Is Bamboo Flooring Environmentally Better Than "Normal" Hardwood Flooring?

Most commonly grown in East and South East Asia, bamboo is an evergreen grass, with the giant bamboo being the largest species of the world's grass family. The strong, fibrous plant is fast growing. Some varieties are capable of growing 100 cm per day given the right climate and soil properties and nutrients. Asians have long used the plant or tree as it is sometimes recognized for various purposes. Over centuries of using bamboo for construction, they developed methods for constructing houses, bridges and more. In years more recent, they focused more on sheeting and beams. Marketing bamboo to the west for laminated sheeting for flooring became popular in the 1990s, and, currently, questions about environmental advantages encircle this product.

Manufacturing Bamboo Flooring

The process of creating flooring from bamboo requires cutting long strips, planing and boiling them in lime or boric acid. The treatment not only makes the fibers pliable, but also discourages insects. Drying them flat, then, gluing and pressing them creates the sheeting. Steaming under heat and pressure can darken the bamboo for an oak look, but this process softens the product so that the fibers are softer than pinewood. Many manufacturers use laminate adhesives, resins and a lacquer finish that is controversial since these substances emit toxins and/or are not so environmentally friendly, still, the emissions are less than with particleboards. Alternative bamboo floor sheets are processed without these toxic adhesives and finishes.

Comparing Hardwood

Bamboo flooring is durable and long lasting as are hardwood flooring options, seeming to be comparable in hardness to oak if the bamboo does not go through the pressurized steam process. Value, hardiness, and quality vary widely as manufacturers attempt to balance product quality and profit. Then, the variety of styles are more and more diverse, as are hardwood, and wider promotion is making bamboo flooring more widely known and accepted. Still, hardwood laminated sheeting has varying quality levels, and design styles as well.

Environmental Progress

Bamboo is definitely a renewable resource. Bamboo is mature when its age is between three and six years. Six years is optimum for durability and strength of the flooring. The growth-rate for is phenomenal when compared with the twenty to over one hundred years other hardwood trees take to mature. The propagation of the rhizome is simple and so planting and replanting costs are minimal. No irrigation or pesticide is required during growth period. Of course, bamboo must be shipped to the west and this uses fuel energy. Scientists and manufacturers are still looking for ways to make bamboo flooring even more environmentally beneficial. While improvements must be made, the clearly sustainable advantages of bamboo does place bamboo flooring on favorable ecological footing when compared with other hardwood, laminated sheeting.