Laminate flooring(LF) and bamboo flooring(BF) are both of wood flooring. But they have their own features.
1. Abrasion resistance
LF is strong abrasion resistant. AC4 and AC5 rating LF can be used for heavy commercial purpose. It can be used in many high traffic indoor places such as gymnasium and supermart. Bamboo flooring is not strong abrasion resistant. It can’ be used in high traffic place.
2. Price
LF is much cheaper. The prices of bamboo is usually 3-4 times higher than that of BF.3. Moisture resistance Both of the products are strong moisture resistant. But BF is much better. BF even can be used in kitchen. The swelling rate of BF is very low.
4. Durability
Regarding durability, BF is better than LF. LF can’t be repaired if the top layer, abrasion resistance, is broken as there is no layer to protect the decorative layer and support material. BF still can be used if its surface is broken because there is still bamboo under the surface.
5. The content of formaldehyde
BF is mainly made up of glued bamboo planks, while the support material of LF consists of glued wooden fiber. So the content of formaldehyde in LF is times of that in bamboo. But LF is also safe as long as it meet the standard of formaldehyde release.
6. Colors available
Almost all the colors can be available to LF: pine, oak, birch, beech, cherry, oak, teak, walnut, ceramic tile, granite, marble and even including bamboo. But the colors for bamboo flooring(BF) are just natural color, carbonized color and several other colors.
7. Appearance
BF gives a natural, elegant and comfortable feel. It makes your house more valuable. Common LF can’ t offer such feel. But now there is some type of LF with hardwood like appearance such as V groove type and hand scraped surface.
8. Noise.
LF is of a floating type. There is some noise when people step, while there is only a little noise from BF as its installation method is quite different from LF. It is not a floating type. But attached underlayment on the back of LF can reduce most of the noise.
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- The Benefits of Laminate Bamboo Flooring
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FYI Bamboo is a grass not a wood. Consequently, bamboo flooring is not covered under the formaldehyde standard.
It is also important to understand this new formaldehyde standard is not based on health effects instead it is based on California’s standard. This CA standard was designed for commercial applications. CA advises against using their standard for residential applications. Equally important is CA lowered the acceptable formaldehyde concentration by a factor of four from 27 parts per billion (ppb) to just 7 ppb shortly after developing this standard. Neither CA’s nor the new Federal standard takes this reduction into consideration.
CA released a study on Dec 15, 2009 that found that 98% of the homes tested exceeded the recommended formaldehyde concentration with the typical home having four times too much formaldehyde. I would encourage everyone to test their homes formaldehyde concentration. Using passive formaldehyde badges is simple and at $39 inexpensive. This was the method the Sierra Club used to discover the now infamous FEMA trailers.
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