Houses and public buildings today always have floors in them, and these floors tend to be made of hardwood planks. Today in North America, native hardwood species such as cherry and oak are used to make hardwood floors, and in fact the use of such hardwoods for construction dates back to colonial times. The flooring industry today is responsible for having all those floors installed, and contractor crews may get assignments from both the construction and the home remodeling industries alike. Hardwood can be bought for a fair price and comes in a wide variety of colors, but there is a competing model out there: bamboo flooring. Chinese bamboo flooring manufacturers are making use of how fast bamboo grows to make natural bamboo flooring, and online engineered bamboo flooring reviews are often encouraging. Eucalyptus wood has also been identified as a viable replacement for hardwoods.
Why are these exotic plants (from a North American perspective) being used for flooring? While hardwood certainly can and does get the job done, the flooring industry is growing fast and this calls for more logging than ever. This is straining hardwood forests, and many critics argue that this is unsustainable and is causing unacceptable habitat destruction. But the flooring industry can’t simply be cut off from its supplies, so bamboo hardwood flooring may take its place. Often, bamboo is favored by many homeowners and public building owners owing to this material’s durability, fair price, and attractive appearance, and many engineered bamboo flooring reviews online may be consulted if a homeowner is unsure how to have their floor remodeled. Homeowners and public building owners alike may write these engineered bamboo flooring reviews to give other consumers an accurate idea of what a bamboo flooring job may end up looking like.
What Engineered Bamboo Flooring Reviews Might Say
Many contractor companies receive customer reviews based on how well (or not) they did when hired, and the quality of the finished product. What about bamboo? While hardwood floors are tough and attractive, such as cherry hardwood floors, bamboo can often compete with hardwood step for step, and at a similar price. Quality bamboo planks from Chinese factories may have a similar price to hardwood floors, and these planks are as tough as hardwood, if not more so. Such bamboo flooring offers a clean and attractive look for any room, and trendy homeowners and museum owners may opt to have these floors installed during remodeling jobs. What is more, bamboo floors can be carbonized for darker shades to expand bamboo’s admittedly narrow range of colors, and these floors are typically low maintenance as well. Cleaning them involves simple wet mopping, and these floors are easy to refinish if they suffer from scratches.
Someone looking to have bamboo floors installed in a new building or remodeled in an existing structure should take caution about the local climate, however. Bamboo is best used in moderate climates, since extremes of aridity or humidity may compromise bamboo floors. Aridity may cause bamboo flooring to shrink and crack, and excess humidity may cause it to warp and twist out of shape, ruining the entire floor. This is something to carefully consider ahead of time.
How and Why Bamboo Floors are Made
North America is already home to hardwoods. Why use bamboo instead? As mentioned above, constant logging is straining hardwood forests, and a hardwood tree needs around 20 years to reach maturity. By contrast, bamboo shoots grow very fast and a bamboo plant can be harvested multiple times without killing it, making it highly sustainable for the natural environment. A bamboo plant needs only three to five years to reach maturity, and once its wooden stalks are harvested, they grow back with notorious speed. Harvesting bamboo (and eucalyptus) like this eases the strain on hardwood forests, which need time to recover from logging.
Bamboo shoots are first processed so that they can form these tough and useful planks for making flooring. The shoots are harvested, then they are sliced and shredded into fibers. Those fibers are then glued, heated, and compressed into planks that rival or even exceed hardwood in durability, not to mention bamboo floor trim as needed. Such bamboo products can then be exported around the world, such as to North America.