transformation

I almost thought I was in the wrong house. 3 rooms worth of ratty, stained, low pile beige carpeting (which may originally have been white, scientists are not sure) have been mostly replaced with bamboo hardwood. Needless to say, it's quite a difference, and a huge improvement (although the darker colour does close the room in a bit).

Of course, it's a matter of hours before we irreparably damage some part of it.

flooring part deux

One or two folks were asking what the flooring looks like. I can't find a link to our manufacturer but it's pretty similar in appearance to this:

http://www.bambooinfo.com/flooring/Carbonized-Vertical-Bamboo.jpg

Most of the sorts we have seen use slices of bamboo laminated either face-on or edge-on, and we preferred the edge-on look. Then there's "natural" tone, which is sort of light yellow white pine kinda colour, and carbonized which is heat treated some how to produce a richer light brown colour. There are also some pigmented varieties but that was too fancy schmancy for us.

In theory the stuff is has a higher tree hugger factor but then again it's coming on a container ship from Asia, so who knows? I don't actually recall what we paid, but cost is middle of the road.