More than any other room in your home, the floors of your kitchen should reflect the feel and function of the space. For example, while warm wood flooring might convey a more traditional, formal feeling, a cool tile floor might be the perfect match for the utility. Since a kitchen floor covers such a large area, the material you choose can also have a big impact on the indoor air quality in your home. (Your kids, guests, and pets walk on your floors, wearing them down and breathing in the chemicals they give off.) Not to mention that the floor you choose could last for up to fifty years, so you want to pick something beautiful and healthy. Fortunately, there are plenty of great alternatives for kitchen flooring that won't require you to sacrifice style for safety.
Why do people keep pushing bamboo flooring? What world do you live in? I would like to give you a couple of toddlers, a teenage boy, a clumsy absent minded professor-type husband and a golden retriever, make you live with them in a kitchen with a bamboo floor for six months and see if you change your tune.
Designers say yes to bamboo. Mothers and, surprise, engineers say NO!
Why? Because bamboo is a grass and we don't kill the plant to get to it.
Because bamboo is harder than oak (if you spec it right).
And because bamboo will hold up as well as any wood floor to "a couple of toddlers, a teenage boy, a clumsy absent minded professor-type husband and a golden retriever." It is a matter of choosing the right product, like anything else. Look for engineered, prefinished bamboo.
Besides, this is an article on HEALTHY flooring, and the no added formaldehyde quality of bamboo makes it very appealing.
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