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Bamboo Flooring Fairview Heights IL

Although it's not technically a hardwood, bamboo flooring offers comparable benefits and beauty. Read on to learn more about this eco-friendly flooring choice and see if it’s right for your home.

Local Companies

Becky's Carpet & Tile Super
(618) 624-2004
1851 W US Hwy 50
O Fallon, IL
X-Treme Carpet Cleaning
618-451-8044
1610 Maple St
Granite City, IL
Dove Flooring
(618) 659-9027
2316 Troy Rd
Edwardsville, IL
Big Bob's Flooring Outlet
(314) 647-9300
2645 S Hanley Rd
Saint Louis, MO
Reinhold Flooring Inc
(314) 894-1319
5429 Telegraph Rd
Saint Louis, MO
Custom Floors & More Inc
(618) 632-4719
125 Carbon Hill Rd
O Fallon, IL
Greenfield Custom Interior
(314) 481-8886
3214 Meramec St
Saint Louis, MO
JadeMask Flooring Products Group
(314) 494-1816
4579 Laclede Ave, #334
Saint Louis, MO
Merx Flooring Llc
(314) 544-7464
8744 Mackenzie Rd
Saint Louis, MO
Floors Done Right
(636) 238-0630
25 N Marguerite Ave
Saint Louis, MO
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Bamboo Flooring
Similar To Hardwood And Green Too

Bamboo flooring may sound somewhat exotic and to some degree it is. Compared to traditional hardwoods it a relative newcomer to the flooring scene. It mimics wood floors yet it offers a distinctly different look from the well-known grain patterns of an oak or maple floor.

Naturally a blond, it can also be a brunette thanks to a process called 'carbonization' that turns the bamboo a caramel color. And it also has a light environmental footprint, being a renewable resource and a quick-growing one at that.

So, bamboo has looks and personality, and it's a good environmental citizen. Should you run out and get some now? Hopefully that's what the information below will help you decide.

Bamboo can be a great flooring surface and there's a lot of information out there touting it's virtues. But like most other things, there's the good and not so good about bamboo you should understand before you buy. Take a closer look and see if it's the right choice for your next floor.

What Exactly Is A Bamboo Floor - Is It The Same As Wood?

   

You probably know what bamboo looks like but if you're not familiar with a bamboo floor, it's understandable if it's hard to visualize how hollow poles end up as flat boards.

A bamboo floor looks like a wood floor but the only difference is that the planks are made out of numerous smaller strips of bamboo that have been milled into straight pieces and glued together.

It looks like wood, feels like wood and can be stained like wood but officially it's not a wood. Bamboo is actually a "grass".

The material used for bamboo floors is taken from the "culm" of the bamboo plant.

The culm is the stalk or 'trunk' of the plant and produces bamboo poles with the characteristic nodes that flare out along its length, appearing to segment the pole into many sections.

The poles are dried and then cut into thin strips which are planed to shape them straight and square. These strips are then laminated (glued) together to form the larger planks that make up a bamboo floor.

Common Terms
Before going any further it helps to get familiar with some common terms that are associated with bamboo flooring. The first has to do with how the strips that make up the plank are oriented when they're glued together to form a larger plank. You'll come across these terms in bamboo floor brochures and other manufacturer literature.

Vertical grain bamboo has the strips oriented so their edges form the top surface of the board. Vertical grain is sometimes referred to as edge grain.

bamboo floor vertical grain bamboo floor vertical grain
Two examples of vertical grain (click on image for larger view)

Horizontal grain bamboo aligns the edges of these strips next to each other so that the face of the strip forms the surface of the plank. Horizontal grain is sometimes called flat grain. The nodes or "knuckles" on the bamboo stalk are visible with a horizontal grain pattern, ...

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