Recent advancements in the bamboo manufacturing industry have made it a worthy competitor to traditional hardwood flooring. Research shows that home owners prefer hard surface flooring to carpet. In fact, 90 percent of these homes sell faster than carpeted homes. Buyers are also willing to pay more for hard flooring, with 54 percent of respondents indicating this fact in a recent US National Association of Realtors study.

However, most people tend to associate these preferences with hardwood alone. Bamboo does not have the established reputation that materials like oak, maple and birch do. But it should. Materials suppliers have developed technology to make bamboo highly comparable to other flooring materials, beating out many of them in their own game.

Durability

Bamboo can exude the character of wood, but it is not wood in the traditional sense. It is technically a large grass considering the way it grows.

Yet, depending on the species bamboo is just as hard as most trees you will find. Using the Janka Hardness Scale — a scientific way of measuring density and scratch-resistance — most bamboo lies between 1,200 to 1,400 psi. This number equals 12 percent higher than North American maple and 25 percent higher than red oak.

Bamboo becomes even harder when it is peeled into strands and recompressed with resin, creating an engineered floor material that is 3,000 psi on the Janka Scale. This flooring is one of the hardest possible surfaces without importing costly woods like ibe.

This strength means that the material will not only stand up to wear and pressure, but it will also not deform. When it comes to flooring that will not expand, buckle or warp, bamboo has the clear advantage.

Appearance

Hardwood has always been regarded as beautiful, but bamboo can achieve stunning looks because of its unique appearance. There are also many new techniques of staining the bamboo or adding a veneer.

These processes mean that you can find bamboo in any color, texture or effect you could imagine. Scraped bamboo can even mimic the appearance of traditional woods.

Sustainable

Bamboo’s best feature is that it is environmentally friendly. A single bamboo chute can grow as much as three feet in a day. While many trees take 60 to 70 years to reach harvesting age, bamboo can reach maturity in as little as four years.

As we move into the future and gain new standards in green building, materials like bamboo will be preferred over hardwoods. More and more home buyers are finding appeal in bamboo as a result.

Because of all these advantages, one can see why bamboo has begun to earn its place alongside hardwoods as a flooring choice. There are still many reasons to choose hardwoods, but bamboo flooring is at least worth considering.

For more advice on the latest renovation trends that can help sell your Burnaby real estate home, take a look at our selling page.