Home Flooring Guide

We tend to "pigeon hole" bamboo flooring based on conspicuous ways we have seen bamboo used in interior decorating plans.  The stereotype of a bamboo décor that is used for a Polynesian or oriental setting is one that is often used in movies as well as in many bars and restaurants.  The reason it’s a good idea to get a better feel for the diversity of types and styles of bamboo flooring is that bamboo is a very diverse flooring material that should take its place as a serious alternative to more expensive hardwood flooring options.

The Many Faces of Bamboo

Depending on what you are looking for, bamboo can take on the look and feel of almost any kind of hardwood flooring. But there are styles of flooring that also take advantage of the unique personality that bamboo brings with it when it is molded into a fine flooring product.  That kind of bamboo style is called woven bamboo flooring and it truly captures the natural beauty of bamboo.  It is a great flooring style if you want to create an exotic and yet still very beautiful atmosphere using bamboo as the base in the flooring you pick.

But the woven bamboo style is not all that bamboo flooring has to offer.  You can also get bamboo flooring that is just as beautiful and useful in many kinds of installations.  There is a wide variety of styles that use a straight forward solid horizontal grain design.  The colors for bamboo flooring are generally light as that is the color of bamboo when it is harvested.  But in every other respect bamboo flooring is just as durable, just as beautiful and far less expensive than many conventional hardwood flooring choices.

Under the Beautiful Exterior

Many of the design choices you have when it comes to bamboo flooring have to do with how the flooring is made.  You can save a lot of money and get just as much functionality from a bamboo laminate or engineered bamboo design for hardwood flooring.  Engineered bamboo is just as beautiful as pure bamboo flooring.  The difference is that the flooring is made of layers of wood that are pressed together to create the same density as pure hardwood flooring.  But only the top layer is decorative bamboo wood. The filler wood may be plywood, pressboard or some less expensive wood that is just as functional as flooring but not the display quality wood needed to dress up a room the way popular hardwood flooring does.

In every respect, engineered bamboo flooring holds up just as well as pure bamboo flooring.  The outer bamboo veneer is just a beautiful as pure bamboo flooring.  In fact, if you go the engineered bamboo route, the odds are that your guests will never know that your flooring is not a pure hardwood installation.  Bu the cost of engineered bamboo flooring is significantly lower making it a worthwhile option if you are doing your remodeling project on a budget.

Installation Matters

There are two options when it comes to installation of your bamboo flooring.  The choices are whether to secure your flooring to the sub flooring with nails or adhesives or to allow the flooring to just lay on top of the support floor with nothing securing it in place.  The later is known as a floating bamboo floor.  And while it might sound like the floating design is not as secure and safe, there are lots of advantages to going with a floating floor design.

The floating design is not constricted by adhesives or nails.  That means the floor can move and breathe with the atmosphere without danger of breaks or cracks occurring around the nail holes.  Also because you use no adhesives, if you need to perform a repair or take up the floor to move or replace it, there is no clean up of messy adhesive product underneath.  And the floating installation method has been in use for quite some time during which it has been shown to be just as secure and stable as any installation method that uses adhesives or nails.

There are more decisions to make when you pick a bamboo flooring style than you may have realized.  It is good to continue to get informed about what your choices are so  you will be happy with the look, the construction and even the installation method used to lay your beautiful bamboo hardwood floor.