flooring part deux

[haardvark]

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.

Comments

[scout1222.livejournal.com]

That's cool. I love hardwood flooring, and if I weren't restricted by my CCRs due to noise (I'm on the second floor, and second floor units are not allowed to have hardwood) I'd look into this in a heartbeat. Some of my downstairs neighbors have hardwoods of various kinds, and I absolutely love the look.

[redsash.livejournal.com]

Bamboo has to be lower impact than hardwood. It grows like a weed.

~r

[haardvark.livejournal.com]

I understand that, and this largely dictated the choice. In the back of my mind, however, I wonder about the embodied energy of transport, plus I'm fairly certain that the finishing processes used wouldn't entail the latest and greatest in VOC capture...

[bristlesage.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but a lot of that could be said for hardwood, too, yeah? I'm not all read up on it like you are, though.

[haardvark.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're right. A lot of the exotics come from South America and I imagine the issues are the same.

It's tricky. As is ususally the case, it's difficult to point at a technology choice and say definitively "That's Green". (no matter what the design magazines say).