Cork or Bamboo Flooring? Any thoughts/experiences?

[Myeightkiddies]

We need to remove some flooring in the new house. For a brief moment I was considering carpet but quickly remember why it doesn't work for us (a lot of allergies/asthma).

 

Yesterday we were looking at bamboo and cork planks. Has anyone had any experience with these types of flooring?

 

Thank you! :grouphug:

[Mommyof4ks]

We have had bamboo for 6 years. We love it. It does get scratched if Legos are forced across it hard, but even our dog's paws did not scratch it otherwise. It is very easy to keep clean, but it is not sealed like many wood floors, so no wet mopping.

[Rosy]

We have bamboo as well. It's not recommended for kitchens and bathrooms, but the only problem we had with it was when the fridge broke down and leaked on the floor...two days of wet towels made it buckle a bit. You really only noticed it if you walked on it barefoot.

 

I love our bamboo, but it does scratch. It doesn't look scratched unless you look closely, for the most part. DH and I know where the scratches are, so it bugs us a little. But we have 4 crazy kids and a dog, and it really does look pretty good for as much wear and tear as it gets.

 

DH had cork flooring at his last job and didn't like it, I don't remember why though.

[Miss Peregrine]

Our bamboo is scratch city. Hate it.

[Myeightkiddies]

Thank you for the input. I'm starting to rethink using either materials. I do like that they are renewable materials; however, our house gets a lot of traffic. I do not think either will hold up well.

[garddwr]

We recently put cork in our master bedroom and I love it so far. Looking to put it throughout the main floor as soon as we can save up enough money. I like the fact that it is a little softer than other hard flooring types. So far it doesn't seem to scratch/dent easily.

[Desert Rat]

We love our bamboo. We've had it for 6 years or so. We do not have animals, but we do have 2 boys. We have zero scratches down our busy hallway. We have a handful of dings in the entry to the kitchen (the busiest spot in the house) and a few where the kids play in living room.

We installed it ourselves and saved about $1,000. We used the glue down method because we have a concrete slab. We did a 15x15 room and an L-shaped hallway in 12 hours with 3 people. It took another few hours the following weekend to finish up base and transitions.

It turned out lovely and we love it. We chose bamboo because of its price compared to hardwood. And I didn't want laminate in the main living area because we have tall ceilings and I didn't want all the noise associated with laminate.

HTH

[meena]

We had bamboo in our previous house and hated it. It scratched and dented easily. For our current house, we looked into cork but it did not seem durable enough for our family. We decided on a good quality laminate and like it so much better. It is much more durable--no scratches, even after a few mishaps (rollerblades in the house :eek:).

[tabinfl]

We considered both of those when re-flooring a large section of our house (open kitchen / dining / play area & long hallway). Between the cost and maintenance, we decided against and ended up with Armstrong Cushion Step vinyl flooring. I love this stuff! It is easier on the feet than most hard-surface floors (esp. over our concrete slab), but still holds up well to heavy traffic, kids playing, even moving the fridge.

 

About the only thing I would change would be to get a pattern with less texture. I love the look (from across the room you'd think it was real tile), but the texture collects dirt that requires quite a bit of elbow grease to remove. Fortunately the "natural" color scheme hides some of it. ;)

 

Another idea, if you do go with carpet, is what we did in our kids' playroom when they were babies & toddlers. We wanted something soft underneath them, but they were still making a lot of messes of all types. Since it wasn't a huge area, we got the cheapest "apartment" carpet they had at the store, with plans to just replace it a few years down the road as we knew some of the spills & stains would never be cleaned completely. We did just that about a year ago, and stepped up to a slightly better berber, in a color pattern that's good at hiding ordinary dirt/wear.

[ktgrok]

Thank you for the input. I'm starting to rethink using either materials. I do like that they are renewable materials; however, our house gets a lot of traffic. I do not think either will hold up well.

 

If it makes you feel better Bamboo isn't as good for the environment now as it was touted to be. Many countries are clearcutting forests to grow bamboo for commercial use...making it actually pretty bad for the environment.

 

For heavy use I would say laminate flooring. It doesn't scratch like real wood, for the most part, can be installed yourself if you want, and is easy to care for.

[Mom-ninja.]

I love my cork floor. Love it.

 

I also like the look of bamboo but don't have experience with it.

[Mrs_JWM]

We had cork flooring in the house where I grew up. It was in the living room, hall, and my parents' room. My mother had an area rug in the LR and a runner in the hall. We had black labs, two kids, and lots of friends, but the floors always looked nice. My mother MIGHT have mopped all of them once a year. Plus, they were always warm underfoot in the winter and cool in the summer.