The Devil Wears Stilettos

When it comes to working with sustainable flooring materials, bamboo is one of the most popular choices. We greenies love the fact that it's a rapidly renewable resource; its tensile strength -- a material's ability to withstand attempts to pull it apart -- is 28000 per square inch vs. 23000 per square inch for steel, and bamboo looks a lot like a traditional flooring material, and it's compressive strength is twice as strong as concrete, but like concrete it crack, dent or ding, a serious drawback.

According to a customer service rep at San Francisco-based Smith and Fong's Plyboo, a leading supplier of alternative flooring, the type of bamboo they use reaches its optimal strength in 4-6 years, or when its nodes have darkened. Plyboo typically hand harvests at 5 years, this ensures that the raw material of their product is as strong as it can be which dictates the strength of their final product.

Does that mean if my bamboo is harvested at maturity that I won't get dents and dings? NOPE. Dents and dings from unprotected high heels, especially stilettos, or even the nails of fairly large dogs are unfortunately common place in bamboo as well as traditional hardwood floors such as oak or maple and should be expected.

Harder Than Oak

However, a quick check of Plyboo's *Janka Ball Test specification (hardness test), shows that its Original Flat Gain Bamboo flooring has a hardness rating of 1700 lbf, which is much stronger than that of the commonly used Red Oak flooring that come in at nearly 1300, so bamboo is a harder alternative to a typical wood floor.

Is there anything else that could be done to prevent or reduce dents and dings?

Another glance at the Plyboo website shows that the color can make a difference in the hardness of the bamboo as well. The flat grain amber was significantly softer than that of its Natural colored cousin. Furthermore, if your floor is stained a darker color, make sure that the stain permeates all the way through the material, that way, if a deep scratch does occur it won't be as obvious.

Finally -- and I learned this the hard way -- keep your floor clean! Dirt and grit particles can also cause havoc on your floor, (especially if your office chair rolls over them constantly, like the small dings and dents from my rolling task chair in the photo at right) so you might consider using area rugs in high-traffic areas.

The moral of this story? Ensure that your bamboo floor remains as dent free as possible, make sure the raw material is harvested at its optimal strength, consider the natural color over the softer darker tones, keep it clean, and leave your stilettos at the door.

* The Janka test reports the amount of force necessary to drive a .444 inch steel ball .222 inches into the material being tested.