Home Flooring Guide

If you had a discussion with friends on the topic of "the most beautiful floors", you would get plenty of votes for hardwood.  The appeal of hardwood is both because of the striking color and feel of wood but also that sense of having a natural flooring under your feet.  There is something in us that is naturally drawn to wood which no doubt is part of our nature as creatures of this world.  Just as we all enjoy camping or hiking to be close to nature's splendor, having wood around in our home touches that same part of who we are.

Sadly, the love of wood can result in us hurting nature's splendor as more and more commercial use of wood is causing the forests of the world to disappear.  This is a significant concern that we all have become more aware of as the "green" movement has taken off and helped us all become more aware of how to "think globally but act locally" to live our lives in environmentally friendly ways.

Bamboo - A Natural Alternative to Hardwood

All of us have to find ways to live in environmentally friendly ways and find substitutes for products we love that are not in step with our "green" values.  If you already have a hardwood floor, then there is no reason to feel guilty because the wood is already down.  Just take very good care of it so you don't have to replace planks or the whole floor with more hardwood products which continues to stress our planet.

But for a new floor, there is a natural alternative to hardwood that is natural and beautiful and that brings lots of personality and grace to your room.  That alternative is bamboo.  If you have ever been in a nightclub, an office or a home where bamboo was used as part of the décor, you know how relaxing, fun and enjoyable bamboo can be as part of any interior decorating scheme.  But bamboo is also a perfect green alternative to hardwood because utilizing bamboo does not harm our environment.

When is a Wood NOT a Wood?

This may seem contradictory because bamboo has to be harvested to make wood products from it just like any other wood.  But bamboo grows in tremendous abundance all around the world.  Bamboo will grow in areas of the world that have been farmed out or where other products will not grow.  Moreover, when bamboo is harvested, the original bamboo plant is not destroyed.  Bamboo is actually a grass so when workers cut down bamboo, that is actually good for the bamboo plant the same way cutting your grass of your yard is good for it too.

Bamboo grows quite quickly going from a sprout to ready to harvest in 4-6 years.  Unlike hardwood that can take decades to grow, bamboo farmers can continue to produce bamboo by rotating their harvesting fields to keep the world supplied in this renewable wood substitutive without any drain on nature's resources.  Bamboo is grown all around the world so you are not depleting one particular are of the world.  And because bamboo grows back from the undamaged roots and trunk when it is harvested, there really is no ecological damage done to the bamboo plant at all when it is taken to be turned into beautiful bamboo flooring for your home.

It's Easier Than You Think

If this is the first time you thought of using bamboo instead of traditional hardwood for your new flooring, its easier than you may think to find bamboo suppliers and to learn more about what can be done with bamboo.  Many experts in bamboo flooring give out free advice as part of their way of using their expertise to further the environmental movement in the flooring area of business.

When you look a little further into the many styles of bamboo flooring, you will be pleasantly surprised how often bamboo floors blend into any décor.  You are not trapped into a Caribbean style décor.  Many bamboo flooring designs look identity to other high quality hardwood floors.  But when you buy bamboo as an alternative flooring, you get all the benefits of hardwood floors but you do so while continuing to live in an environmentally friendly way.  That is a great compromise.