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There are several reasons why you should buy strand woven bamboo flooring. These reasons cover such areas as price, health, look and the environment.

Nowadays there is so much choice for the consumer when it comes to buying something to cover a floor. You can get carpet, laminate flooring, engineered hardwood flooring, hardwood flooring and bamboo flooring. Of all of these choices I believe bamboo flooring, and in particular, strand woven bamboo flooring is the best.

Carpets look good and feel warm under foot but they are becoming less popular because they collect allergens which can affect the health of people, especially people suffering from allergies. Carpets also tend to permanently stain and wear thin over time.

Laminate flooring is far from ideal. It is a cheap flooring material. Although it is allergen free it is often made from melamine resin that contains formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a volatile organic compound that off-gases easily and is inimical to human and pet life.

Engineered hardwood flooring is a popular choice of flooring. It looks like hardwood and is allergen free. However, it only has a thin layer of hardwood over a plywood base. This means that it can only survive one or two sandings before the hardwood top layer is worn through. Thus, engineered hardwood flooring is cheaper than hardwood flooring. You get what you paid for because it doesn’t last as long as hardwood flooring.

For many people hardwood flooring such as oak, maple or ash is the ideal flooring type. The wood has a beautiful grain and looks great in a room. It is hard-wearing and strong. If properly maintained it can last a life time. The main drawback is that hardwood flooring is the result of chopping down hardwood trees. Hardwood trees take between 60 and 130 years to reach maturity. Taking hardwood trees from rain forests for flooring is an ecological crime. Trees are needed to absorb carbon and produce oxygen; they are the backbone of many eco-systems. Even taking lumber from sustainably managed forests is far from ideal because trees grow too slowly to be considered a renewable resource.

In contrast bamboo only takes four or five years to reach maturity. For this reason bamboo is a renewable resource. Bamboo can be grown organically because bamboo contains a ‘kun’ substance that fights pathogens and pests. Furthermore, bamboo is self-propagating through its complex root system. Strand woven bamboo is made by stripping bamboo into strands and boiling the strands to remove the sugar. The strands are then compressed with heat and a low VOC adhesive to make strand woven bamboo. Strand woven bamboo is very dense and hard. It can be easily milled into flooring planks. The resulting flooring planks vary in color between a light gold and a rich brown. Like hardwood flooring, strand woven bamboo flooring looks beautiful in a room and is easy to maintain. Strand woven bamboo flooring is harder than most hardwoods and so can withstand high-traffic situations. Not only is strand woven bamboo flooring allergen free but it also has antibacterial properties that makes it even healthier than hardwood flooring. And finally, not only does installing strand woven bamboo flooring mean that you are helping the environment but it normally costs less than hardwood flooring. Thus, in nearly every respect strand woven bamboo flooring is the best type of flooring to buy.