Eco Friendly Bamboo Flooring

There are more choices for kitchen flooring than ever before. Bamboo flooring, like any type of kitchen flooring, has it upside and downsides. Bamboo is available in various types from flat grain to stand woven to name a few. Choosing a color and pattern is not too difficult because there are not to many to choose from! Made from sustainable products, bamboo is considered by many to be eco-friendly as well as esthetically pleasing.


Vinyl, linoleum, cork, tile, hard wood, laminate, stone, stainless steel, engineered wood, all make up the list of choices of readily available materials for kitchen floors. Among each of these choices are more choices for color, textures and patterns making the possibilities seem almost endless. So which floor is best? The answer to that question is simple and you have probably already guess it… None. There is no best floor. Some are actually quite equal when it comes to pros and cons. It most often comes to personal preference.


If you have not already looked at bamboo for one of the options for a kitchen flooring material consider it. It is just as hard as maple and wears better than oak. It looks like natural wood and comes from environmentally friendly materials. Sounds pretty good… It also has a few drawbacks. Bamboo does not take stain very well (although it can come pre-stained from the factory which is usually quite nice) and so it is not available in many colors. Pre-finished boards don’t seal as well as something like laminate.


Bamboo comes in four main flavors which have to do with grain. Flat grain, vertical grain, end grain and woven strands. The toughest ones are end grain and woven. All of them are still good and tough for your kitchen flooring though. So if your budget is lower and you want to save a few bucks flat grain is usually cheaper and yet still does a great job.


Bamboo grows at an alarming rate compared to trees where most of our wood comes from. Most bamboo plants will reach their maximum height in half a year. In as little as 4 years they are ready for harvest. It is not hard to see why it is considered more eco friendly than regular hard woods.