Eco-Friendly Bamboo Floors | ABC30 Fresno

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By ABC30

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Consumer Reports Adam Levine sells flooring and said more and more of his customers are picking bamboo instead of traditional wood. "Bamboo floors definitely have more of a selection now than they ever have. They come in all sorts of colors, all different sizes, all different grain patterns."

Consumer Reports tested 21 different types of hardwood flooring, including seven bamboo floors. Prices ranged from four dollars a square foot to nine.

The floors were put through a battery of tests, including this one. It's an abrasion test that simulates years of foot traffic.

It turns out an oak flooring got the lowest rating. It's the Anderson Pacific Cumberland Oak Floor.

Interestingly, two bamboo floors out-performed all the hard woods. "Our tests found that bamboo flooring has gotten much tougher. There's a new manufacturing technique that shreds the bamboo into strands and are glued together with an adhesive that creates less emissions over traditional bamboo flooring."

The top-rated floor is the Ecotimber Strand Woven Honey Bamboo. And at $5.70 per square foot, it's a Consumer Reports Best Buy.

If you looking for oak flooring, Consumer Reports named a best buy there, too. It's the Bruce Dundee Plank. It costs about the same as the eco timber, $5.70 per square foot.