HGTV 2010 Green Home: Shaw provides flooring for third year

HomeNewsHGTV 2010 Green Home: Shaw provides flooring for third year

PLYMOUTH, MASS.—Shaw Industries and HGTV is again showing the world how green can be fashionable. For the third consecutive year, the world’s largest carpet mill along with other building construction and home furnishings manufacturers partnered with the cable TV station for the 2010 Green Home constructed here. From soy-based insulation to solar panels on the crow’s nest tower to Shaw’s recyclable, sustainably sourced flooring, the home is a green model from floor to ceiling.

Located in the Pinehills development, the home is a modest 2,100-square-feet, all in the name of ecological friendliness. “We wanted to show green was livable,” said Jack Thomasson, HGTV house planner, adding companies that fit the green model in corporate practices and products were those with which HGTV partnered. “It is great Shaw exists in the flooring category because it is determined to produce the best green products.”

According to Reggie Newton, vice president of marketing for Shaw, involvement with the HGTV Green Home is an arm of Shaw’s integrated marketing strategy to reach consumers. “It is no coincidence that over the last three years our unaided consumer brand awareness has dramatically increased. In 2006, awareness was at 5% and in 2009 it rose to 9%,” he explained. “This lets us know the HGTV component of our marketing strategy is working.”

Overlapping with the HGTV promotion, Shaw’s Spring is Green campaign (FCNews, Feb. 22/March 1) has generated half a million visits to its website and produced 19,000 coupons for consumer discounts on flooring, said Todd Callaway, Shaw’s interactive marketing manager. “All of these efforts are driving $20 million in retail sales.”

The promotion proved beneficial to the local Shaw Design Center, Ideal Floor Covering, in Hyannis, Mass, which donated all the flooring to HGTV. “The challenge is to show consumers they can be green without sacrificing looks, and our job as professionals is to educate the end user in green alternatives,” said Mark Woods, owner of Ideal Floor Covering. “The Green Home concept has done great things for our client base.”

The manufacturer supplied all flooring and tile for the interior of the home from a broad spectrum of product collections. Most prominent was Epic engineered hardwood from the hickory species in Burnt Sugar. Rich graining and tonal contrast create depth in the new home while distressing and a hand-rubbed surface give a sense of history to the floor.

Epic hardwood was installed in every room of the home, save the bathrooms and laundry room. Constructed of up to 50% recycled content, the collection features the proprietary EnviroCore, an inner layer composed of wood materials that would normally be incinerated or deposited in a landfill. The engineered construction also allows installation above or below grade with no acclimation.

The Green Home flooring was installed with a fine nail through the tongue, though it can be glued or floated as well. “The process for a pre-finished product goes very quickly,” said Glenn MacKenzie of MacKenzie Brothers, the builders of the home. “We just need to put the puzzle together.”

Epic hardwood also features Shaw’s ScufResist Platinum finish, which mill executives claim will stand up to scuffing up to six times better than competitive finishes. A UV-cured polyurethane finish enhanced with aluminum oxide keeps the floors looking brand new. “There has been immense traffic since January through construction and this floor still looks brand new,” said Linda Woodrum, lead designer on the project and HGTV veteran.

The floors also contribute to indoor air quality as the only residential wood product with the McDonough Braungard Design Center’s (MBDC) Cradle to Cradle certification, according to Tracy Daves, Shaw’s Builder Design Center manager, East Coast. It is also certified to the GreenGuard Children & Schools standard, which ensures clean IAQ.

Anso nylon was used for many of the soft surfaces, which the mill claims is the only residential carpet fiber that is MBDC Cradle to Cradle and CRI Green Label Plus certified. Additionally, Shaw has the ability to recycle all its nylon at its Evergreen facility in Augusta, Ga.

The entryway to the patio and garage used an option more suited to New England’s winter foot traffic. Shaw’s 3 x 6 Lunar tile in a herringbone pattern will be more resistant to the months of snow, sand and salt that will be tracked into the home. Made of 40% post-consumer recycled content, it is made entirely in the U.S.

Tiles from Glass tile in 4 x 4; Colonnade Mosaic in 3 x 3, and the Glass Essential Blocks were also used on the floors and walls in the kitchen and baths. An area rug from the Angela Adams collection also warms up the crow’s nest.

To view all of Shaw’s products used in the HGTV 2010 Green Home, visit FCNews’ photo gallery at flickr.com/photos/floorcoveringnews.

-Emily Hooper

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