Patt Johnson
Gannett

Bamboo is not just for tiki torches anymore. It’s also for flooring, laptops and sinks.

Eco-friendly homeowners are finding a growing number of bamboo products to use in remodeling and decorating their homes.

Bamboo bowls, picture frames and other decorating items have been common
items for years, but now the lightweight-but-durable wood stems are being used for furniture and fabrics. It’s everywhere — wallpaper, doors, garden benches and kitchen countertops.

Asus, a technology products company based in Taiwan, makes a bamboo laptop (powered by an Intel processor) because it promotes green living. The manufacturing process for bamboo “uses less energy than traditional metal alloys that are refined from petrol,” the company says.

Bamboo’s popularity stems from its eco-friendly nature. It’s an extremely fast-growing and sturdy grass that replaces itself in a few years.

The most conventional use for bamboo is flooring.

“We chose it because of the durability of the wood and its unique look,” says Steve Seamen, project manager at 111 City Lofts, a 66-unit project in downtown Des Moines.

“We have not heard one complaint about the bamboo,” Seamen says. “It wears like iron.”

Bamboo and cork floors are the most environmentally friendly products on the market, says Chris Lindberg, hardwood flooring operations manager at the Flooring Gallery in Urbandale, Iowa.

“People are putting it throughout their whole house,” Lindberg says. Installing bamboo also requires about 30 percent less glue than most other wood floors, which is good for the environment, he says.

Natural and carbonized bamboo floors are the most popular finishes, he says. Natural bamboo is light in color. The carbonized bamboo is steamed at high temperatures and the sugar in the stalk caramelizes, turning it dark brown. Some homeowners also are choosing to stain the bamboo to get a desired tone or color, he says.

The price of bamboo generally is $2 to $3 a square foot more than other hardwood flooring, Lindberg says.

Kitchen cabinets in bamboo also are catching homeowners’ interest, although traditional oak, maple and cherry woods continue to dominate cabinetry.