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Hello friends!

Today I want to talk about bamboo flooring. Be VERY excited.

I’ve got two disclaimers for you right off the bat.

1. I am NOT a flooring expert. I am just a SAHM who is sharing my own experience in my own home.
2. I’m not planning to share any brands with you. Sorry! I don’t want to be a brand rep or a brand basher, depending on which pro or con you read. And that’s all I’ll say about that. 😉

So let’s get started, shall we? You may have noticed in my spring home tour that I have dark wood flooring. Bamboo flooring, to be exact. Well it stuck out to me in this photo below and after a friend asked me how I liked my flooring I thought, maybe other people would like to know too! And here we are. Talking about bamboo floors.

After our house fire we had to very quickly decide what type of flooring we wanted in this space. And let me tell you, if there is ever a decision I DON’T want to be rushed into, it is the permanent flooring in our largest living space. BUT, I also didn’t want to be kept out of my house any longer than our 6 month remodel dictated. SO, after some quick shopping and mild deliberation, we decided to go with these bamboo wood floors.

We chose them for the following reasons:

1. They were stated to have the highest durability rating. With trucks and scooters and dog nails we really wanted something that could hold up to our energetic family life.
2. They were pretty.
3. They were in our budget.

(Reasons 2 and 3 are really the most important, after all. ;)) Friends, I will never forget the moment they finished installing them and the woman who was polishing them up with a final cleaning looked at me and said, “Good luck keeping these beauties clean.” Why thank you woman that I don’t know. Thank you for completely deflating my otherwise happy demeanor.

But ya know what? She was RIGHT! She totally knew her stuff. (She just could have been nicer- just sayin.)

So here’s my qualms with my bamboo wood floors. And enough of the pretty pictures. Here comes some real life folks.

CONS

• The are not, in fact, very durable. 🙁 Imagine my dismay when the very first day we moved back into our house my son ran a small truck across the floor and left a huge scratch. We have scratches, we have gouges, we have little marks all OVER the place. In fact, I had to buy a 10×14 rug just to cover up the issues in our flooring from when we had a smaller rug that didn’t cover as much surface area.

• They show EVERY SPEC of dust, dirt and dog hair. Not to mention dog footprints, footprints of kids with sweaty feet (I told you we were getting into real life) and drops of who knows what that comes from my kids.
• You can’t refinish them. At least with real wood you have the option of sanding it down and re-staining. But with these, as you can see from the gouge picture above, the top layer of finished bamboo is very thin and not refinish-able.

I swear to you all, I am not a dirty person. Cross my heart. The pictures above were taken less than an hour after sweeping and vacuuming. You may be able to find a lighter finish but these dark ebony floors are my nemesis.

Now, just to be fair, I do have some pros for ya. I’m just not sure they outweigh the cons.

PROS

• They shine up real nice. (I said that in my head like a lovable southern mama.) Before company comes over I have to mop for my own sanity. Otherwise I just sit there looking at all the smudges and dirt wondering if they think I’m a bad housekeeper.
• They can get slightly wet. A lot of laminates and even solid wood floors can buckle if too much moisture is on them. These bamboo floors have held up nicely to a simple wet mop and everyday spills. Granted we’ve never had a flood or anything drastic. But I’m not really sure any type of flooring could stand up to that.
• They are a bold addition to the home, stylistically. Many floors these days are tile, laminate, or carpet. All of which can be beautiful. But these tend to make a statement. And they are much more realistic (since they are real wood) than most laminates or even engineered wood flooring.
• They are budget friendly. Compared to many types of floors, these were a decent price. On a scale of $ to $$$$ they would probably fall in the $$ range. Do you like that technical description?

So there you have it. If I had to do it all over again I would choose a lighter color wood. And go with real wood floors. Flooring is a long term product so a good investment is worthwhile if you plan to stay in your home for any length of time. But we are stuck with our decision for now, so I will continue to show Grace in my own home. Even with my dirty scratched up floors. 😉

I do have one quick tip! If you happen to struggle with the same issues I do with these types of dark floors, a good black sharpie works well as a scratch filler. Just mark it over the scratch or gouge and buff with a cloth or paper towel immediately after before it dries. It doesn’t completely cover it but it does work better than any scratch cover I’ve tried.

Anyone have any other tips you’d like to share?

Sarah

{I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us. Anne Lamott}