Here in the United States, the flooring industry is a hugely important one. In fact, it’s an industry that bought in more than $21.5 billion dollars in sales in the year of 2017 alone, covering more than 19.5 billion square feet of ground. In addition to this, a growth of more than 3.5% in monetary amount was seen over the course of this same year alone – marking a growth of more than 3% in the volume of sales as well.
And there’s really no surprise as to why flooring is so successful as an industry here in the United States. After all, flooring is essential to the integrity of just about any building, from homes to commercial buildings to public buildings as well. Without flooring, our buildings and structures would not be nearly as nice, as comfortable, or, of course, as safe. But there are so many types of flooring options to choose from.
When anyone looks at flooring options, you’ll have a world of them to choose from. Carpeting, for instance, can be ideal for rooms like bedrooms and living rooms (though it is more likely than not to be avoided for spaces like bathrooms and kitchens just because of the nature of the room). Tile is also commonplace, as it is can be found frequently in kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms/utility rooms. Finally, linoleum and vinyl flooring options allows home owners to cultivate a sophisticated look while saving money.
Hardwood flooring, however, is incredibly popular here in the United States. In fact, this is so much the case that many people will actually pay more for a home that incorporates hardwood flooring over the other types of flooring that are currently available. Hardwood flooring can be found in the entirety of homes or even in just parts of them. For many people, the ultimate dream of home ownership is to own a home that has hardwood floors – at least throughout part of the home.
But hardwood floors are far from ideal fro a number of different reasons. For one thing, they can be quite expensive. Many people simple can’t front the cost for the installation of hardwood floors at any part in the home owning process. But this is not the only reason to consider veering away from the hardwood flooring options that are available to you.
Unfortunately, hardwood flooring is far from environmentally friendly. Though up to 30% of the world is currently covered by forest land, this will not be the case for long if deforestation continues at this rate. Trees cut down for hardwood flooring is far from sustainable – and contributes to deforestation – due to the fact that the typical hardwood tree will take no less than 20 years to grow to the maturity. In some cases, certain varieties of hardwood trees can take more than half of a century – a full 60 years in total – before they are fully considered to be mature.
So what is a viable alternative to hardwood flooring that’s still very high quality? Strand bamboo floors can provide a great option for those who are looking for sustainable flooring. But why are strand bamboo floors so sustainable? Simply put – because bamboo itself is. A bamboo plant can reach full maturity in the course of a mere three years, making it a plant that can be harvested and grown again in quite a short period of time, unlike the vast majority (if not all) of hardwood trees.
In addition to this, strand bamboo floors are of an incredibly high quality, as locking bamboo floors are often harder than traditional hardwoods. And strand bamboo floors come in many varieties, with gray bamboo flooring being particularly popular. Strand bamboo floors, however, can come in many different shades – which means, of course, that just about any home can benefit aesthetically (as well as environmentally too) from the use of strand bamboo floors all throughout.
Choosing a type of flooring can be more complicated than most people realize, as there are simply so many options to choose from. Strand bamboo floors are, for many, the ideal option.