Finding a Laundry

One of the things about renovating a house is that you must find the products needed to renovate said house. In our case this is also caught up in avoiding anything toxic or particularly unsustainable as well as avoiding anything Little B could / is allergic too. Plus we cant forget mold either.

This house came without a laundry - something we obviously need. The basics were covered as we have used the same blue board, plasterboard and jointing adhesives that we used in our bathroom. We have also used the exact same tiles and tiling adhesives as well. So covered off there.

Then we came to wanting to furnish the laundry. And that opened a whole new kettle of fish. We tried going down the secondhand route but after 3 exposures to mold at three different houses, this wasnt an option for us. 

We had also hoped to use an old laundry sink we found in an outbuilding. But upon removal we found that the concrete was disintegrating beyond repair (for a laundry). I aim to use it for my vegie garden as a potting sink.

So, then my investigations began....

The things of most importance to me is that the cupboards had to be:

* E0 preferably or E1 mdf products (E meaning the formaldehyde emission level, with 0 being the best)

* they needed to be Australian made

* and they needed to be able to be installed by us (to prevent anybody else using products that didnt work for us)

At first this didnt seem promising. I even contemplated Ikea but after sorting through their sustainability claptrap, turns out their products are made in China and no-one can confirm what E level their mdf products are. The problem there as any one will tell you is formeldehyde outgassing. As 3 different manufacturers confirmed with me, imported product from China can be has high as E8 :-0

But as luck would have it my trusty ecospecifier saved the day again. After establishing that The Laminex Group use E1 products and in some case E0, I started looking for suppliers. I eventually found two different groups who could organise laundry cupboards for us, that are cut to our specifications and are E1 for all components. I'm told that over the next 12 months, their main suppliers will make the move to E0 products across the board.

The good news for us is that by the time we are ready to put in a new kitchen we will be able to use E0 product at an affordable price. The great news for us now is that our new laundry cupboards and benchtop arrive in 4 weeks after being made in Australia by an Australian company.