The strength of bamboo along with its natural beauty and environmentally-friendly characteristics make bamboo flooring a perfect alternative to wood flooring. Its high-tech commercial grade finish systems outperform most factory finishes, it’s harder and more stable than oak and is more durable than job-site applied finishes.
Two Colors
Bamboo is most commonly found in two colors: a natural hue and a darker caramelized tone called amber. Natural bamboo is light yellow in color while carbonizing gives bamboo a richer, caramel color with brown graining. It’s also possible to stain the natural planks in different colors like wheat, chestnut, charcoal or white, just to name a few of the many options.
Two Grains
A natural bamboo floor is available in two grains, vertical or horizontal. Vertical grain is a thinner, narrower grain while a horizontal grain has a wider, flatter look. The vertical grain is created from strips on bamboo laid on edge with the wider faces bonded together, which gives the floor more lines within the pattern and a more consistent, even colouring. The look achieved by vertical grain bamboo flooring is great for making small spaces look roomier.
Horizontal grain bamboo flooring is made by laying wider strips of bamboo on top of each other (usually three plies thick). Horizontal grain bamboo flooring features more of the unique properties of the bamboo grass with more visible nodes (the joints in the bamboo cane) than vertically-grained bamboo flooring.
Bamboo Laminate Flooring
If you like the look of bamboo flooring but need something that’s simpler to install and maintain, and that can take a little more punishment, then bamboo laminate flooring is an excellent option. Today’s laminates are of an excellent quality and the look is achieved by photographing bamboo flooring and pasting the image onto the top layer of the laminate, giving it a highly authentic look.
Bamboo floating floors are also an excellent option - easy to install and they look great. Simply put, athey are installed directly onto an underlayment rather than being glued or in any way attached to the subfloor. Floating bamboo floors are stable, quiet, durable and easy to maintain, as well as being one of the cheaper floating options available, as opposed to floating hardwood floors, which have different characteristics.
Good quality bamboo
Make Sure That Your Bamboo Flooring is Well-Manufactured. Many of the less expensive bamboo products are grown in the lowlands and harvested every year.
The good quality material is grown in the highlands at altitude and is harvested every 5 or 6 years. This makes for a far more durable and dense product. Also with bamboo there are few, if any, regulations and rules concerning quality, grading and color consistency. Bamboo is also often touted as a “green product” simply because it re grows from the root after it is harvested but it is often the case that the byproducts of the manufacturing process are often disposed of by dumping in the local rivers or streams. Choose your bamboo from a reputable company and don’t be fooled by their advertising claiming to be an eco friendly product. The quality bamboo also uses high quality European adhesives that contain no formaldehyde or other polluting agents.
If you are looking for the best and highest quality bamboo available I would recommend Teragren, closely followed by Ecotimber bamboo. Architects and designers routinely specify Teragren for high end homes, commercial properties and restaurants and having installed this type of bamboo flooring in many such buildings, I believe it to be the best available.
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