Bamboo

Bamboo is actually not a wood but a grass. The flooring is made from strips laminated together into a plank. There are two grains—horizontal (flat) or vertical grain style and two colors—natural or carbonized. Traditional bamboo was very popular 15-20 years ago for being sustainable and inexpensive.  It has since gone out of favor due to issues with mold and scratching easily.

Compressed or Strand Woven bamboo was created to circumvent those issues.  Polymers and resins are mixed with strands of bamboo which makes the bamboo 3 x harder than traditional bamboo.  Compressed comes the traditional natural and carbonized and well as many different stained colors. In humid climates it performs best as an engineered than a solid.