The Advantages of Bamboo Flooring

If you’re replacing your floors, or building a home, you may be considering solid hardwood flooring, engineered hardwood or laminate flooring, or bamboo flooring. You probably want to know more about bamboo floors before you make such a big decision.

While bamboo floors are not for everyone, they do have some major advantages.

First, they’re very environmentally friendly, more so than any other wood flooring.  The bamboo shoots can be harvested every three years, and harvesting the shoots actually helps the plants, rather than harming them. And because pandas grow in a different part of China and eat a different species of bamboo, there is no harm to that species, either.

Bamboo is a very attractive flooring, offering either a light, honey-colored shade or a darker amber, which comes from carbonizing the flooring through pressure steaming.

Many people worry that bamboo flooring may not be as hard or stable as solid hardwood floors. In fact, processed bamboo flooring, as long as it is made from the center of the bamboo stalk (rather than the tip or base), is harder than oak. Bamboo floors are not only as beautiful as solid hardwoods, but also as durable and stable.

While bamboo flooring is often seen as an expensive flooring material, it is comparable in price to better solid hardwood flooring options, and it is possible to find quality bamboo flooring at discounted prices by shopping carefully.

You may prefer traditional solid hardwoods for their look, or because you’ve always wanted an oak floor. But if your heart is not yet set on a particular flooring material, consider a bamboo floor as an attractive, environmentally sound and comparably priced alternative to that oak or maple hardwood floor. Your home will benefit from the unique and subtle look of bamboo, and you’ll be pleased with your decision for years to come.