Bamboo: The Non-Traditional Hardwood Flooring

Bamboo makes a great alternative to the more traditional hardwood flooring materials such as maple or oak. Not only is it highly durable, attractive and affordable, it is also very environmentally friendly – something worth considering as you weigh your flooring options.

Though bamboo is often called an environmentally friendly wood, it isn’t really wood at all. In reality, it is a very long and hollow form of fast growing grass. It is during the manufacturing process that the bamboo stalks harden into a wood-like material.

This hardness is one of the features which makes bamboo a truly remarkable flooring product. Since it is tougher than traditional hardwood, it greatly reduces the need to replace the flooring as time goes by. The strength and durability found in bamboo is a major reason so many people have decided on this product instead of the traditional hardwoods.

Another benefit of bamboo is that it’s one of the most renewable resources on Earth. Since it is such a fast growing grass, it becomes usable much quicker than traditional hardwoods. Bamboo can be grown and harvested within just five years. This is in contrast to the 40 to 60 years that it can take for a traditional tree to reach maturity. The most important feature however in making this plant a renewable resource, is that each cut stalk is able to sprout a new shoot during the next rainy season.

The wetness and humidity of the plant’s naturally rainy environment provide yet another reason to choose bamboo as your flooring alternative. With the tropical climate bamboo is grown in, the material produced is naturally moisture resistant. This allows for it to be used in any area of the home that you may want hardwood flooring – including the bathroom and kitchen.

The bamboo plant itself is even beneficial to the environment during the growing process. This is because an area of bamboo produces more oxygen than a same-sized area of trees and requires no pesticides or fertilizers to thrive.

Despite the fact that bamboo isn’t actually a wood product, it does provide an additional option for those seeking hardwood floors. From both a practical and environmental standpoint, bamboo is a great alternative to the more commonly used hardwoods. It is highly attractive, naturally water resistant, and far more durable than other flooring materials such as maple or oak. Add to that the added benefit of bamboo being much more environmentally friendly and you have the perfect alternative to traditional hardwood flooring.