29 Mar, 2024
3 mins read

Floating Engineered Bamboo Flooring

The choices in flooring can often be overwhelming. One type of flooring that is not too common in homes yet, but that offers a beautiful and visually stunning foundation for your rooms, is floating engineered bamboo flooring. This flooring choice is one that is steadily gaining in popularity, due to its beauty, durability, and the fact that bamboo is environmentally friendly — a sustainable flooring product. If you have been trying to decide what kind of wood to choose for your floors, this type of flooring may be the choice that will make your room and home feel updated and look beautiful.
Bamboo flooring is known for the knuckle pattern that runs through it due to the stalk joints and the smooth and linear graining. The choice of vertical or horizontal graining can help you determine which one will work best in your home or room to make it look as beautiful as possible. The color choice is generally either natural or amber (or caramalized), with the color of the amber bamboo being created by a process known as “carbonizing”, which is when the stalks are steamed before being made into flooring. Floating engineered flooring made from bamboo features a top layer of real bamboo in the color and style that you want and need.
Floating engineered bamboo flooring can be used in many different rooms of your home. Even if the room you are flooring is prone to moisture – including basements, kitchens, and bathrooms – this is flooring a good choice. Solid wood varieties can’t withstand moisture without buckling or rippling, but this option can do well in moist rooms. This type of flooring is made of layers of bamboo that can expand and contract with temperature and moisture changes. The material and construction method combine to make a big difference in its durability. If you have been looking for a beautiful flooring choice for your basement or other moisture-prone room, then this is the right choice for you.
Easy installation is another benefit of floating engineered bamboo flooring. A moisture barrier is first laid down over a clean and dry floor. An existing floor can act as the substrate for the flooring, as long as that floor is affixed securely to the subfloor. The floating flooring is then clicked together on top of the barrier, which is why it is called a floating floor. Most do-it-yourselfers can install this type of floor easily.
Bamboo flooring is also known for being environmentally friendly. It’s a resource that replenishes itself quickly after it is cut, and does so quickly. It continues growing, unlike trees, making it a sustainable product. And because bamboo, a grass, grows so well, it doesn’t need fertilizers or pesticides, again contributing to its sustainable nature.
If you have been looking for an alternative to normal type woods like oak, pine, and beech in your flooring choices, you will want to think about floating engineered bamboo flooring. It can offer you beauty, ease of installation, durability, …

3 mins read

Hardwood – 9 Dangers of Acquiring Hardwood From a Big Box Chain Store

If you are looking for hardwood, then you know this is a very important investment you are going to be making. Read this report on the dangers of acquiring hardwood from a big box chain store before you start your search for the perfect store!
A “Big Box” store refers to the mega stores such as Home Depot and Lowe’s. They are popular with flooring customers because they have convenient hours considering they are open seven days a week and evenings, they have competitive pricing due to their high sales volume, and they have a good selection of low- to mid-quality hard surface products and carpeting in stock since higher quality products can be special ordered.
Flooring is a long-term investment that can increase the value of your home if it is purchased and installed correctly. If not, however, it can lower the value of your home. Imagine a home with cracked tile, warped wood floors, or carpet lifting at the is not admirable. Here are nine downfalls you need to be mindful of before buying floor covering from a Big Box store:
Pitfall #1
The Do-it-Yourself (DIY) community is who the Big Box stores are in business to help. If you have the skill, time, special tools, training, design background, and patience to do it yourself, a Big Box store is a good place to buy flooring products. Shopping for floor covering at a Big Box store will cause frustration if you do not fit the handyman category, or if you don’t have enough time or patience to do it yourself.
Pitfall #2
With Big Box stores, you waste too much valuable time. Their carpeting or hardwood sections may be disorganized, messy, cramped, and not well merchandised, making it hard for you to find what you need. It also means you will be obliged to make repeat visits for the smallest things.
Pitfall #3
Big Box stores mean no in-house designers. There is no professional help selecting the right products and combinations for your needs and flooring area. This makes your job much harder and takes you much longer to complete your project from the get-go.
Pitfall #4
Big Box store employees receive little or no instruction. These stores are not dedicated flooring experts and the employees often can not answer your simplest questions.
Pitfall #5
These stores will up-sell you. It’s natural for these stores to promote low cost, loss leader floor covering to get you in the door. However, when you arrive at the store, the advertised flooring products are either sold out, or there aren’t enough for your project. That’s when the Big Box stores will up-sell you on the more expensive products, even if they aren’t suitable for you.
Pitfall #6
These stores will also attempt to pile up undesirable or discontinued products on you. Contracts put Big Box chain stores under heavy sales pressure to sell inventory from certain manufacturers. This is not good news because they will put the pressure on you to …