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Interested in bamboo flooring? Frequently touted as a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to hardwood floors, bamboo has become a popular building choice for people trying to save money and get a wood floor look without the environmental downsides of wood floors. Unfortunately, many of the benefits of bamboo have downsides that aren't as well known or easy to get around.

The Positive Side Of Bamboo Floors

Bamboo grows in many areas of the world, and it can grow back and be harvested once every three to seven years. This makes it a sustainable crop that will replenish at a much faster rate than the trees used for hardwood flooring, which take much longer to grow to maturity. Because of this sustainability, bamboo has become one of the most popular choices for people looking to build with green materials.

The cost of bamboo is much cheaper than traditional hardwood flooring, frequently coming in at less than half the cost of a standard wood floor. Because of the sustainable nature of bamboo, it is much faster and easier to produce enough of the material to meet demand at a lower price.

Bamboo floors are beautiful and versatile. Bamboo can be cut several ways to produce a wide variety of beautiful grain patterns and styles. It can also be dyed and finished in a variety of colors that mimic many more expensive hardwood flooring options, creating enough choice to make just about anyone find a bamboo flooring style they like.

Problems With Bamboo

Unfortunately, since bamboo is much lighter and softer than hardwood floors, there are durability issues in some environments. Bamboo can be problematic in areas with a high humidity, since the softness can create unevenness and warping concerns. In any environment bamboo is more likely than hardwood to sustain damage from things like high heels and rowdy children. Bamboo is also prone to bleaching out when exposed to a lot of direct sunlight, so it can have issues in sunny rooms over time.

Bamboo isn't exactly as environmentally friendly as it is billed to be. While bamboo itself is sustainable, the popularity of the grass has led to the clear-cutting of forests in China to grow bamboo for Western floors. Many companies are also using dangerous farming practices when growing bamboo, since the industry doesn't have much oversight yet. Finding bamboo for floors for sale that is fair trade certified and checked by environmental oversight groups is still difficult, which makes it hard to buy bamboo responsibly without a lot of research.

Due to the lack of oversight in some of the bamboo produced overseas, there is a safety risk with some cheaper bamboo. The high demand has produced a large amount of cheap bamboo flooring options that are glued with formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals before they are shipped. Because of these issues, it is important to fully research a flooring company before making a bamboo purchase to make sure they are buying bamboo that uses safe, water based adhesives that have been inspected in the U.S.