Although it’s often taken for granted, the floor of any building is very important, whether it’s a hardwood floor in a house or the concrete floor of a warehouse. Home residents or guests in a public building will soon notice, and probably complain, if there’s an issue with the flooring, so a building owner may invest in the finest flooring possible. All buildings have floors and today’s construction industry is enormous in the United States, meaning that the flooring industry is a large one to match. Concrete floors are typical of industrial sites and basements, while most other floors will be made of hardwood. But today, there are alternatives to hardwood floors, such as bamboo flooring instead. Bamboo flooring manufacturers, often in China, are taking advantage of this highly renewable resource to make quality flooring that is ecologically friendly. The same is true of flooring made from eucalyptus, and different types of bamboo flooring features such as planks and bamboo floor trim can be bought wholesale today. What is there to know about bamboo floor trim and making a fine floor?
Flooring Today
For the most part, hardwood species native to North America have been used for construction ever since the colonial days, to make furniture, boats, houses, and more. Species such as oak, redwood, and cherry have proven quite popular for this, and that tradition continues to the present day, even for something as mundane as flooring. Hardwood houses and floors are known to last a long time, and some historic buildings can easily allow modern guests to walk around on floors that may be 100-250 years old or more. And today, the flooring industry is not only steady, but also growing, for both construction jobs and home renovation work. Many surveyed industry employees such as flooring contractors, engineers, and distributors and manufacturers were surveyed about this, and most agree that the industry may see 3% growth in the next few years. One in three of them even expected a generous 8% growth in that time frame.
There will always be a robust demand for wooden flooring, but the constant use of hardwood has faced some criticism, since a lot of logging of North American forests is needed to provide all that lumber. Hardwood trees grow slowly and take time to mature, and excessive logging, as critics say, strains forests and leads to habitat destruction. But the flooring industry can’t simply stop, so an alternative route exists: use renewable materials such as bamboo floor trim and eucalyptus planks instead. Bamboo flooring and bamboo floor trim are not only friendly to hardwood forests, but the don’t even mean compromising the quality of the flooring at all. Many models of bamboo and eucalyptus planks are as tough, if not tougher, than the hardwood that they replace.
Using Bamboo
At first, bamboo might seem like an odd choice for flooring, since it’s technically a grass. However, modern Chinese manufacturers have found a way to convert mature bamboo shoots into flooring that’s though and useful for modern flooring needs around the world. Once the woody bamboo stalks reach maturity, they are harvested, then sliced and shredded into fibers. Now, these fibers are compressed and formed into highly durable planks with heat, pressure, and glue to form the final product. These boards can serve as floorboards and trimming alike, and are exported around the world from China, including the United States.
Why bamboo? These plants are renowned for growing very fast, and a harvested plant can regrow shoots with nearly unmatched speed in the plant kingdom. This means that a given bamboo plant can be harvested for “lumber” many times without killing it. Making heavy use of bamboo flooring and planks relieves a lot of pressure on hardwood forests that aren’t so easy to replace, preserving the natural environment. Bamboo is also easy to care for, since it needs only wet mopping and can be easily refinished if it suffers from scratches or other imperfections. These planks may also be carbonized to form darker colors for aesthetic reasons. Buyers should take note that bamboo suffers from climate extremes, since it may shrink and crack in very dry environments and may warp and twist in very humid ones. Moderate climates may be best for this flooring type.
