Healthier Material Choices for Your Home

Choose Materials With Their Use in Mind

Flooring, cabinetry, paint, insulation, and other building products contribute to how a home looks, feels, and performs over time.

Choosing them involves questions about ingredients, emissions, installation, durability, and maintenance—as well as appearance and cost.

Whether you are renovating an apartment, updating a house, or planning a custom home, establish your material priorities early so they can inform specifications, pricing, and construction.

Three Questions to Guide Material Choices

What Information Is Available?

Look for product-specific information about ingredients, emissions, intended uses, and installation requirements. Understand what a label or certification actually evaluates.

Where and How Will It Be Used?

Consider the amount of material, its location, potential contact with occupants, and exposure to moisture, heat, and wear. Review the products needed to install and finish it.

How Will It Perform Over Time?

Discuss cleaning, maintenance, repair, and expected service life. A material should suit both the conditions of the space and the care you can realistically provide.

What to Consider During Design

Set Priorities Before Selecting Products

Identify the decisions that deserve the most attention for your project. These may include flooring used throughout the home, extensive cabinetry, interior coatings, or materials in wet areas.

Share any specific material concerns early. Your team can then establish what information to request and which alternatives to compare.

Consider whether existing materials can remain or be repaired, taking their condition and suitability into account.

Review the Complete Installation

A finished surface is only one part of the selection.

Flooring may require adhesives, underlayments, and finishes. Cabinetry includes panels, edge treatments, coatings, and installation products. Tile work includes substrates, waterproofing, setting materials, grout, and sealants.

Review these components together for compatibility, performance, and relevant emissions information.

Understand Ingredients, Emissions, and Product Claims

Ingredient disclosures describe what a product contains within the scope of the disclosure. Emissions testing evaluates what a product releases under specified test conditions.

These provide different kinds of information. Neither alone establishes that a material is suitable for every application.

Ask which product or finish the documentation covers and what criteria were used. Broad claims such as “green” or “natural” need supporting detail.

Match Materials to Their Location

Bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms, exterior walls, and below-grade spaces have different requirements.

Consider moisture exposure, cleaning, wear, and the surrounding construction. Review insulation and concealed materials as part of the wall, roof, or floor assembly.

Simplify unnecessary layers where appropriate while preserving the components needed for the assembly to perform.

Plan for Installation and Occupancy

Discuss how cutting, sanding, coating, and installation will be managed, particularly if part of the home will remain occupied.

Coordinate dust control, work-area separation, ventilation, and manufacturer requirements for drying and curing. Include these considerations in construction planning.

For existing homes, establish whether materials to be disturbed need assessment before work begins.

Consider Maintenance, Repair, and Replacement

Ask what routine care requires, whether refinishing is expected, and whether individual components can be repaired or replaced.

Compare those requirements with your household’s routines and priorities. Frequent replacement can mean additional waste, installation work, and disruption.

Consider durability and repairability alongside emissions, appearance, cost, and environmental impact. A long service life is valuable when the material also suits its location and intended use.

Keep Selections Clear Through Construction

Record the agreed products, finishes, and relevant performance requirements in the project documentation.

If a substitution is proposed, review it against those priorities—including any changes to adhesives, coatings, or installation methods—before it is accepted.

How Material Planning Changes With Your Project

Apartment Renovations

Coordinate selections with building requirements and the proposed construction sequence.

Flooring assemblies, deliveries, work-area separation, and ventilation during installation may require particular attention. Review what the building permits before committing to a product or installation method.

Townhouses and Existing Houses

Consider how new materials will interact with existing construction.

Review conditions before covering older walls or floors, and identify opportunities to retain or repair suitable materials. Coordinate interior selections with moisture management and envelope improvements.

New Custom Homes

Establish material priorities alongside the architectural concept and performance goals.

Apply those priorities across the structure, enclosure, interiors, and installation products. Early coordination gives the team time to compare options and understand cost, availability, and maintenance implications.

Questions to Ask Your Project Team

Which material decisions deserve the most attention in this project?
What ingredient or emissions information is available for the exact product?
What does its certification or label cover?
Which adhesives, coatings, sealants, or substrates are required?
Is the complete installation appropriate for the location and moisture conditions?
What will installation, drying, curing, and ventilation require?
How will the material be cleaned, maintained, and repaired?
How will proposed substitutions be reviewed?

You do not need to evaluate every product alone. These questions help establish clear priorities and a consistent basis for comparing options.

Common Questions

Does “Natural” Mean a Material Is Healthier?

The term alone does not establish suitability. Consider the specific product, its finishes and installation requirements, where it will be used, and the information available about it.

Does “Low-VOC” Mean a Product Has No Emissions?

No. A low-VOC claim may refer to the content of certain volatile organic compounds rather than emissions measured after installation.

Ask what the claim means and whether relevant emissions testing is available.

Does a Certification Answer Every Material Question?

A certification evaluates defined criteria. It may address emissions, sourcing, or another attribute without covering every aspect of the product.

Review its scope alongside performance, installation, maintenance, and intended use.

Are Sustainable Materials and Healthier Materials the Same Thing?

They can overlap, but the terms describe different considerations.

Environmental evaluation may address sourcing, manufacturing, resource use, or end of life. Indoor material evaluation may focus on emissions and potential exposure. Discuss both when setting project priorities.

Bring Your Healthy Home Priorities Together

Air, moisture, the building envelope, light, comfort, and materials are connected. Decisions about one can affect how the others perform.

Planning a substantial renovation or custom home? Bring these priorities into the architectural design process while layouts, construction details, and building systems are taking shape.

Tong Dong Architects helps you evaluate these decisions together, in relation to your property, design goals, budget, and daily life, with specialist coordination where the project requires it.

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