Is Wood Flooring Really Safe For Children?

The flooring in your home needs to be pretty hard-working if it’s going to stand up to the pressures of family life. Children spend a lot of time on the floor, whether they’re learning to crawl or just playing with their toys. Your floors need to be easy to clean, durable and safe. Parents are often confused by wood floors. Are they safe for children or not?

Health Benefits

If you’re looking for a child-friendly floor, then you might prefer a natural material like wood. Materials like carpet and LVT are full of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which could be hazardous to your children and to the environment.

In fact, solid wood flooring can actually improve the air quality in your home. Wood floors don’t trap dust the way carpet can, and they also don’t trap debris and other allergens. This is great for asthmatic children or for any child playing on the floor.

Shock Absorbing

The concern most parents have about wood floors is whether the will be too hard and cause injuries to children who slip and fall. Accidents happen in all family homes, but wood is not actually as hard as you might think.

In fact, wood is a natural shock absorber and is much softer than falling onto tile or LVT, making wood floor a good alternative for flooring in your kitchen. When combined with high quality, thick underlay, wood flooring shouldn’t hurt your children any more than any other flooring type.

Easy To Clean

Children are messy. They spill things, they drop things and they knock things over. Carpet isn’t going to stand up well to spilt drinks, knocked over paints or dropped food. Over time, the carpet will absorb all these spillages and become much harder to clean. This can end up costing you a lot of time and money either trying to get them clean again or having to replace them.

Wood flooring is harder and has a flat surface, so most spills will sit above the surface and can be fixed with a quick wipe with a cloth. Even more stubborn spills will be easier to clean off your wood floors if you know how to clean them properly.

Easy To Fix

Spills might be easy to deal with, but what about other damage? Flooring can end up scratched and dented by active children or enthusiastic toy use. With some floors, this is a big problem. However, with a wood floor, you can sand out the damage and refinish it, which is much cheaper and easier than making major floor repairs.

Being able to easily sand out the damage is a big advantage if you have clumsy children prone to dropping!

Wood floors can be a great option in the family home, especially in high traffic areas like the kitchen. They’re durable, easy to clean and a lot less solid than you might think for falls. The improved air quality is an extra bonus of a floor that will work hard and look beautiful.

Disclosure: This is a featured post.