Engineered bamboo flooring vs solid bamboo vs click lock and more
Knowledge is the key to making smart home renovation decisions. Bamboo floors come in a variety of construction and installation types, each with their own unique set of benefits. We hope our engineered bamboo flooring pros and cons guide helps you determine what bamboo wood flooring type is best for you.
The 5 main types of bamboo flooring are: solid strand bamboo, solid strand "floating" bamboo, tongue and groove engineered bamboo, click-lock engineered bamboo, and solid horizontal and vertical bamboo. Familiarizing yourself with the different types of bamboo flooring construction ensures that you'll choose the right style for every project and that you won't experience problems with your installation. If you're looking for durability, we recommend strand woven bamboo, if you're looking for ease of installation, check out floating bamboo floors.
New to bamboo flooring? We recommend checking out Bamboo Flooring 101: A Beginner's Guide. Further information about engineered bamboo flooring’s pros and cons is listed below. If you have any questions about the different types of bamboo flooring, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
1. Solid Strand Bamboo - Tongue and Groove
- 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.
2. Solid Strand Bamboo - Click Lock
- 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
- Ambient® brand is Floorscore® Certified for indoor air quality
- 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.
3. Engineered Strand Bamboo - Click Lock
- 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.
4. Engineered Strand Bamboo - Tongue & Groove
- 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.
5. Classic Bamboo - Tongue & Groove
- 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.
