The Eco Flooring Alternatives

Wood flooring has become increasingly popular in recent years.  Traditionally solid wood flooring has been used throughout the ages as our main floor covering.  The explosion in popularity of carpet and rugs is a more recent trend but has become less attractive to many homeowners in recent years.  Taste, health concerns and even environmental concerns have affected our love affair with the carpet.  Today there are a huge range of choices when it comes to wood flooring and one of the latest additions to the market is bamboo.

The advantages of wood and bamboo

Bamboo material flooring usually falls under the category of ‘engineered flooring’, which is a manufacturing technique that combines the all the benefits of solid wood, without the few disadvantages.  The main advantages to any type of wood flooring engineered or otherwise are:

• Durability; wood flooring can be found in houses that are several hundred years old.
• Healthy choices; unlike carpets this type of flooring doesn’t provide a home for bacteria and dust mites that can trigger allergies or asthma.
• Maintenance; easy to clean, care for and resistant to spills, children and pets.  In the event of serious damage to a section engineered or bamboo material flooring can be replaced without having to take up the whole floor.
• Environmental factor; perhaps surprisingly, wood flooring is generally more environmentally friendly than other types.  Less energy is used in their manufacture and when sourced from sustainable forests the environmental impact is limited.

Why Bamboo?

Bamboo is considered by many to be the most environmentally friendly material available on the market.  Bamboo is fast growing and once harvested replacement planting takes only five years to mature.  In the case of hardwoods this period is a minimum of twenty five years.  In addition the bamboo plant has a high leaf surface area which makes it an extremely efficient carbon dioxide processor.  In terms of renewable resources, bamboo flooring scores high on any environmental checklist.  As a flooring material, it has a number of fantastic qualities and can in fact be better than traditional hard wood.  These qualities are:

• The fibrous quality of bamboo material flooring makes it harder than most hardwoods.  This makes it strong, long lasting and versatile.
• All wood flooring is susceptible to the atmospheric conditions.  Some warping can be expected in any hard wood product but again, thanks to its qualities, bamboo  is much more stable than its wooden counterparts.
• Cost; thanks to the fact that bamboo is sourced from a material that grows quickly it is one of the cheaper materials available – it combines all the qualities in terms of finish and look that you’ll find in the case of hard wood flooring, but doesn’t have the same price tag.

The floor of the future?

A relative newcomer to the wood flooring market bamboo has a number of advantages over the traditional hard wood flooring products.  Cheaper than solid wood flooring, but with the same look and style, and more hard wearing than most other products bamboo flooring offers an affordable alternative to hard wood.  In terms of manufacture and sustainability, bamboo is possibly the most environmentally friendly of all flooring choices.  Without compromising on looks, environmental considerations and without breaking the bank, bamboo covered flooring looks set to become one of our favourite floor coverings.

A relative newcomer to the world of flooring, Bamboo flooring is proving to be a popular choice for many homeowners.  With all the benefits of hard wood but without the environmental cost, bamboo is also a cheaper solution than more traditional products.