Wood is still a very important construction material, and has not been made obsolete by the likes of steel and plastic. Some materials are best left to wood, and this ranges from furniture to the walls of a house and its attic to the floorboards. The floor of a building is often taken for granted and is practically invisible, but a homeowner will soon notice (and complain) if the floor of their house is compromised somehow. The same is true if the floor of a public building is warped and damaged, or stained and scratched. The modern American flooring industry is a big one, and this is because it’s often a part of both the construction and home remodeling industries as well. Installation instructions for floor trim, planks, and more may be learned at a trade school, and the installation instructions for some materials may vary.

Flooring for homes and public buildings is often made of hardwood, and many species in North America have been used since the colonial days for making furniture, houses, and of course, flooring. Installation instructions for hardwood have been used for many years, but what about the installation instructions for different types of bamboo flooring such as bamboo flooring planks and engineered bamboo floor trimming? Thee is a growing market for using bamboo flooring rather than hardwoods, and this idea is proving quite popular and effective.

The Industry

Flooring today is a major industry, as mentioned above, and flooring work is done both during the construction of a building and for home remodeling. This industry is growing, in fact, and many industry employees such as contractors, suppliers, and distributors agreed in a survey that this industry may see 3% growth in the next few years. On in three surveyed experts predicted even more generous growth rates, closer to 8%. A homeowner may decide that their old floors are too warped and scratched to put up with any longer, and hire contractors to replace it all.

Modern flooring is often made of hardwood, but there has been some criticism about the necessary logging for making hardwood floors and trim. Today’s huge demand for lumber is straining natural forests, and many Americans are concerned about this constant habitat loss and reduction of forests. However, the flooring and other woodworking industries can’t afford to simply stop, so different types of materials may serve as a substitute. Hardwood forests may be preserved when bamboo shoots are used in their place. Can this really work?

Using Bamboo Shoots

Bamboo is technically a grass, but this Asian plant is known for producing tough, wood-like stalks that can be processed into planks to use for flooring around the world. Not only is bamboo usable this way, but it’s also ecologically sustainable, much more so than hardwood is. A hardwood tree may need 20 years to reach maturity, but a bamboo plant needs only three to five years to mature and produce wooden stalks. And once those stalks are harvested, a bamboo plant may start regrowing its shoots with notorious speed, meaning that the plant can be harvested for bamboo over and over without even killing it. Using enough bamboo this way can ease the strain on many of the world’s hardwood forests.

Bamboo stalk are not used in their natural form for flooring, though. Once harvested, these stalks are then sliced and shredded into fibers, and those fibers will be pressed, heated, and glued together to form very tough planks that can rival hardwood. These planks are then exported around the world from China, and quality bamboo planks can replace hardwood and at a similar price per square foot when installed.

Many American homeowners may opt to have bamboo flooring put in, as may public building owners, to help take part in this economically viable industry and because bamboo flooring is both durable and attractive. It’s also low maintenance, needing only wet mopping or easy refinishing if it suffers scratches. Homeowners should take note, though, that bamboo floors come in a limited range of colors compared to other hardwoods, even if they’re carbonized to darken them. Bamboo suffers from moisture extremes, as very dry environments shrink and crack it and humid regions will cause it to warp and twist. Moderate climates may be best.