Is linoleum a good flooring choice for our baby’s nursery?

Marian Keeler is trained as an architect and is an associate at Simon & Associates, a green building consultancy in San Francisco. She focuses on LEED implementation, goal-setting and policy for nonprofits, schools, community centers, and multi-family and low-income housing projects. She is currently writing a textbook for architecture students on sustainable building design (Sustainable Building Design, forthcoming in 2008 from Wiley & Sons).

Question: I have been reading up on creating a green nursery, and many websites suggest using linoleum flooring. However, I have also read that even natural linoleum floors emit toxins. I'm confused—what kind of flooring is best?

– Lauren Raymond, Avon, CO

Answer: Natural linoleum is considered by many to be green because its ingredients are bio-based: linseed oil from the flax plant, rosin from the pine tree, cork flour, wood flour, limestone dust, pigments and jute. On the face of it, these naturally derived ingredients paint a perfect picture—but “natural” is not always synonymous with good health.

Linoleum carries an odor long after installation, blamed mainly on the linseed oil. Secondary emissions are also present due to the oxidation of certain chemicals, and only after the linoleum has aged do these emissions show up. Because these secondary emissions are a problem for young children, as well as chemically sensitive people, many practitioners choose not to specify linoleum in childcare spaces.

Linoleum has several other environmental drawbacks. Many manufacturing plants are overseas, and the wood and cork flours used may be from overseas sources that are not sustainably harvested (cork is a renewable material, but is increasingly overharvested). Also, after its useful life, which is estimated at 25 to 40 years, linoleum is typically landfilled or incinerated, both poor choices for disposal.

Unfortunately, there are not many alternatives appropriate for a nursery application. (Alternatives for less specialized spaces include concrete or low-emitting carpet.) A good choice would be a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood floor with natural-fiber area rugs that can be removed for cleaning. Another alternative would be a polyolefin resilient floor like LifeLine by Upofloor or Stratica by Amtico.

Linoleum is preferable to some of the other resilient flooring options, such as rubber flooring, which carries an odor long after installation, or flooring containing PVC. Natural linoleum has a lower lifecycle cost than vinyl flooring and is free of phthalates and other plasticizers, formaldehyde and chlorine. At least one linoleum manufacturer, Forbo, has addressed the secondary emissions issue by treating the surface of their product to minimize the release of aldehydes.

Should you elect to install linoleum, use low-VOC adhesives or choose click-together tiles that don't require adhesives. Do not seal or otherwise treat the linoleum surface. Use a low-maintenance process for cleaning and use green cleaning products. Avoid stripping and waxing, a process commonly used for vinyl floors that emits large amounts of VOCs.

To learn more about greening your nursery, consult a green design specialist in healthful homes such as Eva Craig at Imogen Home in San Francisco.

For more information:

Read more about green flooring options in GreenHomeGuide's Flooring Know-How section.

Learn how to prepare your home for a new baby in GreenHomeGuide's Nursery Know-How section.

GreenHomeGuide's Ask A Pro archive has answers to dozens of other green home questions from our network of the best and brightest green architects, designers, contractors and consultants across the U.S.