Easy Earth-Friendly Flooring

If you want a beautiful floor, but are concerned about the environment and don't want any part in cutting down forests, there's great news! Naturally replenishing flooring options are now available.

Two easy choices for earth-friendly flooring are bamboo and cork. Both come from plants that replenish themselves naturally in the wild, so they're easy on your conscience and easy on the Earth.

Lumber Liquidators® offers many bamboo and cork flooring options on their website. Visit www.lumberliquidators.com to learn more, and to view attractive styles and colors.

Bamboo, grown in China and other parts of Asia, is actually a grass. It grows back in three to seven years after it is harvested. The wild bamboo is cut into long strips, which are milled, soaked, steamed, dried, glued, pressed and milled again.

Bamboo flooring is beautiful, elegant and durable.

Many choices are available in bamboo flooring, so let's learn the lingo:

"Natural" refers to unstained bamboo.

"Mature" is a harder bamboo flooring, with less color variation.

"Carbonized" is steamed bamboo, resulting in the caramelizing of the sugar within, to change its color.

"Handscraped" bamboo has been stained and given a contoured and beautiful handscraped finish.

"Strand" is the result when shredded bamboo is compressed, making it twice as hard as oak.

"Tiger Strand" is a combination of both natural and carbonized strand bamboo, resulting in a tiger-like pattern.

We should mention that bamboo flooring does have some drawbacks. For example, it can fade in direct sunlight. It can warp or become uneven in humid climates.

In addition, bamboo flooring will expand and contract as the room temperature varies, so you will want to allow a gap by the walls, and cover the gap with baseboard molding.

Bamboo flooring could be damaged by high heels or rambunctious children.

Sadly, in areas of China where there is not yet enough oversight, some bamboo fields may be clear-cut in an irresponsible way. Lumber Liquidators promotes managed forests.

Please beware that some bamboo flooring from China has been glued together with formaldehyde or other toxic chemicals, rather than the preferred water-based adhesives.

Ideal rooms for bamboo flooring include living rooms and bedrooms. Choose rooms with low humidity and no exposure to water. Also, choose rooms with minimal direct sunlight.

Cork is the bark of the cork oak tree, which grows in the western Mediterranean region. The bark is peeled back from trees that are at least 25 years old, without destroying the trees. The bark grows back naturally, in about nine years.

The cork bark is peeled off, then weathered, boiled, cleaned and stripped. Resin is then added, and the product is shaped, baked, cut, and finally finished with polyurethane or a waxing solution.

Cork flooring is durable and very quiet. It offers cushioned comfort with beautiful color patterns. Perhaps most importantly, cork is the best flooring available for allergy sufferers, since it doesn't trap pollens and molds like carpets do.

There are some drawbacks to cork flooring. Heavy furniture could leave marks, so you'll want to place coasters under furniture legs. The floor cannot be wet-mopped; use a damp rag to clean up spills. Cork can change color in direct sunlight.

Cork would be a good choice for a special room like a hobby room, where you desire a flooring that is cushiony like carpet, yet stands up to activity.

Both bamboo and cork are easy on the eye, with beautiful looks that will impress visitors. Bamboo resembles wood, while cork has a soft, patterned look.

The soft, cushioned feel of bamboo or cork makes them easy on the feet, as well.

Both options are completely harvestable and renewable, and therefore easy on the planet.

Bamboo and cork are flooring choices that you can live with because, ultimately, they are easy on your conscience. And isn't that the most important factor?