IVL Report

Floor owners and other stakeholders in the industry do not recognise floor refurbishment as a viable option. Good floors are thrown away and replaced with new (sometimes inferior) floors, resulting in a waste of materials and resources. In a modern world where resources and energy are increasingly scarce, and the impact on climate is increasing, this (including cost, energy use and climate impact) needs to be systematically assessed and considered.

Important factors

Save energy and emissions
Cost Control
Design possibilities

Purpose

Part 1 - Life Cycle Assessment

The first part of the report examines the environmental impacts of refinishing hardwood and resilient flooring by conducting a life cycle assessment. The LCA sets out the impacts of various processes at a product level. It identifies if there are differences in carbon footprint and energy consumption when comparing the production and installation of new flooring to the refinishing of existing flooring. This includes an assessment of all life cycle stages including: production, manufacture, use and maintenance of the material, and end of life.

Part 2 - Roadmap to Sustainable Flooring

The LCA sets out a roadmap for the industry to move from its current situation to an ideal situation where greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and resource use is improved by increasing the amount of floors being refurbished.
The roadmap outlines areas where further development is needed and proposes specific actions that stakeholders in the industry need to work together to continue moving towards a resource-efficient, circular future.

LCA studies and assesses the environmental impacts associated with a product or system throughout its entire life cycle. This includes assessing the energy and resource use and emissions such as CO 2 generated during all life cycle stages, including; production, manufacture, use and maintenance of materials and end of life.

Conclusion - Renovation can make a difference

The LCA clearly shows that the floor renovation process uses much less energy and has a much lower environmental impact than floor replacement, both in terms of CO2 emissions and energy use. Renovation can save up to 90% of the CO2 footprint and up to 95% of energy consumption compared to removing the old floor and installing a new one. The results prove that floor renovation can reduce the impact on climate change and minimize resource use compared to producing and installing new flooring.

Saving the climate and energy future

The study reported that when it comes to wooden floors, the carbon footprint is reduced by 78% when refinishing rather than replacing. Refinishing resilient floors can reduce the carbon footprint by up to 92% compared to replacing the floors. In addition, we found that by refinishing hardwood or resilient floors, at least 90% of resources can be saved, including transportation, electricity, consumables and materials.

By refinishing floors instead of installing new ones, energy savings can reach up to 95%. We take Bona's annual production of floor finishes as a basis and calculate the area of floor they cover. If new floors were installed on the same amount of floor surfaces, energy consumption would increase by 1.8 billion kWh! In comparison, these savings are equivalent to the annual energy use of 9,000 households or a small Swedish town!

Compared to installing new flooring, floor refurbishment can reduce the carbon footprint by up to 90%. If we take Bona’s annual production of floor finishes as a basis and calculate the area of floor they cover, the carbon footprint reduction for floor refurbishment is 108,000 tonnes of CO2. This is equivalent to the CO2 emissions from 9,600 flights worldwide.

Direct and indirect cost savings

The benefits of renovation are very different from all perspectives and factors. As the calculations show, in addition to supporting the planet by reducing the CO2 footprint and reducing energy use, renovating rather than replacing floors can also offer cost advantages.

Renovation also allows you to restore an existing floor to its original appearance or give it a completely new look in line with modern flooring trends.
In the end it even makes your floors more hygienic, as the monolithic surface ensures a floor that is easy to clean and maintain, preventing the build-up of microorganisms.

When comparing the cost of refinishing and newly installing flooring, it is important to consider all the measures involved. The square metre cost of new flooring is only part of the calculation for the installation. Therefore, to make a reasonable calculation comparison, you need to include the labour costs of removing the existing flooring, preparing the floor, removing and reinstalling the baseboards, etc.

Refinishing wooden floors is at least 40% cheaper than installing new floors to replace existing floors under normal installation procedures.

Additionally, by maintaining and caring for your wood floor, the time between when a complete renovation will be needed will be increased. This will save you time and enhance the durability of your flooring and reduce the time required for renovation.

When comparing operating costs to those required for renovation and installation, resilient flooring can also save money.

In the case of resilient flooring, total costs were reduced by at least 41%.

Additionally, approximately 60% of time was saved, which meant a significant increase in contractor profitability of 70%!