Is Bamboo Better Than Engineered Hardwood

Hardwood engineered flooring showdown.

Is bamboo better than engineered hardwood.

It is always nailed down to the subfloor a process that requires some skill. Engineered hardwoods with a medium thickness may cost between 5 and 10 per square foot while the highest quality flooring costs between 8 and 13 per square. Like bamboo it is readily available. Additionally bamboo is termite resistant and comes in a huge choice of stains and plank widths.

Engineered wood flooring. Engineered bamboo also called stranded bamboo flooring material is more durable than natural bamboo but is highly processed from its natural state being stripped boiled cut bonded and pressed. Although it is commonly grouped with hardwood flooring bamboo is not actually a wood but rather a woody grass. Engineered wood flooring costs considerably more than bamboo.

The cost is generally less than traditional hardwood and like engineered hardwood bamboo flooring is easy to install for diyers. In fact its costs are similar to those of solid hardwood. It s a bamboo flooring vs. Some people assume engineered and laminate floors are the same thing but they are not.

With or without a factory finish. It is harder than most hardwoods which makes it extremely durable. Laminate floors are made of plastic layers glued together while engineered hardwood floors are made of a solid wood top layer glued to an hdf or multi ply wood substrate. Solid hardwood can be refinished more than engineered hardwood.

The harder the material the better it resists dents especially if it has a durable factory baked finish as do most bamboo and engineered hardwood boards. Solid hardwood vs engineered hardwood. The finest solid hardwood costs 10 or more a few dollars more costly than the best engineered flooring. The price of solid hardwood flooring is slightly higher than engineered flooring though both start at 2 to 3 per square foot.

This is because trees take a long time to grow with most species used in flooring taking 40 years or more to grow to maturity. A thinner engineered hardwood flooring costs about 3 to 5 per square foot. Bamboo is not wood. Bamboo a native plant to tropical regions with heavy rainfalls grows much faster than hardwood and has a different cellular structure.

Solid wood flooring comes in long planks usually made of a hardwood species. The biggest advantage of hardwood is that it can be sanded down and refinished more times than bamboo particularly if the wood is solid. Between engineered hardwood and bamboo which is the most inexpensive flooring for budget minded shoppers. Lighter colored bamboo is harder than darker bamboo as the carbonization process used to darken the wood makes it softer.

However bamboo does have a few detracting points.