﻿When discussing sustainable flooring options, the two most common ones brought up are bamboo
and cork. Both types of flooring are durable, made from renewable resources and cost effective.
They can be stained in different finishes and even stamped with multi-colored prints. Bamboo and cork
floors are very versatile. They can tolerate the moisture in kitchens, and look warm and inviting
in living areas. In this video, we’re going to discover how these flooring products are made,
their advantages, disadvantages and whether they are truly sustainable and eco-friendly.
Bamboo is one of the fastest growing grasses in the world. It can be harvested in just 5 years,
much faster than hardwood trees. The stalks are sliced into strips and the outer skin and nodes
are removed. The bamboo strips are boiled in a solution of boric acid or lime. This
removes starch, sugars and kills any pests in the bamboo. It preserves the wood and prevents it from
decaying. The strips are then dried and flattened. They are soaked in urea formaldehyde adhesive and
laminated under heat and pressure. Once cured, the boards are planed, sanded and milled. They can
have either a tongue and groove profile or a click and lock profile. Finally, the flooring is topped
with a durable and transparent wear layer. Bamboo floors are available with either horizontal
or vertical grain orientation. Horizontal strips show a wider and more obvious grain pattern.
Vertical strips have a less obvious grain and a more textured appearance.
Solid bamboo flooring is very similar to hardwood flooring, in both appearance,
construction and installation. It’s considered to be a more eco-friendly alternative.
However, you need to be careful of inferior bamboo products. Some manufacturers harvest
the stalks before they are fully mature, resulting in a weaker product. They may use filler between
the bamboo strips to cut costs. They may also contain toxic binders that emit VOCs over time.
Cheaper engineered bamboo flooring is not made of much natural bamboo. It has a thin
bamboo veneer laminated on a backing layer made of MDF or medium density fiberboard.
Thanks to the increasing popularity of bamboo flooring, it is now available from several
manufacturers with various finishes, stains, and thicknesses. Some of these companies are Cali
Bamboo, Plyboo, Teragren, Ambient and Floor & Decor, where I found these samples.
Now let’s move on from bamboo flooring to cork flooring. The most common use of cork is for wine
stoppers because it is impermeable, buoyant, elastic and fire-retardant. It expands in the
bottleneck to seal liquid and keep oxygen out. Cork is a light but tough material harvested from
the outer layer of cork oak trees. Every seven to nine years, the tree reaches maturity and is
ready to be harvested. No trees are cut down in the harvesting process. The bark is carefully
peeled off without harming the tree to allow it to regrow. After drying for several months, the bark
is transported to a factory where wine bottle corks are punched out. The leftover material
is boiled, ground up, mixed with adhesives and compressed to form thin sheets of cork
flooring. These thin sheets are laminated onto MDF to form interlocking planks or tiles.
Cork flooring comes in a variety of textures and colors like fine grain, large grain,
and even printed images. Some manufacturers create cork tiles that resemble hardwood flooring,
marble and granite. Both of these products are made
of natural materials for the most part but they differ in their properties and performance.
Bamboo flooring looks like traditional hardwood floors. It has a uniform pattern and realistic
appearance. It can work with almost any home style, from traditional to contemporary. Real cork
flooring is busier and has a distinct appearance. It feels warm and comfortable underfoot because it
is spongy and doesn’t conduct heat very well. However, it can make homes look dated.
Cost. Both bamboo and cork flooring are more expensive than vinyl flooring,
but comparable to hardwood floors. Cheaper versions cost around $4 per sq ft.
On the higher end, products that use non-toxic binders and finishes cost around $8 per sqft.
Waterproof underlayment is vital under both bamboo and cork flooring when installed
over concrete slabs. It prevents moisture from seeping through and damaging these
floors. Click and lock versions of bamboo and cork flooring are DIY friendly. Tongue
and groove versions that are fastened with nails or glued down require slightly more skill.
As you’d expect, bamboo flooring is harder and more scratch resistant than cork flooring. To
compare this property, the Janka hardness scale is employed which measures wood’s resistance to
wear and dentability. I discussed this scale in one of my previous videos. Bamboo floors
typically score around 1,800 on the Janka scale. However, Cali Bamboo has developed a proprietary
"fossilized" process that produces bamboo flooring with a Janka rating of 5,000. That’s harder than
exotic hardwoods like Brazilian teak and walnut. Unfinished cork flooring, on the other hand,
is soft, pliable and more prone to wear issues. It has a Janka rating of just 200.
High heeled shoes, pets and heavy furniture can easily scratch this flooring.
Both bamboo and cork flooring are water resistant, but not waterproof. They should not
be used in bathrooms or in basements. Prolonged exposure to water and high humidity environments
will cause these planks to swell and buckle. Durability/Care - Bamboo flooring is more durable
and easier to care for. It can be cleaned with a damp mop or hardwood floor cleaner. Cork flooring
is not as durable. It is softer and more pliable, so it should be used in high traffic areas.
Both of these products can be affected by UV light., causing color changes and degradation over
time. However, solid bamboo and solid cork floors can be sanded down, refinished and resealed.
Engineered bamboo and cork flooring that has a thin veneer cannot be sanded down.
Because of all these reasons, bamboo has a longer lifespan of 30-50 years, while cork
has a shorter lifespan of 10-30 years. Before we move on to the off gassing issues and
environmental impacts, I’d like to introduce the sponsor of this portion of the video, Brilliant.
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off an annual membership. Now back to the video. In my earlier video on laminate and luxury vinyl
flooring, many of you commented on off-gassing issues. Good indoor air quality and clean building
products are obviously important to you. So, I’m going to be honest with you, these two products
may not be as clean or green as they are marketed. As I mentioned earlier, cheaper bamboo flooring
uses urea formaldehyde, urea melamine and phenol formaldehyde adhesives that can off gas and affect
indoor air quality. Cork flooring can have the same issues because of the glues used in the top
coat and in the mdf backing. To be clear, you can find all-natural bamboo and cork floors that use
natural pine resins, but most of these floors use chemical binders which will off-gas.
Both of these products are also marketed as being eco-friendly but that may not be true. The
production of bamboo flooring can be more energy intensive than traditional solid wood floors. As
sustainable building guru, Chris Magwood, points out, “processing raw bamboo into flooring involves
kiln drying, boiling (sometimes twice) and steaming in addition to cutting, gluing, and
sealing.” If you’d like a peek into Chris’s wealth of knowledge on sustainable building products,
check out my podcast with him. Another concern is reckless bamboo planting
in Asia. Large swaths of forests are cleared to make way for monoculture bamboo plantations.
This can lead to the destruction of habitats, soil erosion and water contamination.
Cork, on the other hand, is harvested sustainably, but the adhesives used to bind cork scraps
together involve petrochemicals that carry high impacts. Additionally, cork is only grown in the
Mediterranean region so shipping it to North America can impact the environment.
Finally, let’s discuss their recyclability. As raw materials, both bamboo and cork are compostable,
but after they are mixed with adhesives, they are no longer biodegradable.
In conclusion, bamboo can be a cost-effective alternative to hardwood flooring,
while cork can be a more comfortable and interesting alternative to laminate flooring.
It’s tough for me to imagine cork flooring in a large area because of how busy and
the print is. It could work in small areas where you want to make a statement.
I think cork is better used as underlayment. Let me know what you think about these two
flooring types in the comments below and if you have any experience with
them. I’ll link my Patreon page in the description. If you can support me,
I’d really appreciate it. A big thank you to everyone already supporting me. I’ll link all
my sources in the description below and on my website. Don’t forget to hit that like button,
subscribe button and the notification bell too. Thanks for watching. See ya.