Aluminum Oxide Floor Finish Health

Safety concerns regarding aluminum oxide finishes are understandable.

Aluminum oxide floor finish health. In the past few years there has been a growing heightened awareness of the potential toxicity from nano sized heavy metals in products that touch the skin. I m a little alarmed to see most prefinished wood floor makers using aluminum oxide as an additive in the factory applied conversion finish. In fact aluminum oxide pre finished wood floors are the most preferred floors today. An aluminum oxide finish is applied to the floor to slow the process of uv color fading over time.

Aluminum oxide is a naturally occurring element typically found in a crystal form and used as an abrasive for sandpaper. If you are looking for a floor that is safe and has great durability aluminum oxide finish should be your top choice. It s also used as a fortifier for urethane imparting hardness and abrasion resistant qualities lacking in polyurethane. But think for a second what happens when these floors are sanded some time in the future.

This makes it very tolerable for skin contact even for people that are chemically sensitive. Are there health issues regarding aluminum oxide floor finishes. When ground into a white powder it s used as a filler ingredient for paints plastics sunscreen and cosmetics. Most new product smells will have dissipated long before the flooring has been delivered for installation usually during the shipping and.

Aluminum oxide finishes are designed to add a layer of scratch resistance. Aluminum oxide finished flooring it sounds scary and harmful but really it s both very safe and durable. This benefit provides a natural hard and durable material to supplement the heartiness of the wood floor you ve chosen. In regard to how sensitive people really are against aluminum it s difficult to say.

But the aluminum oxide layer seals the surface of the board and guards against oxidization as well. This will not be toxic in the manufacturing process or in daily use of your floor. The aluminum oxide finish is layered on each board and more times than not people look to those layers as a measure of board quality. First from a healthy house standpoint very little if anything is known about possible health effects from the aluminum content in aluminum oxide floor finishes.

Usually prefinished hardwood floors will have a uv cured aluminum oxide finish so there shouldn t be cause for concern. An aluminum oxide finish is most often uv cured.