate landlord is preparing a one-bedroom apartment for me in
which I might actually be able to get well.  I had even convinced them
that the cheapest, surest, safest, most durable option was ceramic tile
or slate.  However, upon inspection by a local flooring company, the
concrete subfloor is in such cruddy shape that it will not support
ceramic or slate.

So, what they now hope to use in this second-floor apt. is a
"Pergo-type" flooring called Wilsonart, which supposedly does not
contain formaldehyde in its pressboard core.  I've been aquainted with
sample boards, and they don't seem to off-gas anything toxic.  My
concern is the glue.  It's supposed to be odor free, once dry, but I've
sniffed it, and I don't find it to be so. Granted, my samples include a
dried blob and two sample boards glued together, as they would be in the
finished product, whereas the finished floor would not have exposed
edges through which dried glue can off-gas. Also, in order to smell
and/or be effected by this glue (the one that comes with the Wilsonart
floor and must be used, so as not to void the warranty), I have to stick
my nose directly to the place where the boards adjoin, which would not
be a normal activity.  Then again, I'd have an entire floor stuck
together with the stuff, rather than a couple of two-foot boards.

Questions:  Anyone have experience using this particular floor and
glue?  Anyone used one of these laminate floorings using plain ol'
Elmers wood glue???  And, last, but  definitely not least, what are my
other alternatives?  I'm somewhat limited by price.  I've seen
pre-manufactured hardwood flooring offered at cut-rate prices--cheaper
than laminate--at a place called Beaver Floor.  But I can't do nail-down
type flooring, because of the cement subfloor.  I'd rather stay away
from wall-to-wall carpet, but I'd be okay with it if it didn't stink.

All ideas welcome and appreciated!
Thanks:
Emma Morgan


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