Reality Carpet offers unusual hardwood flooring
Few people realize the number of available
hardwood flooring options that there are. Some unusual options are currently in demand. They include bamboo, distressed hardwood, hand-scraped hardwood, and Brazilian cherry.
It is hard to rival the eco-friendly nature, durability, and beauty of bamboo. Bamboo stalks are shaved into strips, dried in a kiln, and glued under high pressure to make bamboo flooring. The bamboo ‘boards’ are full of beauty, color, and texture that have become significant product characteristics for any hardwood. Bamboo is more durable and harder than oak. Being a grass, rather than a tree, means bamboo can be responsibly grown. Bamboo has been harvested and re-harvested for generations on bamboo plantations. It grows back over and over just like grass in a lawn.
Distressed hardwood is brand new, but looks centuries old. Distressed hardwood consists of planks that, for lack of a better way to describe them, have been ‘beaten up’ before installation. A couple of methods are used to ‘distress’ hardwood. Industrial presses roll ‘imperfections’ into the hardwood as it moves through assembly lines. Artisans also beat on hardwood planks with burlap bags that contain nuts and bolts. Either method yields a new hardwood plank with the character of one that has been around for hundreds of years.