Bamboosa

Bamboo Flooring

Benefits of Bamboo Flooring

There is a new fad sweeping the nation: bamboo flooring. Though it is touted by environmentalists as a more sustainable alternative to traditional hardwood flooring, there are other reasons why bamboo makes the ideal material for floors.

Though hardwood flooring may add charm to your home, it takes almost 100 years for a hardwood tree to mature enough to be used for floors. Bamboo, on the other hand, only takes about three to five years to reach the maturity necessary for manufacturing flooring. Also, bamboo grows quickly and you don’t have to replant it, making it a much more sustainable process.

Bamboo blows hardwood out of the water when it comes to cost as well in that it costs up to 50 percent less than conventional flooring. Bamboo flooring can be nailed or glued, and can be easily installed over many different types of existing flooring.

Other characteristics of bamboo that make it an ideal material for flooring include that it is easily cleaned, hypo-allergenic, fire-resistant and long-lasting. To be fair, there is one area in which hardwood trumps bamboo. Because it is a softer more flexible material, bamboo floors are easily scratched and dented (though this is the case for many other woods as well).

How it’s Made and Types of Bamboo Flooring

Bamboo is naturally hollow and is formed in a very different way than conventional wood. Strips of the bamboo are laminated to form the right size of flooring. There is “horizontal” bamboo flooring, meaning the bamboo strips are laminated together so that the top shows the natural growth rings, making the wood have short, fragmented rows. “Vertical” bamboo flooring consists of strips laid on their sides and laminated to form long, thin rows of wood.

Another type of bamboo flooring is “engineered” and is not completely made of bamboo. This type is more durable than the pure bamboo types and is more moisture-resistant, making it a better choice for those living in humid climates. This type of wood is made by layering the bamboo strips, or plies, to make it a more stable material.

“Stranded” bamboo floors are made from bamboo fibers that are shredded and blended with an adhesive before being pressure treated. This type is even more durable than engineered bamboo flooring because of its density (which also makes it slightly harder to install).

Bamboo floors are available in a number of color variations, created by heating the bamboo. The lighter the floor, the less heat has been used to treat it. When bamboo is heated, it becomes softer and more easily scratched; so the more natural the color, the better.