Let’s face it… the dirt starts right at your front door. Leaves, rain, snow, salt, asphalt crack filler. It’s easy to think you’ll keep it outside where it belongs, but it’s harder to actually put that into practice, unless maybe you have an air-lock vestibule as an entrance. So how do you protect your floors from the year-round elements? Here are some tips.

Back in the day, most carpet came on a 12 foot roll. We fought with elevators or hauled it up flights of stairs. If you were in an occupied space, everything had to come out. Your files, your desk, your Hello Kitty collection. And the problems didn’t end there. Bad stains became part of the landscape you looked at every day while you waited for the rest of the carpet to wear out. The seams raveled. Yarn snags became ten foot long “zippers” when the sweeper got a good hold of them.

Some may think sustainable flooring can't be stylish, affordable, or functional, but that isn't the case today.