Indoor Air Quality: What the VOC Testing Shows
Flooring covers more surface area than any other material in a house. Whatever it emits, the occupants breathe for years.
That makes indoor air quality a specification question rather than a marketing one, and it is answerable with a test result. Ours has been assessed under CDPH/EHLB Standard Method V1.2, the flooring complies, and we publish the report in full.
What VOCs are, and why the standard exists
Volatile organic compounds are chemicals that vaporise at room temperature. They come from many indoor materials: furniture, paint, adhesives, sealants and floor finishes among them.
Many are harmless. Some have adverse health effects with prolonged exposure, and prolonged is the operative word in a building where people sleep. Poor indoor air quality is associated with respiratory issues and allergies, which is why standards like CDPH/EHLB V1.2 exist to evaluate building materials rather than leaving the question to claims.
The standard is used in green building assessment internationally, and it is the reference specifiers most often ask us for.
How the test was run
An engineered wood sample was assessed in a controlled environmental chamber designed to simulate real-world conditions, measuring the release of individual VOCs over a 96-hour period.
The chamber parameters were:
- Test specimen exposed area (Ac): 0.086 m²
- Chamber volume (Vc): 0.120 m³
- Loading ratio (L): 0.720 m²/m³
- Air change rate (n): 1.0 ± 0.1 h⁻¹
- Inlet flow rate (Q): 0.120 m³/h
- Area specific flow rate (qA): 1.388 m/h
- Temperature: 23 ± 0.5 °C
- Relative humidity: 50 ± 5 per cent
Those conditions are published because they are what makes a result checkable. A VOC claim without chamber parameters is not a claim anyone can verify.
The result
The report concludes that our engineered wood flooring complies with the requirements of CDPH/EHLB Standard Method V1.2 for VOC emissions.
Many of the individual compounds analysed, including carbon tetrachloride, isopropanol, chloroform and benzene, came in below the lower limit of quantitation of 2 µg/m³. In other words, the equipment could not detect them at a level worth reporting.
The full report is published as the VOC Test Results.
Why the construction supports the result
Low emissions are not achieved at the finish alone. The adhesives used through the board matter as much as the surface system. The lacquer system is cured under ultraviolet light rather than air-dried with solvents, which is part of why the numbers land where they do.
The coating has been tested in its own right. SGS assessed it in October 2022 to GB 18581-2020 and measured VOC content at 24 g/L against a 420 g/L limit, with benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, methanol, halogenated hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons all not detected. A second SGS report, from January 2024, tested the coating against EU RoHS and found no lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, PBBs, PBDEs or restricted phthalates. Both reports cover the coating as supplied rather than the finished floor. They belong to our coating supplier rather than to us, so we set out what they establish rather than publishing the documents themselves.
Kiln drying also makes the core an inhospitable place for mould and fungus, which is a different air quality issue and one that rarely gets mentioned. That process is covered in what is inside an engineered oak board.
Using this in a specification
For projects targeting a green building rating, or for clients with respiratory sensitivity, cite CDPH/EHLB Standard Method V1.2 compliance and attach the report. It is a recognised reference and it removes the conversation.
The certificate sits alongside the fire, slip, acoustic and stain testing in Resources, with the sourcing story under Sustainability.
