Hardwood Flooring Vs Bamboo Floors


Considering many homeowners have been choosing bamboo flooring over Hardwood flooring vs bamboo
traditional hardwood flooring, we often wonder if the trend will continue. From a personal standpoint I saw the interest begin in the mid 90’s as it became popular with decorators in South Florida.

At that time many looked at bamboo as a tropical choice, or at least in a southern climate. Those same individuals thought bamboo could go by the wayside as a fad in a few years, but the demand has remained strong, becoming popular in geographical areas one would not have suspected.

Traditional strip floor markets or ones that used local resources such as the Northwest with Fir flooring have taken bamboo seriously and it’s now considered one of the top exotic flooring choices. Once again will the trend continue? More important, how will consumers view bamboo flooring in decades to come.

Moving Forward to 2025

We all know how designing trends can change, but jumping ahead fifteen years what will the landscape look like? There’s no doubt the presence of eco friendly materials will still be on the minds of many. It’s a given fact using friendlier building materials is here to stay. But does bamboo actually fill all those claims of being one of the best choices around?

Grown Quickly. Bamboo Is A Snap Choice For The Green Movement

Bamboo is the quickest growing plant we use for flooring. The fact that plantations can renourish their crop fields every five or seven years is a far cry from hardwood forests that can take generations to achieve. This makes bamboo a definite winner in so far as creating an eco friendly building material.

What many do not take into account with bamboo and other natural resources is where it’s sourced or where it comes from. Bamboo gets an A+ in the renew ability movement, but grades poorly when it comes to the resources used to get the product to market, specifically the USA.

Nearly all bamboo originates in the Far East and often travels 6 to 9,000 miles until it gets installed in your living room. More traditional hardwood floors can be as close as 50 miles to 1,500 depending on where you live. It’s simple math when you look at the amount of non renewable energy consumed in transportation.

Domestic Hardwood Flooring Wins

Traditional hardwood flooring in the likes of Oak, Maple, Walnut, and Cherry are a sustainable local resource. Local, (and this is the kicker) in that transporting raw materials from the forest to your living room floor is a huge winner compared to bamboo.

Other Changes With Domestic Hardwood

A number of companies are taking the grown in the USA eco movement further. This part relates to engineered flooring, which is gaining a large share of the hardwood flooring market. Companies like Shaw hardwood are replacing materials used in the construction of their products with recycled material that would otherwise be dumped into landfills.

From the surface it may sound like a cheaper product, but it is an alternative that will gain steam when considering the number of trees saved. Essentially the way it works is the underlying material used with nearly all engineered hardwoods is made up of additional hardwood. The newest form utilizes the waste product from the actual construction in the form of sawdust, shavings and other by products resulting in saving 50% more trees.

Yes, it’s cheaper when looking at the construction under the actual surface of the flooring, but the overall appearance is no different than traditional hardwood flooring. Acceptance of a different type of flooring may remain a problem in the short term.

Imported Bamboo

As of this writing there have been no moves from overseas manufacturers to keep up with friendlier core materials. Even if they did, it still would not replace the advantage of buying US lumber when it comes to non renewable energy use with transportation and it’s effects on the environment.

Comparing Design Options

Hardwood flooring wins by a large margin here. Considering bamboo offers only three basic design options due to the limited dimensions and characteristics of the tree, it cannot hold a candle to genuine hardwood flooring. Styles include horizontal, vertical and strand bamboo only. Looking at hardwood, many options exist because of the inherent makeup of the tree it comes from. For instance, the center of the tree offers more color variation in the sapwood portion. Outer parts create the character floors many crave for today that include knots, burls, and other natural variations.

Bamboo also has no stand out graining as many hardwood species do. It only offers a consistent stranding appearance broken up by the nodes of the tree itself. The overall appearance can often become repetitious as the node patterns are exact. Basically bamboo has no creative character compared to hardwood.

Looking at hardwood, each individual species (and there are dozens used for flooring) offer unique grain patterns and color. While bamboo may have some color variation from one board to another, the tones remain on the yellow or brownish side.

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Related Pages:

• Bamboo Hardness Differences - Do they scratch?
• Installing Bamboo Floors
• Bamboo Flooring Styles, Appearances
• Bamboo Maintenance Problems