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Don't Worry; Installing Bamboo Flooring Will Not Harm the Pandas

Bamboo flooring is sweeping the nation as homeowners learn more about environmentally friendly flooring options. Bamboo is a naturally sustainable resource that does not diminish hardwood forests and still provides unique and beautiful flooring.

Grown in controlled forests, bamboo plants produce new shoots every year and only individual stems are harvested to make bamboo flooring. If left to continue growing without harvesting, bamboo shoots will fall over under their own weight after five years, as it is unable to grow any further.

While bamboo flooring closely resembles traditional hardwood flooring, bamboo flooring produces a clean look with a finer and often more-unique grain pattern. Many styles are available to choose from, although color variations are not as prevalent as in hardwood flooring.

Compared to traditional hardwood flooring and other flooring options, bamboo flooring is competitively priced against other hardwood flooring options. While the actual price of bamboo flooring fluctuates based on the style, color, size of the order and how it was harvested (either machine or hand-harvested) typically it ranges between $3 and $6 per square foot.

Bamboo flooring is hard and durable; in fact, it is approximately 15 percent harder than maple wood, which is commonly used in hardwood flooring. When compared against red oak, bamboo is nearly 30 percent harder and contracts and expends about half as much.

Now let's discuss the pandas. Bamboo flooring is commonly made from Mao Zhu - usually known as Hairy Bamboo - which is not eaten by pandas. Pandas live in the forests along the eastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau in three provinces, and eat bamboo naturally found in those areas. Bamboo harvested for flooring comes from Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangxi and the Hunan, areas that do not impact panda habitats.

For more information on bamboo flooring and if it's right for your Northern Virginia home, contact the flooring experts at FloorGem. Floorgem serves Howard County, Montgomery County, Anne Arundel County, and Prince Georges County, as well as the surrounding Washington DC area. Contact Floorgem today for a free consultation and estimate.