Strides in bamboo
BY TRESA ERICKSON

The time has come for you to do something about your flooring. The carpet is in bad shape, and with a houseful of young kids, you're thinking the best idea would be to replace it with some type of wood flooring. Although you're fond of traditional hardwood flooring, you'd like to go another route and choose something a bit more eco-friendly. Well, then, bamboo might be an option for you.

Bamboo is a grass, not a tree, and therefore takes less time to mature. It grows rather quickly, up to three feet a day. Unlike an oak tree that can take years to reach full maturity, bamboo is mature and ready to be harvested within five to six yeas. Because it can be produced more easily, it is very ecofriendly.

When you think about bamboo, you may picture it as being rather flimsy, but actually bamboo is stronger than most hardwoods. Some species, in fact, have obtained hardness ratings higher than that of maple. Bamboo is extremely resilient and can stand up to a lot of wear and tear.

Bamboo has many other qualities that make it suitable for flooring. A product of tropical regions, it is naturally resistant to moisture and rarely warps. As such, it makes an excellent flooring product for bathrooms and kitchens. Bamboo is also allergy free, making it perfect for the homes of allergy sufferers. It repels termites as well.

There are several types of bamboo flooring. The two most common are solid bamboo flooring, which consists of layers of bamboo bonded together, and longstrip bamboo flooring, which consists of bamboo on the surface, a wood core board sandwiched in the middle, and a balancing wooden back layer. Although thicker, solid bamboo does not provide as great of contraction and expansion as longstrip bamboo.

Bamboo flooring offers several color options. It comes in both natural, which is fairly light, and carbonized, which is a darker, richer caramel color. It can also be stained. Some products are even hand-scraped, providing a more rustic finish.

In many cases, bamboo flooring costs less than other hardwoods and can be purchased for a variety of methods of installation from nail down to float. It can be installed almost anywhere, including over concrete floors. Glueless systems are also available for even quicker instal lation. Once installed, bamboo flooring is easy to care for. A weekly dust mopping is usually all that is required.

As you can see, bamboo provides many other benefits besides its ecofriendliness. If you're looking for a flooring product that can take a beating but won't take a beating on the environment, bamboo may be for you. Check it out today!