Bamboo Flooring is a Great Gift to Mankind

Bamboo is a woody perennial evergreen plant that belongs to the grass family “Poaceae” of the plants. It mostly grows in acidic and loamy soils and needs a lot of sun shine for its abundant growth. However, you can find bamboo plants on the cold mountains as well, which is a strong proof that they can be cultivated in a variety of climates ranging from tropical to sub-tropical.

It is a popular building material in the East Asia and South East Asia for centuries. Nowadays, it is making its way in the western countries such as UK, Australia and New Zealand as well. Although bamboo can be used in multiple building projects such as making mats, baskets and roofs of homes. One type of construction that has made this material quite popular is- bamboo flooring.

Bamboo flooring makes a great gift for environmentally conscious people who want their flooring to be beautiful as well. The reasons that make bamboo an ecologically friendly choice are its fast growth rate and its ability to grow on its own. Bamboo makes a very fast growing plant and some of its species can grow up to 1.5 meters in a single day. Therefore, bamboo grows ten times faster than traditional hardwoods which may need decades to gain the maturity. Bamboo is also a highly renewable resource due to its extensive root system. When bamboo is harvested, its roots remain in soil and continue to produce shoots which grow in harvestable plants within 5-7 years.

Besides the environmental benefits that bamboo flooring offers to its users, its thrilling beauty also captivates its viewers at its first glance. The naturally achieved colour and shiny surface of bamboo flooring can fit to any interior décor. It is available in compressed or strand woven ,and both horizontal and vertical grain. Horizontal grain has a wider appearance than vertical grain and is also far superior in its knuckles’ pattern. Compressed is the hardest due to the manufacturing process and is now the most popular style due simply to its consistent grain and durability.

Bamboo flooring performs very well in both dry and humid climates and possesses low absorption properties. Its expansion rate is 40-50% less than that of traditional hardwoods Moreover, the strength and durability of bamboo flooring rival Maple, Mahogany, Cherry and Walnut. Another advantage of choosing bamboo flooring is that it costs 25% to 50% less than most of the hardwood flooring.

Bamboo flooring can be installed over a variety of sub-floors and is easier to clean as well. In order to estimate how much bamboo flooring you will need to install over a sub-floor, there is an easy to use method. First of all, divide your floor into rectangles and measure the width and length of each rectangle. Next step is to multiply the width by the length of each individual rectangle and add the total for each rectangle together to have an idea of the total square footage. It makes a good idea to add an additional 10% to the total square footage to cover the waste factor.