6 Different Types of Bamboo Flooring - Pros & Cons

• Many times harder than traditional wood floors (3 times harder than oak)
• Also available in eucalyptus (same characteristics)
• Ambient® brand is Floorscore® Certified for indoor air quality
• Available in handscraped, brushed, flat, and other unique surface styles
• Rapidly renewable bamboo that regrows in 5 years
• Solid wood all the way through
• Can be refinished up to 5 times
• Can be nailed down to wood sub-floors and glued down to wood and concrete

Bottom Line: The perfect combination of toughness, beauty, eco-friendliness and affordability. Can be nailed down or glued down (even on concrete) and there are no run limits. Holds up great against pets and children, can be used in kitchens, and is available in premium wide planks at a fraction of what you'd pay for traditional hardwoods.

• Many times harder than traditional wood floors (3 times harder than oak)
• Available in a variety of surface styles
• Rapidly renewable bamboo that regrows in 5 years
• Solid wood all the way through
• Can be refinished up to 5 times
• Easy installation

• Only suitable for indoor environments with very stable year-around humidity. Low-to-average dimensional stability leads to excessive shrinkage when humidity levels drop below 35%
• Maximum recommended runs* if interior humidity varies more than 20% throughout the **year: 15 ft across widths (tangentially) and 25 ft lengthwise (longitudinally)

*A "run" refers to the consecutive distance the floor extends in any given direction

**Opening the windows in your home for a full day is okay.

Bottom Line: Floating solid (wood all the way through) wood floors generate a lot of complaints about shrinkage, as these floors should only be installed in homes with very stable humidity. If you want a floating floor we strongly recommend using an engineered bamboo floor (not solid) as engineered floors have much higher dimensional stability and aren't nearly as susceptible to humidity variation.

• Wear layer is up to 3 times harder than comparable wood floors
• Wear layer is rapidly renewable bamboo that regrows in 5 years
• Ambient® brand is Floorscore® Certified for indoor air quality
• Engineered bamboo flooring has a higher dimensional stability than solid flooring, which allows it to be floated
• Can be refinished up to 2 times if the wear layer is at least 2mm
• Easy installation and can be installed in basements

• If you live in an area with strong seasons (for example very humid summers, and dry winters), it's recommended that you keep your run limits shorter than 25 feet across the widths of the planks and shorter than 45 feet down the lengths of the planks. If your installation measurements exceed those limits you can install bamboo t-molding at convenient breakpoints (like doorways). However if you have built-in humidity control in your HVAC system, or use humidifiers and dehumidifiers to keep the humidity stable in your home, you don't have to mind these recommendations.

*A "run" refers to the consecutive distance the floor extends in any given direction

**Opening the windows in your home for a full day is okay.

Bottom Line: If you want to float a hardwood floor, engineered click lock bamboo is the way to go - it's tough, beautiful and easy to install. We recommend choosing an engineered floor with a minimum 2mm wear layer (can be refinished twice) and a high quality 3 in 1 underlayment that has a high STC sound rating - this will result in a final product that looks and feels exactly like solid hardwood when you walk on it.

• Strand bamboo wear layer is up to 3 times harder than comparable floors
• Waterproof - great for kitchens, baths, basements
• Easy click lock installation
• Ambient brand comes with pre-attached acoustic vapor barrier underlayment for cushioning, sound insulation and sub-floor moisture protection
• High-density core provides exceptional stability
• Available in a variety of surface styles

• Cannot be refinished. However, these floors will last decades in a residential setting without the need to be refinished due to the toughness of strand woven bamboo.

Bottom Line: Technically this is an engineered floor due to its multi-layered design however it's different enough to warrant its own category! Why? Because it's effectively waterproof, and exhibits little to no expansion and contraction. The Ambient® brand version also happens to include a nifty acoustic vapor barrier pad attached underneath which allows it to be installed directly on concrete or any other level surface as long as it's not excessively wet*. With its stone polymer core and thick 40 mil wear layer, it's dimensionally stable, comfortable underfoot, and is built to last for years and years.

* 'Excessively wet' is defined as emitting moisture > 20 lbs per sq ft as determined by a calcium chloride test (usually a very small percentage of sub-floors). In these cases you will first need to lay down a plastic vapor barrier sheet or similar.

• Wear layer is up to 3 times harder than comparable wood floors
• Wear layer is rapidly renewable bamboo that regrows in 5 years
• Higher dimensional stability
• Can be refinished up to 2 times if the wear layer is at least 2mm
• Easy installation

• Floating installation requires manually applying a bead of glue on the inside groove of every plank - can be tedious and expensive
• Maximum recommended runs* if interior humidity varies more than 20% throughout the **year: 25 ft across widths (tangentially) and 45 ft lengthwise (longitudinally)

*A "run" refers to the consecutive distance the floor extends in any given direction

**Opening the windows in your home for a full day is okay.

Bottom Line: Similar to the click lock engineered bamboo floors mentioned above, this tongue and groove version is very stable for floating installations. The downside as a floating floor is that they're a bit harder to install as you have to manually apply the bead of glue along the inside of the grooves of each plank. Can also be nailed down or glued down.

• Eco-friendly bamboo flooring
• Available in many colors and surface styles
• Can be refinished up to 3 times
• No limits on continuous runs* when nailed or glued down

• Much softer than strand woven bamboo floors (1/3rd the hardness)
• Dents and scratches much more easily than strand bamboo floors

Bottom Line: If you like modern looking floors, these are for you. However these floors are not intended for use in high traffic environments. From a hardness perspective they're just mid-range, more similar to Red Oak than to strand woven bamboo, which means these floors are more susceptible to showing dents and scratches over time.