Renew My Home Blog

Bamboo: Beautiful for Bedrooms, Basements, and Everywhere in Between

Considering floor replacement for your next home improvement project? When choosing your new floors, be sure to check out bamboo. Bamboo flooring is an environmentally and budget-friendly product with a variety of options and benefits.

Bamboo and Budget
Bamboo flooring prices vary. Be wary of retailers who tell you bamboo is 50% cheaper than traditional hardwoods. In actuality, quality bamboo flooring is comparable in price with most hardwoods, averaging $2 to $4 per square foot. If you’re choosing not to install the flooring yourself, it’s good to know that bamboo installation requires no special tools or training, so it should cost the same as installing any hardwood floor.

Bamboo Basics
Provided you have the right tools and some willing helpers, laying bamboo flooring can be a fast home improvement project with dramatic, beautiful results. Aside from being attractive, it is available in several shades, easy to maintain, and ideal for people with allergies. It is also an incredibly durable floor replacement option, with most brands offering 25-year warranties. Plus, bamboo flooring can be installed over many existing types of flooring, dramatically reducing the time and expense of a floor replacement project.

What’s So Green About Bamboo?
Bamboo has become a common flooring choice in recent years, and one of the reasons for this surge in popularity is that bamboo is a sustainable, renewable natural resource. This aspect of bamboo flooring gives homeowners the option of a high-quality, beautiful end product while also meeting their desire to reduce their environmental impact.

Because bamboo is a grass, not a tree, it reaches maturity in five years compared with the 50 years it takes to grow an oak suitable for flooring use. As well, bamboo is cut without killing the plant’s root, which actually begins to regrow immediately with very little human intervention (such as fertilization, herbicides, or pesticides). This makes bamboo a truly sustainable natural resource and, ultimately, an environmentally conscientious choice for floor replacement.

Photo Credit: subindie