The Health Benefits of Far Infrared (FIR) Engineered Wood Flooring

Since the onset of COVID-19, people spend much more time at home and have become rightfully concerned about keeping floors and frequently touched surfaces clean and sanitized. What you ought to know about your engineered hardwood flooring is that its hardwood surface has natural anti-bacterial properties, which protect and heal the wood and prevent many harmful types of germs from spreading.

Extensive research over the past few years documents the wood compounds – which include phenols, tannins, lignans, and flavonoids – that protect wood against from harmful microorganisms. These organic substances are capable of attacking various kinds of bacteria, preventing their spread, and killing them off naturally. Certain tree species, such as oak wood, contain especially high levels of tannin, which increase wood’s resistance against insect and fungal attacks.

These defense mechanisms make hardwoods self-protecting, self-healing, and self-sanitizing. These benefits continue long after they’ve been cut down, sawn, and processed into the beautiful hardwood flooring you are enjoying today.

Our products’ antibacterial properties have been laboratory-verified and certified against various strains of bacteria. To know more about these certifications, please visit this page.

Taking a step further: protecting your health with Far Infrared Technology (FIR)

We are glad to provide a product that’s naturally anti-bacterial and of great aesthetic beauty – but we did not stop there. In developing our hardwood products, we’ve also made the effort to increase its health benefits for our customers in the form of Far Infrared (FIR) technology.

Far infrared radiation is drawn from the sun’s invisible, non-ultraviolet, non-harmful rays and generates heat within the body as it is absorbed. This thermal energy is capable of penetrating into the body’s deep tissue areas and activating various important body functions, which are good for the health. 

These include:

• Body cell stimulation, which helps cells heal and regenerate, ridding the body of metabolic waste and heavy metal toxins;
• Vasodilation, or widening of the blood vessels, which improves blood circulation, spreading oxygen and nutrients more efficiently;
• Faster body metabolism, allowing the body to burn fat and energy at more optimal levels;
• Reduced body inflammation, which is the cause of joint and muscular pain, such as arthritis;
• Improved immune health, boosting your body’s protection against germs and airborne illnesses.

Our unique patented FIR technology, which is officially registered in Taiwan, Japan, the US, and mainland China, injects safe nano-metal oxides into the hardwood’s open pores before the cutting and lamination process. Our nanolized engineered hardwood flooring will absorb energy from surrounding sources (like sunlight and heat), convert this energy, and release it in the form of FIR, even beyond your product’s useful lifetime. This allows you and other members of the household to enjoy all of the health benefits we’ve mentioned.
Scientists in Japan have been conducting research in this field for many years. An award-winning study on FIR was also published by BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a prestigious British medical journal on BioMed Central, the world’s first and largest open access publisher of scientific journals.

As a result, the benefits of infrared are becoming more widely understood and appreciated by a wider audience. They’re also being applied in far infrared saunas, far infrared heat pads, and other medical devices.

UA Floors is amongst the world’s first floor manufacturers to use FIR technology across its various engineered hardwood product lines – whether it’s our most popular hardwoods, like oak, hickory, and maple, or our ultra-wide floor planks.

Caring For your Engineered Hardwood Flooring: Maintenance Tips

Because our engineered wood is naturally self-healing and self-protecting, you do not need to apply alcohol-based, heavy-duty sanitizers or disinfectant solutions to keep your floors clean. We also do not recommend using steam cleaners, rotary brush cleaners, or ammonia-based products, which can damage the lamination and surface treatment and discolor your wood surface. Instead:

• Sweep or vacuum daily/frequently to remove dust and abrasive material before any mopping. Make sure your vacuum beater bar and vacuum machine wheels are also clean and free of sand and dirt.
• Use a water-based, PH-neutral cleaning agent with a damp (not wet) mop; do not use wax or oil-based detergents or cleaning agents.
• Protect floor surfaces near entrance and exit areas with mats; however, avoid mat products with dense rubber backing that might block airflow and trap dust or humidity.
• If your flooring is installed over radiant heating systems, try not to raise or lower temperatures by more than 5°F/2.8°C during the day.

Simply follow these simple maintenance tips we’ve just mentioned, keeping your routine regular and consistent – and nothing more. To help maximize your product’s lifespan, you may use our environmentally friendly, non-toxic cleaning UA Floor Care product, as well as our UA Spray Mop.

Our Commitment to Your Health and Well-being

In developing our products, we considered how we could best maximize the health and environmental benefits of our hardwood flooring. Our FIR technology expresses our commitment to giving you a product that takes care of you and your family in ways that truly make a difference.

Please feel free to get additional medical advice on the benefits of Far Infrared Technology. We’ll be glad to assist you as well in making an informed choice about your hardwood flooring requirements.