Is Bamboo A Hardwood Or Softwood

Each of these woods come from a different type of tree.

Is bamboo a hardwood or softwood.

Bamboo flooring is a hardwood in all but name while it s a grass it most certainly outperforms most traditional hardwoods such as oak ash mahogany and walnut. Their slow growth is what makes hardwood a more expensive option. Bamboo s strength to weight ratio is similar to timber and its strength is generally similar to a strong softwood or hardwood timber. Personally i love natural bamboo made by us floors and teragren.

These are outstanding brands with outstanding reputations. These are trees that lose their leaves and grow more slowly. But amid these similarities are some key differences that set these two flooring choices apart. Both types of flooring are prone to warping from humidity in the environment.

The difference between hardwood and softwood. While hardwood flooring can last up to 75 100 years bamboo floors have a lifespan of 10 25 years. In the case of oak bamboo hardwood flooring has been proven to be 3x as strong in hardness testing studies. Bamboo like wood is a natural composite material with a high strength to weight ratio useful for structures.

This happens to be generally true but there are exceptions such as in the cases of wood from yew trees a softwood that is relatively hard and wood from balsa trees a. Home decorators collection hand scraped strand woven wellington 3 8 in. Because bamboo is imported usually from china bamboo more than any other hardwood varies tremendously in quality. Similarly we expect softwood to be soft and light.

L engineered click bamboo flooring 2 49. There are some hard softwoods as well as soft hardwoods. Indo gemstone indogemstone when we think about hardwood we think of hard and dense material. Softwood hardwood table image.

In general bamboo falls at about 1 200 to 1 400 on the janka hardness scale which means it s a little harder than oak and ash. Classifying wood as either a hardwood or softwood comes down to its physical structure and makeup and so it is overly simple to think of hardwoods as being hard and durable compared to soft and workable softwoods. Hardwood floors are natural and durable but expensive bamboo floors are cheaper and growing in popularity. W x 36 in.

It s important which brand you buy moreso than other types of flooring. Depending on the type of your project you may need either or both of the different kinds of wood.