People choose different flooring options for a variety of reasons.
Some want something new, something durable, sustainable.
Some have been dreaming about a certain material for years. It’s their dream flooring.
Others look for the latest trends.
Do you see yourself in any of those? For all those reasons and more, now may be the time to give bamboo flooring another look. It’s growing in popularity, and makes an excellent flooring choice anywhere in your home.
How bamboo flooring is made
People love hardwood flooring. But one of the downsides to using hardwood is its sustainability. It can take decades to grow a tree. Depending on the species, there may be other risks associated with harvesting, such as deforestation issues.
While bamboo looks like hardwood, it isn’t harvested from trees. Instead, bamboo flooring comes from the stalks of a bamboo plant, which can be harvested in a matter of years, with the added benefit of being able to produce stalks again and again, without being chopped down at the core.
The bamboo plant is cut into thin strips, then bonded together in layers using an adhesive resin. These layers can be layered horizontally to reveal the plant’s natural shape, or vertically to reveal a striated pattern. Another option is to shred the stalks into fibers, pressing them together with adhesive into “strand woven” bamboo flooring, which is one of the most durable bamboo products on the market.
Like hardwood, you can select solid bamboo made from one of the three mentioned processes above. The planks will be made entirely from bamboo fibers. Or select engineered bamboo, which offers a thin solid strip of bamboo placed on the top of a plywood or fiberboard core. Like engineered hardwood, engineered bamboo has the benefit of being easy to install, as the planks can be floated into place using click and lock technology. No glue. No nails.
People love bamboo’s sustainability
Green living. Eco-friendly design. Sustainable materials and production.
While homeowners once paid attention only to how products looked, they are now looking beyond to determine how they are made.
And in some cases, flooring materials are created from less than earth-friendly resources.
It’s hard to ignore the sustainability factors of using bamboo flooring.
To start, bamboo grows and reaches maturity in a fraction of the time it takes a tree to reach maturity. While a bamboo stalk can be harvested in just a few years, trees can take decades to reach the same point.
Once you chop a tree down, your only option is to plant a new one. The growing process starts all over again, with decades to move from seed to maturity. But a bamboo plant starts to regrow new stalks from the moment it’s been harvested. This means you won’t have to replant a bamboo plant every time you cut down a stalk.
This process is also more earth-friendly to everything around it. Because you’re only taking the stalk and not the entire plant, it leaves the forest more intact. Less disruption for the wildlife in the area that depends on it. It also leaves the forest floor more stable, meaning it’s less likely to cause soil erosion and other environmental damage.
Bamboo is stylish, versatile, and showcases its own unique beauty
While many homeowners pay attention to sustainability first, a product wouldn’t grow in popularity if it didn’t look good too.
Luckily, bamboo checks all the boxes a homeowner looks for when selecting new flooring. The bamboo stalks give bamboo flooring a unique beauty that many homeowners are demanding. Yet because it looks and feels like hardwood, it’s a flooring choice that can easily be laid into place and enjoyed for years to come.
https://pro-flooring.com/not-all-bamboo-floors-are-created-equal/
Like traditional hardwood, bamboo flooring comes in a wide range of colors and styles. From there, it extends to unique patterns that can only be found with bamboo. If you’re looking for a specific color choice, a certain texture, or a look that screams your personality, we think you’re going to love bamboo flooring.
Bamboo is durable too
When bamboo first hit the market, there was some question about its durability. It was softer than some hardwood, and didn’t stand up to an active family home life.
No more. With today’s technology, you’ll find bamboo floors can be just as hard, if not harder than some hardwood choices. Strand woven bamboo flooring is woven together and compressed to be even harder than oak flooring.
Are you looking for a flooring product to lay over radiant heating? Bamboo flooring fits the bill there too. The stability of strand woven technology means it has the right structure for laying into place.
With a hardness factor that moves up the Janka rating, you can install it in commercial applications if you select the right bamboo flooring. It stands strong to even heavy footfall, making it a reliable choice in some office settings.
Low maintenance makes it an even better deal
We all lead busy lives. That means when it comes to selecting the right flooring, it’s important to do so with daily upkeep in mind.
Do you really want to be fussing over your flooring when there are better things to do? Luckily, that’s another reason bamboo flooring will meet your needs.
Because of bamboo’s durability, it requires little more than an occasional sweep to remove dust and debris from the surface. Wipe up spills right away, and it will continue to look great throughout the year.
Bamboo also provides moisture resistance. As long as you wipe up spills in a timely manner, they shouldn’t penetrate the floor. That makes it a good choice for areas you’ve been leery of installing hardwood before. While it’s not waterproof, it still does a pretty good job of keeping moisture on the surface, and not having it impact the individual planks.
Is bamboo flooring the right choice for you?
To see our entire line of bamboo flooring, stop by today. We can answer your questions, show you which lines meet your specifications, and help you select a new bamboo floor you’ll be happy with for years to come.