If you follow flooring design and trends over the past few years, you’ll have noticed a rise in the popularity of bamboo flooring. Once considered a novelty, bamboo flooring is now a viable option to other flooring materials. It has to do mainly with folks seeing that the technology and quality of bamboo flooring has evolved with tests showing bamboo can outlast many other products on the market. Meanwhile price is still low, and the look and feel of bamboo has also improved.

Although it is gaining in popularity, bamboo still has select brands that stand out from the rest. In this article we’ll review brands whose reputation has remained strong, and continue to be known for their durability, value, and outstanding style.

Cali Bamboo

Cali Bamboo was founded in 2004, but is already one of the leading bamboo companies in the marketplace. This San Diego based company promotes bamboo as a eco-friendly building material. In addition to flooring, they offer a range of other bamboo products including high quality composite decking product that is made from 60% reclaimed bamboo fibers and 40% recycled plastic.

This strand-woven bamboo flooring is available in both engineered and solid varieties in over 33 colors. You can choose between easy DIY click-lock planks or traditional tongue and groove styles.

Cali Bamboo floors come pre-sealed with a 10-layer scratch-resistant coating and carry a 50-year residential warranty. It’s also one of the hardest strand woven bamboo flooring in the market – with a Janka score of over 5000.

Cali Bamboo pricing is priced above the average, to match it’s quality. However, Cali Bamboo has one distinct advantage over the rest, it’s easy to order online and get fast delivery locally. You can obtain free samples from Home Depot, who carry Cali Bamboo flooring. You can also visit the Cali website, or call Cali’s toll-free number and ask a representative.

Home Legend

The Home Depot company stock a very comprehensive range of bamboo floor planks from Home Legend, with over 300 different bamboo products listed, including hand scraped, strand woven, horizontal, click lock and tongue and groove options, as well as bamboo molding. As you would expect from a leading home improvement store, the prices at Home Depot are pretty competitive ranging between $2.30 – $4.50 per square foot and there’s a good range of colors and styles of bamboo flooring, although Home Legend does tend to err on the more conservative side of things (no greys or whitewashed options here). There have been some mixed reviews of Home Legend products, particularly when used in a floating floor system, so please do your research and ensure that you are matching the right product to the correct specifications of your project.

Smith & Fong Plyboo

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Smith & Fong began selling its Plyboo line in 1996. These flooring products are manufactured in China and sold worldwide through independent distributors and on the company’s website.

Plyboo bamboo is an awesome product, on the high end, and is offered in 4 lines and over 25 colors and tones. The Stiletto line is the company’s flagship collection and is 100% FSC certified. Stiletto is available in 6-foot lengths and installs as a floating floor with a click-lock system.

Plyboo products adhere to very high environmental standards contribute to their higher price bracket of their products (from $4.30 up to $6 per square feet). Though after seeing their flooring you’ll know the higher price is worth it.

Aside from their beautiful strand woven floors, they also have a couple of quite different floors that you won’t find anywhere else such as the Plyboo Squared where the bamboo has been laid out in an end grain orientation which makes it look like mosaic squares, and the specialist Plyboo Sport bamboo flooring specifically designed for high impact sports courts. Plyboo is worth your time to at least see samples.

Ambient BP Bamboo Floors

Established in 2005, Ambient bills itself as a one-stop shop for all your bamboo flooring needs. Ambient BP has an excellent reputation both with homeowners and professional designers; their website has a lot of great bamboo floor design ideas. The company’s flooring has also been featured on television and in various architectural trade magazines. All Ambient products come feature a lifetime structural and finish warranty.

With an average price of $3.99 per square foot, Ambient bamboo is among the most affordable Bamboo flooring option. To keep pricing down, Ambient sells directly to consumers through their website or on the phone. Ambient’s range is mainly made from a large selection of strand bamboo flooring in different finishes, covering all shades from the nearly white Malaga Strand to the almost black Java Strand, and including striking options like the Tiger Strand and on-trend gray options too. They also have a smaller selection of horizontal and vertical bamboo floors; and a line of eucalyptus flooring that is worth checking out. All of Ambient’s strand bamboo floors can be installed over underfloor radiant heating

Teragren

Established in 1994, Teragren was also among the first US companies to promote bamboo as a sustainable construction material, offering not just flooring but also plywood panels and worktops.

Teragren bamboo flooring comes in both solid and engineered varieties. The company carries 12 lines of both floating and traditional planks in various widths & lengths, and more than 25 shades and patterns.

All Teragren floors are responsibly sourced and independently tested for health and safety compliance. They are committed to committed to “environmentally sensitive specifications… that has no negative impact on human health”. The company offers a 25-year structural warranty and a 10-year guarantee on all commercial finishes.

They currently have eight ranges of bamboo flooring, each offering several different colorways, finishes and coordinating flooring accessories, moldings etc. A sample photo of their Essence Collection is featured here, and is an awesome product.

You can purchase Teragren bamboo for an average of $5-8 per square foot at flooring retailers across North America.

Ecofusion

Ecofusion is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of bamboo flooring. You can find Ecofusion products in prestigious hotels and universities throughout the United States.

The company sells several lines of strand-woven bamboo in engineered and solid varieties. Solid bamboo lines are a ½ inch thick and come in 4-5” widths. You can purchase Ecofusion bamboo online or through your local flooring dealer.

Tesoro Woods

Tesoro Woods features easy-to-install, affordable strand-woven bamboo in 7 colors and patterns.

Tesoro Woods is a certified advocate of sourcing sustainable materials and using eco-friendly, low-VOC finishes and glues to minimize the impact on indoor air quality and health. Living up to our name, Tesoro Woods prizes wood as a treasure, where every product meets the highest environmental and health standards while looking beautiful.

Tesoro advertises an expansion rate of only 10%, even in extreme temperatures, making Super Strand Bamboo a popular choice for both homeowners in arid and damp locations. They carry both solid and engineered, with 9 different lines of excellent products to choose from.

Tesoro Woods distribute their flooring to the public through a select network of authorized dealers across the country. It’s easy to get a sample through the site, but you’ll need to visit their website to locate a reseller near you.

US Floors

Another committed green company, US Floors’ company motto is: “Manufacturer of Unique and Sustainable Floors”. They specialize in bamboo and cork, but also have a range of natural oiled hardwood flooring. They have three bamboo floor ranges, the Traditions, Expressions and Corboo.

It is the third range – the Corboo – that we find the most interesting, as it is a unique combination of strand woven bamboo and seams of natural cork – the result, we agree, does have a “certain rusticity and variegation for a look like no other floor”! The Corboo range comes in six colorways, including the really beautiful Glacier colorway that resembles whitewashed wood planks. You can find the whole range of USFloors bamboo flooring at Flooring Inc.