The Pros and Cons of Bamboo Flooring by Joe Cline

Interested in bamboo flooring? Frequently touted like a sustainable and green alternative to wood flooring, bamboo has developed into a popular building choice for people looking to save money and obtain a wood floor look devoid of the environmental downsides of wood floors. Unfortunately, lots of the benefits of bamboo have downsides which are not as well known or all to easy to get around.



The Positive Side Of Bamboo Floors



Bamboo grows in lots of areas of the world, therefore it may grow back and turn into harvested once every three to seven years. This makes it a sustainable crop that will replenish at the much faster rate as opposed to trees used by hardwood flooring, which take considerably longer to grow to maturity. Because of this sustainability, bamboo has become one of the most popular choices for people seeking to build with green materials.



The tariff of bamboo is significantly cheaper than traditional hardwood floors, frequently being released at less than half the price of a standard wood floor. Because with the sustainable nature of bamboo, it is considerably quicker and easier to generate enough of the material to meet demand in a lower price.



Bamboo floors are beautiful and versatile. Bamboo could be cut several ways to produce a range of beautiful grain patterns and designs. It can also be dyed and handle in a variety of colors that mimic additional expensive hardwood flooring options, creating enough choice to make just about anyone find a bamboo flooring style that they like.



Problems With Bamboo



Unfortunately, since bamboo is a lot lighter and softer than hardwood flooring, there are durability issues in some environments. Bamboo could be problematic in areas using a high humidity, because the softness can make unevenness and warping concerns. In any environment bamboo is a lot more likely than hardwood flooring Peabody to sustain damage from items like high heels and rowdy children. Bamboo is additionally prone to bleaching out when confronted with a lot of direct sunlight, so that it can have issues in sunny rooms after a while.



Bamboo isn't exactly as green as it can be billed being. While bamboo itself is sustainable, the popularity of the grass has triggered the clear-cutting of forests in China to develop bamboo for Western floors. Many companies can also be using dangerous farming practices when growing bamboo, considering that the industry does not have much oversight yet. Finding bamboo for floors available for sale that is fair trade certified and checked by environmental oversight groups is still difficult, so that it is hard to buy bamboo responsibly without a great deal of research.



Due for the lack of oversight in most of the bamboo produced overseas, there is a safety risk with some cheaper bamboo. The high requirements have produced a lot of cheap bamboo flooring options which can be glued with formaldehyde and also other toxic chemicals before these are shipped. Because of these issues, it's important to fully research a flooring company prior to making a bamboo purchase to make sure these are buying bamboo which utilizes safe, water based adhesives that were inspected in the U.S.
Joe Cline writes articles for Austin real estate property. Other articles authored by the author in connection with Austin Texas real-estate and Austin Lake Estates could be found on the internet. Visit and