Many smart homeowners are choosing bamboo as a flooring option in their home due to its versatility, price and ecological footprint. Andersens stock bamboo products in a range of colours, sizes and manufacturing styles including fully floating click locked floors.
Apart from using the latest trend in floor coverings and giving your home some ‘wow’ factor, there are several advantages to using bamboo flooring compared to hardwood flooring.
First, bamboo flooring is an environmentally friendly product. It takes only a few years for a bamboo plant to grow to maturity, while it takes decades for hardwood trees. And when bamboo is harvested, the root continues to live and produces new stock. Each year, one ‘mother plant’ generates several new bamboo stems that grow to full length in a few months, and to mature hardness in about five years. Bamboo plants are therefore quickly replenished following a harvest.
Second, bamboo is actually harder than hardwood so it makes more durable flooring.
Third, in most cases bamboo is less expensive than hardwood while installation costs are the same. Hardwood installers and contractors need no additional training to install bamboo flooring. Bamboo can be installed using exactly the same tools and methods as are used for installing hardwood.
It’s reassuring that bamboo can be installed in virtually any room of your home, above or below ground, over wood, OSB (Oriented Strand Board), or existing vinyl flooring. There are several locations that are not recommended for bamboo flooring. Because bamboo flooring is a natural flooring product it is not recommended that bamboo be installed in wet locations such as bathrooms, washrooms, saunas, enclosed porches or verandas, or anywhere that may require wet-mopping. Extended exposure to moisture of this type may cause your bamboo flooring to warp or swell.
There are a number of benefits for using bamboo flooring…
– Bamboo floors are easy to clean.
– Bamboo floors are ideal for allergy sufferers as they do not promote dust or harbor dust mites.
– Bamboo flooring is an inexpensive alternative to hardwood flooring, usually costing 25 to 50 per cent less than hardwood.
– Bamboo flooring is long-lasting.
– Bamboo flooring can be installed over numerous types of sub-floors such as: wood, sheathing grade plywood, vinyl tile, or Oriented Strand Board.
– Bamboo floors are environmentally friendly. They use a quickly renewable crop. Made with safe resins, they have extremely low formaldehyde emissions and make excellent floors for healthy homes.
Our preferred supplier, Clever Bamboo, ensures that the product they supply Andersens is harvested and manufactured using the latest extremely environmental friendly techniques, incorporating compliance with the E1 standards. It is stronger than most hardwoods, and it does not take hundreds of years to grow, as do hardwoods of comparable density.
Bamboo grows into a mature tree ready to harvest approximately every 4 years. Each tree in the managed bamboo forest is identified and selected for the season and year for harvest. Unlike wood plantations, the bamboo trees are not all harvested at the same time, so the bamboo forests are not clear felled. This process ensures that the bamboo forest is always present to help reduce greenhouse gases.
Furthermore, the whole bamboo tree is used effectively for manufactured products, from flooring to tooth picks, eliminating any waste. It looks and feels like hardwood, but of course it is so much more environmentally friendly.
Contact your local Andersens store today to find out more about a bamboo flooring solution to meet your specific requirements.
