This is a
section I had not planned to write, but I believe my experiences
will help others.
When the house flooded, it was
the part I like best that was damaged. The house is a very
ordinary house, mostly lacking inspiration and imagination. I
thought this could be added at my leisure, like the once a year
when spring fever hits.
The oak floors happened to have
been superbly installed. Oak floors are normal in houses
in this part of the world and I hated to see so much beautiful
wood hauled off to a dump, but it had warped significantly. I
hated even more to have more trees sacrificed to replace the
floors. I am, after all, a passionate environmentalist.
I researched each measure taken,
probably spending more time than most people would on such decisions. I
ended up with bamboo floors and not just bamboo but bamboo flooring
that is made with environmentally sensitive people in mind. In
case the terminology is new to you, "environmentalist" and "environmentally
sensitive" do not mean the same thing. An environmentalist
is someone with a concern for the environment and planetary ecology. An
environmentally sensitive person often has chemical
sensitivities that limit his or her ability to adapt to normal
spaces. These people have to be careful of the building
materials, furniture, and cleaning agents in their personal living
spaces. I was not at the outset of my journey suffering
from such sensitivities. I had just finished a seven-week
trip in which I adjusted easily to various hotel rooms and restaurants,
but I am also a health care professional and recognized that
prolonged stress can affect anyone's elasticity and capacity
to adapt. This is basic knowledge in my world, and I perhaps
add a few unique twists to what is general knowledge by recognizing
the link between the sense of smell and the adrenal glands. The
more stress we are under, the more sensitive we are to odor. A
point can come for anyone in which there is no more resilience. Very
good adaptogenic herbs relieve some of these symptoms, but the
cure, as always, is to eliminate the causes, not treat symptoms.
Bamboo
I have birds and needed to replace
my floors with something that did not require sanding and varnishing. The
dust, noise, and vapors would have put the birds and me over
the edge. Bamboo is not a wood. It's a grass. It
grows very fast and when mature tends to fall and crush younger
growth so it has to be harvested to protect the new growth. It
comes in two colors, natural and amber, sometimes called "carmelized." I
chose natural because it is light, very clean looking, and it
reflects sunlight in a manner that is endlessly entertaining
to me.
I ended up with prefinished flooring. It
costs more at the supplier and less to install so it comes out
about the same as the one that requires finishing after installation. Prices
vary quite a bit, but it is comparable to oak.
If anyone wants to explore bamboo,
the two suggestions I would make are: (1) find out what is used
to laminate the bamboo, and (2) open all the boxes of flooring
outdoors and dispose of the plastic and cardboard. These
are sprayed with horrible chemicals before being shipped from
China so even if the flooring is "eco safe," the containers are
not.
For the
record: I used something called Timbergrass
from Bainbridge Island.
Paint
To lay the floors, the baseboards
had to be removed (actually, the kitchen cabinets, appliances,
and everything had to be removed.) When the baseboards
were put back, they were full of marks from pry bars and they
did not fit exactly where they were before. This meant
everything needed to be painted . . . and there would be more
vapors.
Once again, I researched my options
and found there are eco paints with very low VOCs. I picked
the color and left the contractor with detailed instructions
(which he didn't follow) about the paint and my birds. I
came back to a nightmare. He had bought the cheapest paint
he could find because he could not understand that the paint
would affect not just me (and I was gone for all of 2-3 days)
but my birds and me for years to come. I felt terribly
betrayed and violated. So, I had to do more research, this
time to see if painting on top of lousy paint would mask any
of the odor. I decided to give it a try. It helped
a lot.
If I had it to do over again, I
would not only have bought the paint myself instead of just picking
up a chip at the designated store, but I would add colloidal
silver to paint to see if the paint had higher fungicidal properties
than without the silver.
For
the record: I used Benjamin Moore's Eco Spec
paint.
Comments
When remediating or remodeling,
the goal for most people is to improve the property, not necessarily
to increase the monetary value but to enhance one's enjoyment
and appreciation of the home. What I have discovered is
that with each carefully considered measure, the house has become
less adversarial. It has been an irritating place, not
only because of the stress of the flood and insurance company
but because so many unconscious construction materials were used. If
you have a chance to go more green, you will notice the difference
immediately and be glad for the extra effort you spent on cleaning
up your living space.
Ingrid Naiman
27 November 2005
