Natural, Spice and Cognac: One Year Later

USFloors Bamboo flooring installation by Carpetland Carpet One meets all of the owner’s expectations

The new meeting-room floor installed more than a year ago at the Evergreen Holistic Learning Center had to promote health and stimulate positive, meaningful conversation.

Brazilian Cherry simply would not do, Joan Barlage, Evergreen co-director, recalls thinking when she was looking at samples.

“I would never take something out of a rainforest,” she says.

Barlage liked the idea of hardwood with a lot of color variation. But it had to be a planet- and indoor-air friendly product.  Her daughter, co-director Kate Nordyke, suggested mixing colors, which turned into an idea that stuck: Three different colors of natural and stained, solid bamboo.

At time of installation

“When looking at the tremendous selection of colors in the USFloors bamboo flooring line, both natural and stained, it dawned on me,” recalls Ben Lanich, a sales manager for Carpetland Carpet One Floor & Home in Cincinnati, OH. “If laid out completely random, why can’t we mix colors? “

And so, a one-of-a-kind installation of Natural, Spice and stained Cognac horizontal-grain bamboo flooring became a focal point of the Spring Grove Village, OH, learning center for colleges and high schools that focuses on organic gardening, green practices and healthy living. The center is located on 8-1/2 acres, and has a stated mission to advance the urban community.

Barlage says the floor has proven to be durable and easy to maintain, simply by cleaning with a flat mop. She also has taken precautions to protect the floor from casters and the feet of heavy furniture.

One year after installation

“It’s doing very well,” she says. “I don’t baby the floor. I have never believed that your possessions should possess you.”

The Natural and Spice bamboo colors are USFloor’s version of traditional, natural and carbonized bamboo. The addition of stained Cognac makes this floor pop. As we learned in Bamboo 2011-Style, interest in traditional bamboo alone has dwindled, while interest in stained colors and strand bamboo has soared.

One year after installation

USFloors also makes engineered, floating bamboo floors in a variety of hand-scraped and stained finishes that meet LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) standards for low-emitting materials.

To Barlage, the floor goes a step beyond meeting sustainability and indoor-air quality standards.

“It draws people in,” she says. “Everyone who sees it comments in a very positive way. I love it.”©

– Nancy Kibbee is editor at www.naturalinteriors.com