Many assume that laminate flooring is the best way to go for a basement. And laminate floors are great for basements, but they’re certainly not the only way to go. If budget is a concern and you’re installing a basement floor yourself, you might think it’s the least expensive option. However, you’d be amazed at the online flooring deals you can find on hardwood flooring, bamboo flooring and even vinyl planks.

If you want hardwood in the basement, look around. You can find engineered hardwood fl;oors, even click hardwood floors for considerably lower than you might expect. Solid hardwood floors aren’t recommended for basements, and though there are solid wood floors you can install in basements, today’s engineered wood floors are durable, beautiful and just plain better for hardwood installations on concrete slabs.

Another option is a new type of flooring that has a recycled HDF core and a veneer of real wood or bamboo. This click engineered HDF core flooring combines the impact resistance and ease to install of a laminate floor, but also gives you the natural material on the surface. Great for basements, these floors give you the best of both worlds.

In many basements, moisture is the enemy. This is also the case in many low-lying areas near the coast where the groundwater levels are higher. Whether it’s a basement or a living room in a Florida beach house, moisture is an issue that can wreak havoc on a floor.

While the above listed floors are basement approved floor covering or approved for hardwood installations over concrete subfloors, basements with excessive moisture or that are prone to flooding will need a moisture barrier. It’s wise to install one, anyway, as concrete contains water which it releases with climatic change. Installing a moisture barrier will catch that evaporation and keep the water from penetrating the floor.

If you love the look of wood, already know that moisture is an issue and are concerned about floor damage, you’re not without hope. Luxury vinyl planks or click vinyl planks might be the right flooring for you. These vinyl floors far exceed the toughness of conventional sheet vinyl floors and are considerably easier to install. In fact, it wouldn’t be recommended for the non-professional to install sheet vinyl, but almost anyone can install click vinyl planks in a basement or anywhere.  Furthermore, the wood patterns available look more like real hardwood than they ever have. In many cases, you can’t even tell the difference.

Many of these click vinyl floors are guaranteed against moisture damage and virtually impenetrable by water. They’re great for kitchens, bathrooms or anywhere moisture is a problem. They can be found in dozens of wood looks, species and colors. If you’re looking for waterproof flooring but still want the look of wood, check out click vinyl flooring. You’ll likely be very impressed with how far it’s come.

The fact is that the flooring industry has changed a lot in the last twenty years. It seems there was a flooring store on every corner, but today they are harder to find.

There are a lot of reasons for this, from the housing market crash to the home centers making a concerted effort to grow the flooring side of their businesses. However, they weren’t necessarily offering the best prices on flooring.

In 1996, Pergo would introduce laminate flooring to the U.S. market and all of the sudden, more consumers were willing to buy the material and perform a diy floor installation. It was now much easier to do, and as time went on, a click laminate would be offered that required no glue. The boards connected at an angle then snapped down into place over a flooring underlayment. No nails, no adhesives, and as you can imagine, this made installation possible for most anyone.

Because of these new easy to install floors, this paved the way for internet flooring retailers to offer diy floors at a significant discount. The advantage was their not having the massive overhead associated with a retail location. The customer had to pay shipping costs, but the savings were still substantial.

The next several years would bring about even more changes with the flooring industry and the types of floors available. Not only were there more options, but you could now get almost every type of floor with a click locking system. Bamboo flooring, cork flooring, hardwood flooring and even vinyl flooring could now be purchased and easily installed by the customer.

Even if the consumer wasn’t performing a diy flooring installation, the floors were still easy enough to install where the customer could have a handyman or someone with little experience do the work and still get a professional looking installation without having to look for a professional flooring installer.

All this would eventually lead to the internet flooring retailer becoming a major force to be reckoned with. Like everything else, consumers were finding that shopping on the internet for flooring was proving to be a viable way to get big discounts. Floor buyers were saving hundreds, even thousands of dollars on new flooring for their homes.

Today, the concept has more than caught-on, as almost everyone is at least researching the internet before making a decision. Those who don’t might not care and would just prefer to have everyone do everything for them and are willing to pay the additional cost to just have it handled. But those willing to take an extra step or two could get big discounts on flooring.

While hard, bamboo can scratch like wood and needs a protective finishing system. Usually this consists of polyurethane and aluminum oxide, a similar process to the finishing system that hardwood floors receive at the factory.

When at one time solid bamboo floors were the only available to us, consumer demand for this green floor has spurred manufacturers to create a whole new generation of bamboo floors in different colors, styles and finishes. The consumer shopping for bamboo floors today will find a plethora of options and is almost certain to find one that appeals to his/her tastes.

Because bamboo is so eco-friendly, residents and businesses alike want to install these floors everywhere they can. And while a traditional bamboo floor isn’t necessarily suited to stand up to commercial traffic, there are types of bamboo flooring that can handle the job.

Strand Woven bamboo floors (also known as “stranded bamboo floors”) are part of the evolution of environmentally friendly flooring.

How strand woven bamboo is made is when bamboo is shredded into strips before being bonded back together using intense heat and resins. This creates a very hard surface that’s three times harder than red oak flooring and very, very durable.

Strand woven bamboo floors are often rated for use in commercial applications and are very easy to maintain. They can be found in malls, restaurants and anywhere large groups of people congregate on a regular basis. And while suitable for commercial use, they’re affordable enough for use in your home, too.

Imagine a floor that’s built to withstand airport traffic installed in your own home. For many of us, durability is paramount when shopping for floors, so why not stranded bamboo flooring?

Like all other bamboo styles, this style of bamboo is available in a wide variety of looks and constructions. From natural bamboo to stained bamboo and even carbonized bamboo, strand bamboo has covered the wide spectrum of consumer taste. Many even have a click locking system for a simple diy floor installation.

Stranded bamboo floors can be found in constructions such as solid strand woven bamboo flooring, engineered strand woven bamboo flooring and the latest is click engineered HDF core flooring, a layer of strand woven bamboo attached to a recycled HDF core. This amazing innovation combines the best qualities of bamboo flooring and laminate flooring, giving you a real layer of bamboo with the comfort and impact resistance of a floating floor with underlayment.

When shopping for flooring, most of us want, more than anything, to not have to do it again anytime in the near future. We want an easy to maintain and inexpensive floor, but most importantly, one that will stay looking new for as long as it can. If this sounds like you, take a hard look at stranded bamboo for your own home. You won’t be disappointed.

As we know, bamboo is one of the greenest construction materials in the world. It grows very fast, is readily available and gives us a hardness that exceeds most hardwoods. Add that it’s beautiful and stylish, and you have floor that’s a great alternative to hardwood floors, laminate floors, ceramic floors and even tile floors.

Many choose bamboo simply because it’s green flooring, but not all bamboo floors are made the right way. A good step in determining if a bamboo floor has been manufactured correctly is if the raw material has been obtained from a reputable source. And the only way to know for sure if that’s the case if the bamboo is FSC certified.

The Forest Stewardship Council is not-for-profit agency that polices the logging industry, so to speak. To become an FSC Certified forest, the management of that forest must meet a specific set of criteria that includes a variety of factors. First and foremost is that all materials are harvested responsibly and without damage to the environment. Other things that are taken into consideration are worker conditions, economic impact on the surrounding region and long-term effects on all of the above.

A manufacturer doesn’t have to purchase FSC Certified materials, but what does it tell you? Well, it tells you that the raw materials were less expensive and while maybe from a reputable source, it’s not guaranteed.  It’s an easy corner to cut that saves time and money, which might spill into other areas of the manufacturing process, such as the quality of chemicals used, how those chemicals are disposed and a variety of other ways that can reduce costs to achieve a competitive price. When a bamboo is FSC Certified, you know for a fact that the manufacturer shows a commitment to the environment and the use of the highest quality raw materials.

If you’re unsure if a bamboo is FSC certified, just ask. If they don’t know, then it’s likely not and not a great sign. Some retailers only sell FSC Certified bamboo flooring and if that’s the case, you can bet they’re well aware of some of the inferior products offered out there and are making it a point to stay away.

It used to be you could only find solid bamboo floors, but consumer demand has driven the advance of this type of flooring and now you can find engineered bamboo, durable stranded bamboo and even click bamboo in both styles. Bamboo is everywhere, and part of its appeal and popularity is its being environmentally friendly. But if it isn’t made in an environmentally friendly way, then the point is moot. Before you purchase bamboo flooring, do your part to support those in keeping this earth friendly floor friendly to the earth.

However, due to the overall market not being very knowledgeable about bamboo the general understand of bamboo floors are too often limited to the 4 basic skus. Horizontal Carbonized, Horizontal Natural, Vertical Carbonized and Vertical Natural. These 4 basic skus have their place, but they are often oversold and therefore expectations can be missed.

Having watched many complaints online about certain bamboo brands and styles there are clear reasons why some brands fail to deliver a positive experience. Some of it is overselling, but some of it is just clearly a poor specification. (in non-flooring geek terms that means the sales guy sold you something that would not work in your home or office installation and they should have known that.)

Those old styles of bamboo ARE NOT worth your time. Stop buying them. You should instead focus on the world of strand bamboo flooring. Strand now has a multitude of construction options including solid, solid click, engineered and hdf. Once again to take the floor geek out of the equation that means there is every possible type of strand available for ANY installation scenario therefore you shouldn’t waste your time worrying if strand can work for you.

In addition to the construction options there are tons of new styles. Stain colors, handscraping, freech bleed, wire brushing, oil finishes and much much more. These floors have all of the benefits of bamboo’s sustainability, but are literally 4x tougher when it comes to denting and overall durability. Yes 4x – that means 4 times better for you.

For those who need extra convincing just do what has been recommended by the best and brightest in the business. Order a sample of regular horizontal carbonized bamboo and then get a strand sample. Hit them both as hard as you can with a HAMMER. Then you can see the difference for yourself.

As always there are tons of differences in how different brands make their products. Not all floors are created equal and some folks are short term in their approach which can make their products dangerous in your home. Strand uses glue to make it therefore if a brand is not a long term strategic player then they are more likely to cheat and use cheap glue which will be packed with formaldehyde which is a known carcinogen. That means the wrong floor could cause cancer. And if you don’t think it could happen does anyone remember the toxic toys that were recalled over the past few years or the chinese drywall that created so many problems? (just to be clear this can be a problem in regular bamboo, laminate, engineered hardwood and virtually any other flooring too – it is not just about strand bamboo.)

The fact is 95% of all bamboo comes from China which is not a bad thing. Another clear fact is that only 50% of the products are of proper quality for your home – the age old problem the buyers of strand bamboo flooring struggle with is which 50% is good and which 50% is bad.

In the coming months a BRAND WARS: STRAND BAMBOO article will compare top brands of strand bamboo joining the ranks of other BRAND WARS articles which have been read millions of times and been the foundation for people flooring choices hundreds of thousands of times across the world.

So as much as we may say get with it, we also say we’re with you and will guide you to what is right.

Here are a couple quick facts:

1. The look is the primary difference between the 2 styles.

2. There is a duty on vertical for an inexpliable reason related to government incompetance, but makes the cost slightly higher on that product.

3. Due to the construction of the floor itself there is a slight advantage in terms of hardness with the bamboo flooring vertical choice.

4. Customers often find the vertical flooring to have less of a “bamboo” look. To some this is an advantage and to others find this to be a turn off.

5.  Both styles have choices in stains, engineered, click and hand scraped at this point.

6. The quality of the product can be high or low based on a number of factors NOT DIRECTLY associated with the flooring being horizontal or vertical. In other words there are good floors and bad floors made both ways. The other aspects of the floor like origin of material, manufacturing process, finish, etc… drive the quality.

Caption: LEFT IMAGE: The horizontal bamboo flooring has wider grain and more visible bamboo knots, which are commonly referred to as “elbows”. RIGHT IMAGE: The vertical bamboo flooring is the more narrow look with a much more contemporary style.

The pole is kind of interesting to see, but for what? The answer – a decorative accent for the home or office with a green emphasis. This was the answer given by interior designers quizzed about the subject.

What exactly would you use a bamboo pole for?

Bamboo Panels can be used for walls, counters, desks or any kind of custom furniture and are commonly used in commercial buildings.

Bamboo Panels are common in custom furniture or commercial office walls.

Factories and flooring brands are always looking for a way to differentiate and produce something cool and unique that will drive sales and customer satisfaction.

Take a look at the “new” bamboo style below and decide for yourself if this is cool and unique or if they have taken the idea of natural bamboo a step too far. When would you put this floor?

This new style of bamboo flooring is sure to turn heads.

is this bamboo flooring a little too real for your kitchen floor?

This is a professional and clean operation to make bamboo flooring splines.

This is a unprofessional bamboo flooring spline operation:

Now U too can buy factory direct!

Bamboo Flooring new site limited to 1 sku of horizontal carbonized bamboo only.