Engineered Bamboo Flooring

Many people are searching for and looking for reviews on engineered bamboo flooring, but what exactly is engineered flooring?  Today we will discuss a bit about this type of bamboo flooring.

Basically, engineered bamboo flooring consists of veneer layers that are stacked on one another, with the grain of the adjacent layers oriented perpendicular to each other. Because the layers expands and contracts in the direction of the grain, one layer stabilizes the next, resulting in a product that is less susceptible to the effects of moisture & temperature change.

Typically this type of flooring is constructed with a real, thick-sawn bamboo veneer atop a core consisting of layers of plywood. The core layers are precisely stacked with the grain of adjacent plies perpendicular to each other. This construction design provides greater stability as each layer offsets the next to counteract normal movement as the wood responds to the effects of moisture and temperature change.

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Strand Bamboo Flooring

If you are looking for quality bamboo flooring, you may want to think about purchasing strand bamboo flooring. Strand bamboo flooring is said to be twice as hard as oak, an optimal choice for busy homes when durability is needed to stand up to the wear and tear of family foot traffic, active kids and even those pets you love so much!

To make strand bamboo, shredded bamboo fibers are compressed under extreme heat and pressure.  This manufacturing process yields flooring that is even harder and more dense than traditional bamboo floors. Available in a variety of colors to complement and décor, strand bamboo products are finished with premium coating and usually backed by a lengthy guarantee such as a 30 year warranty.

In my home where lots of kids roam, and of course, lots of pets I would only look into purchasing strand bamboo flooring.  This is the type of flooring that will add value and be around for quite a while!

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Cheap Bamboo Flooring

If you are looking for cheap bamboo flooring you do not have to look far!  There are lots of great factory direct sites that you can purchase you next flooring from for reasonable prices.  I have seen some sites offer certain types of bamboo flooring for under $2 per foot!  That is a steal, and makes redoing the floors in your home simple and quite cost effective.

The wonderful thing about bamboo flooring is that it is not only quite low in price, but also quite high in durability. Bamboo Flooring is a perfect option for those who appreciate beauty, longevity and sustainability.  This is a type of flooring that you can expect to last you for the life of your home!

There are many different grades of flooring, stains of flooring and types to choose from.  After doing some research and thinking about what is important to your home, picking the perfect bamboo flooring should be quite easy!

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Bamboo Flooring Prices

Bamboo floors are a great flooring option with very reasonable prices.  They are quite durable and can withstand a lot of wear and tear to them.  They are great for rooms with high traffic, lots of children and pets!  The prices of the flooring can range depending on the features of what flooring you choose.

The different types of bamboo flooring is where you will the range in prices.  When thinking about this type of flooring you have to think about do you want hand scraped, smooth finish, carbonized, natural, stained, strand woven, wide plank and even the option of purchasing glueless.

Typically if you are purchasing this flooring from a factory direct or liquidater you will find it from $2 to $5 per foot depending on what features you decide you would like to purchase.  There are an array of stains and colors to choose from which adds to how wonderful this type of flooring truly is!

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Bamboo Flooring

A bamboo floor is a type of flooring manufactured from the bamboo plant. The majority of today’s bamboo flooring products originate in China and other portions of Asia. Moso bamboo is the species most commonly used for flooring.  Many people adore bamboo flooring because of its affordable cost and the high durability factor to it!

Bamboo is an attractive alternative for flooring because of its physical similarities to hardwoods. Bamboo floor manufacturers and sellers promote its strength, durability as well as resistance to insects and moisture while having the added benefit of being eco friendly. The hardness of traditional bamboo flooring ranges from 1180 to around 1380.

If you are looking for a flooring that can stand up to a high traffic area and looks great, you may want to think about giving bamboo flooring a try.  This is also a great type of flooring for homes with children and pets!  I have three dogs and cannot imagine having carpet as opposed to my cherished bamboo flooring.

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Note: often people will call cork flooring “bamboo cork flooring,” but in fact, cork is different from bamboo.

Most people know about the beauty of bamboo flooring and how sustainable and environmentally friendly it is, but they may not know about cork flooring. In fact, if asked, cork flooring would probably not sound like a good idea to most people. They envision cork like is found in wine bottles and can’t imagine using it as a flooring option.

Cork has been used as a flooring source for hundreds of years and the main reason for this is that it is an extremely long lasting flooring source and a completely renewable resource.

Unlike other flooring sources which require the harvesting of the entire tree, cork is made from the outer bark of the oak tree. This means that the same tree can produce cork indefinitely, or at least until the tree is cut down for some other reason. The cork that is harvested regenerates in about six years. This is approximately the same amount of time it takes for bamboo to reach maturity. This make bamboo and cork flooring similar in sustainability and both of them excellent choices in flooring.

The durability of cork flooring cannot be stressed enough. Cork resists scuffs and scratches better than any other flooring choice available and is the only wood flooring choice that is completely moisture resistant, making it a perfect flooring choice for bathrooms and kitchens.

Corks durability can be seen in some of the flooring installations that are over one hundred years old. Cork is an excellent insulator and can help reduce energy costs, another factor that plays into it being an environmentally friendly choice in flooring. This same insulating factor that makes cork an energy saver also helps it reduce the transference of noise.

When comparing the beauty of the different types of hardwood flooring available, both bamboo and cork flooring are beautiful in their own rights. Each brings an aesthetically pleasing touch to any room they are installed in. Cork has its own unique mottled appearance that most people are familiar with and can be found in many different colors, depending on the manufacturer and the colors they chose to stain the cork with.

Bamboo can be found in several natural colors, from blonde to ambers and in many other colors depending on what color stains the manufacturers decide to use and market.

Bamboo and cork flooring are both excellent flooring choices for homeowners looking to go ‘green’ with their present and future flooring choices while at the same time adding beauty and durability to their home.

-Sharon V. Chapman

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Bamboo click flooring is made using a process that creates pieces that interlock like puzzle pieces. The bamboo strips are placed on top of a supporting piece of wood before being cut into the click and lock pieces and sold in kits to the public.

This type of bamboo flooring offers several advantages over solid bamboo flooring, the main one being that it can be installed as a floating system over any subfloor. Solid bamboo flooring must be attached to the subfloor and cannot be installed as a floating floor.

Some bamboo click flooring manufacturers suggest using glue in the joints of the flooring pieces for added strength. However, not all click flooring systems suggest glue and some leave the decision up to the installer.

Just like other bamboo flooring types, click flooring is a strong, durable choice in bamboo that will last for many years and bring beauty and elegance to any décor. It is also an environmentally friendly flooring choice that is sustainable.

Bamboo’s sustainability comes from its ability to regrow and be ready for harvest in such a short time. Bamboo can be harvested for use at three to six years of age. This means that the land that was harvested is only barren for three to six years, which prevents major damage from occurring due to runoff and erosion.

Traditional hardwoods, on the other hand, take from fifty to one hundred years to mature and be ready for harvest. This means the land is left barren for just as many years. Animals are displaced, the land is left to the effects of the weather, the soil is altered during the process and the atmosphere suffers from the lack of exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen that occurs.

These environmental facts make it easy to see why installing a bamboo flooring system is a good idea. Some people might argue that they can’t find the variety of colors in bamboo that they do in traditional hardwoods. The simple reply would be that they haven’t looked.

Bamboo is available in many different colors. Natural bamboo is a beautiful blond color that is light and airy enough to match any décor. For a darker wood, the bamboo is carbonized or boiled. This process darkens the wood to an amber color. The color becomes darker the longer it is boiled.

Finally, some manufacturers will stain the bamboo in many more shades than are available through carbonization. This staining makes it possible to find colors similar to those in the oak, cherry and pine families.

Bamboo click flooring is bamboo’s answer for the do-it-yourselfer who wants to bring the beauty of bamboo into the home and be environmentally friendly at the same time.

-Sharon V. Chapman

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An example of this would be concrete. Concrete sub-floorings are not uncommon and yet can cause problems with the flooring installation years down the road due to the moisture of the concrete seeping through and damaging the glue that is holding the flooring down or even the flooring itself.

In the case of concrete, a floating bamboo flooring installation would be the best route to go. The bamboo doesn’t come in direct contact with the concrete and moisture damage is avoided. The planks in a floating floor are coated to prevent moisture damage even though they won’t be touching the concrete.

Modern Asian home with bamboo flooring

A bamboo floating floor installation is installed much like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. The pieces interlock and are laid end to end with just enough space to allow for expansion over time. Typically there is an underlayment material between the subfloor and the bamboo flooring but it is not a necessity. The underlayment provides a softer cushioning to the flooring than if it were floated without one. A cork type material made from recycled tires is often used underneath the floated floor.

Floating installations have an advantage over solid bamboo flooring in that there is room for the flooring to expand over time due to building in extra space during the installation. With solid flooring there is not room for the expansion and contraction that comes with humidity and temperature changes and so it can buckle if not installed properly. Floating flooring does not buckle and warp as easily as solid flooring because it is engineered to move with the contracting of the wood.

Homeowners are particularly fond of bamboo floating floors because of their ease of installation. Floating floors are click-n-lock type installations where the pieces fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces. Because nailing is not necessary there is little chance of damaging the wooden planks and homeowners can usually perform the installation on their own.

Some floating bamboo flooring installations do suggest that glue be applied to the interlocking joints as they are pieced together. If this is the case, top quality glue should be used. Skimping and purchasing water based glue will cause the flooring to be ruined in a short period of time. Although the glue will be somewhat expensive, the end result will be a flooring installation that will last for many years to come.

Bamboo floating floor installations allow homeowners the option of installing their bamboo floor without having to hire a professional to perform the install. This saves money while at the same time bringing beauty into the home. Floating bamboo flooring installations can be installed over any subflooring and is perfect for any home wanting bamboo floors.

-Sharon V. Chapman

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Before looking at vertical bamboo flooring and other types of bamboo flooring available, it is helpful to understand a little about bamboo and how it is used in flooring. Although it is considered a hardwood flooring choice, bamboo is actually a grass that can reach height of a hundred feet or more and do so in three to five years. This is much faster than it takes an oak tree to reach maturity and be ready for harvest.

The stalk of the bamboo plant is what is used to make flooring and other strong durable products. The Chinese people have known for hundreds of years that bamboo is an excellent choice not only for flooring but also for walls and other structural components. Today, bamboo is being used as a flooring choice around the world.

Modern Asian home with bamboo flooring

Vertical bamboo flooring is the result of the bamboo being laid on edge with the wider side of the bamboo planks being glued together to form a tight bond and create a vertical look. Many decorators use vertical bamboo flooring in smaller areas and horizontal bamboo flooring in larger, more open areas.

Horizontal bamboo flooring is created by laying the bamboo strips in a stacked manner, one on to of the other and using an adhesive to bond them in that position. The bamboo strips are usually wider in horizontal bamboo flooring that they are in vertical bamboo flooring.

Having different options to choose from when looking for bamboo flooring doesn’t stop at vertical or horizontal. There are many color options to choose from in the bamboo flooring family, some created using stains and some created using a natural process.

Natural bamboo is a blond color that is light and beautiful. It is inviting in any room of the house. This same natural bamboo can be altered to have various amber colors using a process called carbonization.

During carbonization, before the bamboo is transformed into vertical or horizontal bamboo flooring, the bamboo is boiled to high temperatures. This high heat causes the fiber of the bamboo to become amber in color. The longer the bamboo is exposed to high heat and the higher the heat, the deeper the amber coloring will be.

If ambers and blonds aren’t enough color choices, homeowners can also choose from many colors that have been made using stains added to the bamboo either during the manufacturing process or after the planks have been made and cut. Colors range from light to deep cherry and everywhere in between.

Vertical bamboo flooring is but one option that consumers have when choosing their new floor. Careful consideration and window shopping should be used before making that final purchase and installing the new floor.

-Sharon Chapman

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As most people know, bamboo’s biggest advantage over traditional hardwood is that it is environmentally friendly and sustainable. Bamboo is able to regenerate and be ready for harvest in as little as three years, typically three to five years. When compared to the fifty to one hundred years that it takes for hardwood trees regenerate and be ready for harvest it is easy to see that bamboo is the environmentally friendly choice in flooring.

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Choosing natural bamboo flooring prevents the atmosphere from being robbed of nitrogen and carbon dioxide and prevents the land from being damaged by uncontrolled drainage due to barren lands after the forest harvested and the land is cleared. This can also cause damage to the soil and change its makeup which is detrimental to the native plants and animals.

In addition to having the environmental factor that natural bamboo offers there is the strength and durability. When compared to traditional hardwoods bamboo is as hard as or harder than many. The type of bamboo flooring chose has an impact on how strong the flooring is as well. Engineered bamboo brings a little more strength and durability due to being bamboo planks with an additional layer of wood underneath them.

Solid bamboo and engineered bamboo are both natural bamboo floorings. The difference being the addition of the wood boarding that supports engineered bamboo. This allows the wood planks to be cut into the pop-and-lock or tongue and groove boards that are necessary for floating installations.

Solid bamboo cannot be installed as a floating installation and thus is harder for homeowners to install without the help of a professional. This is due the bamboo being very hard to nail through without cracking the boards. Some installers prefer to use professional strength staples and a pneumatic stapler to install solid bamboo flooring.

Natural bamboo flooring is the perfect flooring choice for the environment and the bank account as it is not as expensive as other hardwood choices. And, if natural bamboo flooring in its solid state is still out of reach due to price; bamboo laminate flooring can be purchased to achieve the same bamboo appearance with even less cost.

Natural bamboo flooring is the popular choice of the day in hardwood floors that are beautiful and environmentally friendly. This flooring choice ushers in a new generation of flooring that will continue to grow in popularity.

-Sharon Chapman

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