How to go about toxic free wooden flooring?

[Chlorinated]

I just threw my carpet out due to dust allergy however upon placing a new one, i was reacting severly to the adhesive in the carpeting. I have decided to restore my floorboards or do laminating. I have a few questions:

1. some of the adhesive for the carpet was sprayed on the floorbaords, will this come off with sanding? can i take it of another way?

2. Is resin toxic i.e. might i react to it since it will be used to fill gaps in the floorbaords.

3. What is the best thing to use to fill gaps between the skirting board and the floorboard, i do not want to use wood as the spaces are uneven and it is more work, is silicon or wood filler safe and non toxic?

4. If I choose an underlay with laminate on top and I use no glue except some wood filler,grout, will this be safe and non toxic. Can the laminated wood boards emit toxic gas themsleves or is it only the adhesive i need to worry about? will the underlay penetrate the laminate and give off gas?

5. will laminate with underlay be more sound proof then floorbaord restoration?

6. I am assuming laminate is thin plastic type wood wheareas hardwood is the big strong wood planks. I am seeing thicker laminate looking wood in shops, is this laminate or hard wood?

Thanks

 

[AronSearle]

1. Sanding = Yes

2. Do not fill these gaps, especially if you are putting something over the floor, otherwise you may have movement/expansion issues.

3. Just to clarify, this is not the perimeter gap around the floor, but the gap under the skirting. Do not use wood filler, it will crack as the floor moves. Silicon isn't that flexible once set, there are many different types of silicon, check with manufactures about toxicity.

4. Use an underlay, and then a laminate with a click system, no glues needed. Again, there are 101 different types of underlays, check with manufacturers about toxicity.

5. sound proof? Is this ground floor or 1st, do you mean impact noise or resistance to the passage of sound?

 

[Chlorinated]

1st floor. I just want to know which of laminate and hardwood would bother me and the people underneath less.

Is resin toxic?

 

[AronSearle]

Acoustically there wont be much difference between laminate and hardwood floorboards, it's all the layers underneath that matter. How thick the underlay is, what type it is, depth of the joists and whether there is insulation between them, and what plasterboard is underneath and how that is fixed bla bla bla.

Is resin toxic?

Resin is a word that covers thousands of products, how long is a piece of string?

As said you should not fill those gaps, and you should not need to fill them if you are putting an underlay over the floor.

 

[Chlorinated]

I will not fill the gaps if i choose to laminate.

However I may also go for the hardwood option in which case I must fill the gaps otherwise it will affect my dust allergy.

If I choose hardwood, I am referring to the 'resin' that you use to mix with sawdust and fill gaps between floorboards. Are these usually toxic and do they off gas for certain amount of time? Also is varnish toxic and will this off gas.

These are the only things that are stopping me from starting my project. Having suffered from the carpet off gasing in a bad way i'm need to be careful what i put into my home.

thanks

 

[AronSearle]

The gaps are for expansion, with the existing softwood floor it is unlikely to be an issue, and companies often fill them to make them more decorative, but if the boards buckle due to lack of expansion allowance, you have been warned.

I don't really see why if you are putting a hardwood floor over the existing floor you need to fill those gaps, it all seems rather extreme, you have a sealed area underneath, and then it has to work it's way through the T&G of the hardwood.

You do not fill the gaps between hardwood floorboards, if they are hardwood you nail them down, and do not bond them together. OR you bond them together in the T&G and float them, not both.

There are again several dozen if not hundreds of floor varnishes and lacquers on the market, they may all contain different chemicals, you need to talk to finish manufacturers, most of them do low VOC or formaldehyde free ranges.

The same goes for resin, that's just a generic name for a product type, there will be loads of different brands and different chemicals in them.

Most products off-gas as they set, and for a short period after that, but they will tend to off-gas much less formaldehyde than a carpet, and the quantities in a filler will be much smaller.

Be aware as well that there are companies that sell formaldehyde free laminate or veneered flooring, I am assuming it was the formaldehyde in the carpet that was an issue.

 

[tall_tone]

The best known joint filler (and probably the best) is Lecol 7500, but it's based on Acetone so is harmful and flammable.
http://www.flooringsales.co.uk/acatalog/lecol_filler_mastic_7500.pdf
There are then waterbased fillers which are OK for smaller joints but not quite as good like Mix & Fill
http://www.bona.com/Global/PDFs/SafetyDatasheets_Coatings/Safety Data Sheet MixFill.pdf
But as AronSearle said these dry away very quickly.
Also as he said these are to fill imperfections in the edges of boards, not to fill any form of expansion gap.

TT