Lots of people think that bamboo flooring is the greenest, most eco friendly product on earth. Why is that? In my opinion its glued together from small pieces with urethane based glue and top coated 6-9 times with aluminum oxide finish. Then packaged in plastic and cardboard then shipped from china to all over the world. What is green about that?

In my opinion the greenest product is still locally harvested and milled solid hardwood flooring material. Installed raw and then sanded and finished with eco-friendly coatings. This is what we are doing in daily basis. It's renewable source of flooring material, you can refinish this material for 6-8 times. It's good for hundreds of years. What about bamboo? How long can you keep it as a floor covering, before it ends up in the dumpster? 10-15 years under the good care.

Any thoughts on that?

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7KFnZgPwGs

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My thoughts exactly, we have had a lot of customers disappointed when they did their homework most decided to go with solid unfinished in the end. If you do some further research (it was internet research not sure how accurate) you find they are clearing larges areas of land to grow bamboo and basically using slave labor to do it.

You have made some good points there Janar. But bamboo does grow really fast as compared to hardwoods. Not so sure about only lasting 10 to 15 years. Depends on how well it is taken care of. What isin't shipped from China though? ha ha

I see lots of flooring products being called green just because of some recycled content and such. The term is loosly used. I happen to like cork alot. I've seen that last 30 years.

Maybe a better term would be renewable instead of green or environmentally friendly.

Keep in mind what happens to the biosphere in the regions where bamboo is grown and harvested....yea, it grows fast and is sustainable, yadayada, but it chokes out everything else...great for the bamboo, but a lot of damage is done to other native plants that nobody ever mentions.

Let's not forget the amount of fuel and type used to ship the bamboo. I put this together about a year ago..similar thoughts as Greenstep..

http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwo ... floors.htm

Hey, very nice video there. Is that done professionally or by someone in house?

I heard that the new state of the art facility that U.S. floors built in Georgia manufactures it's own bamboo there. Could be it comes in totally raw or semi manufactured then finsihed here. Heck if I lived close enough I'd love to check that place out. They do cork as well.

That should be on my list SP

You better send pictures Ken. If they let you take'm