Chris Elliott details the advantages of bamboo for flooring contractors

BAMBOO flooring offers several advantages over traditional wood flooring, making it a popular alternative for homeowners who’re looking for an eco-friendly and durable floorcovering. Bamboo is a highly renewable and sustainable grass that grows to maturity extremely quickly compared to a hardwood tree.

The benefits of bamboo flooring go beyond its eco-friendly properties, with it offering a versatile and practical flooring solution. Here are some key benefits of bamboo flooring compared to wood flooring:

Sustainability and environmental impact
Bamboo is a highly renewable natural resource. The bamboo grass grows much faster than hardwood trees, reaching maturity in as little as five years. This is incredible, especially in comparison to hardwood trees, that can take decades to be fully grown. The bamboo forests are left alone, without the need for pesticides, chemicals or irrigation systems, and the crops grow abundantly and continue to do so even after a harvest.

Bamboo forests are usually harvested by hand, which ensures the root of the grass doesn’t get damaged. The plant itself is self-regenerating, like our grass, meaning it can be cut and simply continue to grow and thrive, without the need for it to be replanted. Harvesting by hand also ensures there’s minimal damage and disruption to the surrounding area, including wildlife, plant life, local villages and communities.

The bamboo forests are usually coded into sections, with a staggered growing pattern so that not all of it is harvested at once. This means the crops continue to grow abundantly year-on-year, so the farmers always have a healthy and plentiful yield.

Durability
Bamboo flooring, especially Strand Woven bamboo, is far more durable than any hardwood. The way in which the bamboo has been broken down into fibre strands, and compressed together to form the planks of flooring, make it over twice as hard as oak. Strand woven bamboo is the perfect choice for high traffic areas and can even be used in commercial properties. It’s far more resistant to dents and scratches than a wooden floor and the protective layers of lacquer ensure the surface of the bamboo is fully finished and ready to use as soon as it has been installed.

Versatility
Bamboo flooring has been designed to be dimensionally stable, which means it’s far more versatile than wooden flooring. The planks of bamboo and wood expand and contract naturally with changes in temperature and humidity, however, bamboo can cope with these changes far more comfortably than wood.

The stability of bamboo flooring allows for it to be far more versatile in where and how it can be used. Bamboo flooring, both solid and engineered, can be floated over an underlay, used with underfloor heating, installed in rooms with excess amounts of glazing like conservatories, and in rooms with constant humidity changes like kitchens. If you wanted a wooden floor for any of these areas, you would be restricted to an engineered wood. As bamboo flooring has become more popular over the years, different styles, colours, surface textures and plank sizes have become available to meet the growing demand. Bamboo can be used in almost any room in your home with a vast choice of colours and styles to choose from.

Cost effectiveness
Bamboo tends to be more affordable than many hardwood options. It offers a budget-friendly alternative without sacrificing quality or aesthetic appeal. The reason for the price difference between the two is simply down to the rate of growth of bamboo. It can be harvested around five times faster than hardwood, making it a far more cost-effective option.

Care and maintenance
Both bamboo and wooden flooring require care and maintenance. Simple sweeping and cleaning can be enough, but some wooden floors can be more prone to dents and scratches than bamboo flooring.

After a few years the surfaces of both may start to fade and lack lustre. This can be resolved by refinishing the surfaces or undergoing a deeper clean with the correct and suitable cleaning products. Both bamboo and wooden flooring can last for decades if they are cared for properly.

Summary
In summary, bamboo flooring is a great option if you’re looking for an eco-friendly, cost-effective, and durable alternative to wood flooring.

However, both materials offer unique advantages, and the best choice ultimately depends on your specific needs, budget, and aesthetic preferences. If you’d like more information, a brochure or any free samples of bamboo flooring please contact us.
0116 274 1050
www.bambooflooringcompany.com
Chris Elliott is managing director at Bamboo Flooring