Would you like to have your floor made of grass? Yes, that is right, Bamboo is not a tree, but a subspecies of grass, which can be found mainly in East and South East Asia. It has amazing characteristics – for example, bamboo is able to grow 20-25 inches per day, while retaining extreme durability. These features have predestined bamboo as one of the most important construction materials in the history of mankind.
While bamboo houses are slowly becoming history around the world, products made of bamboo still have a bright future in households. In this article, we will focus on flooring, or better said, on strand woven bamboo flooring.
Do not confuse it with laminate bamboo flooring. While laminate flooring is simply made of cut bamboo, strand woven flooring has a way more difficult way of production. Young bamboo stalks are stripped and boiled. This material is then put into boric acid, to reduce fire hazard. During the last step of the process, the material is crushed and cut into flooring blocks.
This process gives strand woven flooring its unique features. Strand woven bamboo flooring has double the density of a typical laminate flooring, which grants much higher durability. You can use this flooring even in high traffic places of your home. However, the natural colour patterns are preserved, so it will always look beautiful even in your living room.
The most important feature for me – the production of this flooring is environmentally friendly. Bamboo is harvested every 4-7 years (unlike wood, which takes often a century to grow sufficiently) and surprisingly, bamboo fields produce more oxygen than forests. Bamboo production is important for developing countries of South Asia and helps to reduce poverty in this region.
Strand woven flooring requires less maintenance than normal bamboo flooring, but still, regular basic care is inevitable. Especially prevent and clean possible liquid spills, avoid contact with sharp objects and use protective pads under your furniture.
Despite its amazing quality, strand woven bamboo flooring costs usually half of the expenses required for hardwood flooring. Naturally, it is not the cheapest flooring you can buy, but if you consider it as an investment, the value for money ratio is excellent.
Julie
Julie Kinnear is a real estate professional in Royal LePage Toronto. She is devoted green enthusiast and occasional charity volunteer.
