In a nondescript neighborhood in South San Francisco, sits what any average passerby would think is your typical everyday bungalow. But, with a closer look you find it’s no ordinary home. It’s the city’s first and only Green X-ray House, and it’s quite the attraction.

The Green X-ray House is a public/private partnership between the city of South San Francisco and local builders, designers and building material suppliers. The house has been remodeled using energy efficient, sustainable and financially viable green building practices and materials that can be incorporated into even the most average of homes with a modest budget.

To demonstrate unseen features, some of the interior walls and floors have been left unfinished to allow visitors to peer inside the walls and under floors to view various types of insulation and radiant heating systems, thus where the X-ray part of the name comes from.

The flooring was supplied through Greenv Sustainable Center of South San Francisco and installed by Crown Flooring of San Francisco.

Craig Anderson, Crown Flooring owner, said, “It was great to be a part of such an important and innovative project that does a great job at educating home owners about green homes.”

About the flooring he continued, “USFloors’ Natural Cork and Corkoleum floating floors, and its engineered Natural Bamboo were selected for several reasons. First, they are eco-friendly and can all be installed over underfloor radiant heat systems. Beyond that, USFloors’ Green Island made it easy having a wide selection of environmentally responsible floors in one space. This is a growth area for my business and it’s great to have that kind of selection of green floors when customers come in the store asking about them.”

USFloors’ eco-friendly Engineered Horizontal Spice Bamboo was used in the family room, bedrooms, and hallways. Natural Cork floating floors from the company’s Earth and Classics Collection was used in the kitchen primarily due to the fact it is a sustainable product, but also due to the added thermal insulation properties inherent in cork and the ergonomic benefit of reduced impact stress, as so much standing is required in a kitchen. Finally, the X-ray House’s bathroom was fitted with USFloors’ eco-friendly, ultra-durable Corkoleum linoleum floors.

Piet Dossche, USFloors’ president and CEO, commented, “We are extremely excited to have our floors throughout the Green X-ray House. It’s great to see a city and private enterprise partner to educate the public on such benefits, especially the financial viability of building or remodeling with energy efficient and environmentally responsible materials.”

Dossche continued, “As I’ve said before, this is the future of home building. Going forward, homes are going to have some kind of high performance features such as those in the Green X-ray House to capture the home values that homeowners want and expect.”

For more on the Green X-ray House, visit greenxrayhouse.com.