Everything about making your home eco-friendly!
If you love the look of hardwood flooring but know in your heart that it is not a good choice for the environment, consider having bamboo flooring installed for a beautiful alternative.
The problem with hardwood is that even if it is taken from forests, where trees are being replaced, it will still be fifteen to twenty five years before another tree is grown which is mature enough to be a replacement for the one which was cut down to make your flooring planks. Bamboo, however is a fast growing plant from the grass family. The roots are not removed and it regenerates in three to five years. An added advantage is that bamboo has such a strong root network that the remaining roots help prevent the soil being washed away in the heavy rains typical in tropical areas. Soil erosion can be a big problem when vegetation such as trees is cut down from an area.
Although bamboo flooring has a typical bamboo look, without the grain that you would find with hardwood, that is not necessarily the case so don’t let that put you off making a more eco-friendly choice if it is the look of wood you like. Instead choose strand woven bamboo flooring, which has a grain almost indistinguishable from hard wood. Bamboo can be dyed to give you whatever color “wood” you prefer too.
We often pay more when we make green buying decisions, however that is not the case when deciding to buy bamboo flooring. Bamboo may be as much as half the cost of hardwood flooring at least as far as raw materials are concerned. (Bamboo and solid wood floor installation costs will be similar). Bamboo is also a tougher material than many hardwoods. For example, it has a higher rating on the Janka hardness scale than cherry, maple or oak.
If you are interested, ask to see some samples of different bamboo floors at your local flooring supplier or look for sites online, which often have good images of typical bamboo floors. You will see that going green when it comes to flooring is no sacrifice.
Related posts:
Categories: Interior Design
very helpful…
I preferred to thank you for this good article. http://vegascrush.com/getacrush/member/blog_post_view.php?postId=4000 I by all odds liked every little bit of it…
Great…
love your blog, http://www.sam-clan.com/web/index.php?site=forum_topic&topic=821 ,Thanks again….