Bamboo Flooring – Durability and Beauty Underfoot
Bamboo flooring might bring to mind a ‘shoots and stalks’ image of mats and soft flooring, but in reality, bamboo flooring is comparable and even superior to its hardwood counterparts. Used in the Pacific Rim for years, bamboo flooring is rapidly gaining popularity in the Western world not only for its durability but also for its beauty.
There are many advantages of choosing bamboo flooring including:
* Environmentally friendly – Bamboo is a highly renewable and sustainable resource in a world of rapidly depleting resources. Bamboo can be harvested every 3 – 5 years as compared to the 20 – 30 years it takes for hardwood forests to replenish. Bamboo grows easily without the use of pesticides or fertilizers so there is little pollution run-off to affect the groundwater.
* Strength & Resiliency – In Japan, bamboo is used for industrial scaffolding so it’s definitely strong enough for your family’s flooring needs. It has a high weight to strength ratio and can carry countless times its own weight. Bamboo flooring is as hard as maple and is 50% more stable & harder than Red Oak. According to the USDA, bamboo flooring also tops the list of common wood species in dimensional stability.
* Durability – Especially good for the high-traffic areas of your home or business, bamboo is much more scratch resistant than hardwoods flooring so it needs refinished less frequently. Eventually it will gain a nice patina and will start to warm and meld into a variety of tones and hues. After time, your flooring becomes a gallery of mottled tones that are unique and beautiful.
* Chemical-free – Make sure to ask about the manufacturing process of the bamboo flooring you are purchasing. Most bamboo flooring can be produced without the use of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) as opposed to the chemical-laden process of producing traditional hardwood flooring VOCs are chemical compounds that are carbon based and are in the form of vapor at room temperature. In this case, organic does not mean naturally occurring rather a by-products of man-made substances.
The disadvantages of bamboo flooring are mostly related to good consumerism. One should always take a look at the manufacturing process. There are varying qualities of materials and you should always go for the best you can afford. Always keep in mind that hardness is dependent upon manufacturer and the maturity of the bamboo, and that any bamboo of less than 5 years old growth will be likely not to be hard enough for a long-lasting floor. Experts recommend you avoid the lower priced imported product, under 3$/square foot is usually pretty hit and miss.
Green Earth Bamboo offers more ways to bring amazing bamboo products into your home. Consider bambooing your bedroom with luxurious bedspreads and pillowcases. Fill your closet with bamboo clothes and make sure your nursery takes advantage of the many wonderful properties of organic baby wear.
The Newest Thing in Lighting – LED Lighting and What It Can Do
The other day my son said to me, what else could anyone possibly invent? Sometimes it would seem that way, but I think that couldn’t be further from the truth. Back in the late sixties and early seventies someone realized that light emitting diodes could be used for indicator lights. They only were available in the color red, but that didn’t stop anyone, in fact we all became quite familiar with that red color in things like calculators and hand held games. That is pretty much where LED’s stayed until a few years ago.
Suddenly LED’s were available in different colors. A new super bright LED was developed. Controllers made color changing possible as well as mixing colors to create almost any color in the spectrum. A whole new market is emerging now. Many municipalities have started to change over the traffic lights to LED bulbs. I am sure you have seen them; they appear as many small dots of light for the Red and the Green. Car manufacturers are using them inside indicator lights.
The most exciting aspect of LED lighting for me is the entrance of LED’s into residential lighting. They can be used for accent lighting in many applications such as under cabinet lighting and inside cabinets. Cove lighting is another application where they can be used. There are LED bulbs that can replace some existing bulbs like an MR 16 low voltage bulb.
As of right now in their development accent lighting is where they are best suited, the time for them to replace conventional light bulbs is not far off. As an example of where LED’s can really shine is a pool light that can change into seven different colors just by turning the regular switch on and off to change modes. There are other types of color changing bulbs that can be used for decorative purposes. If you want to do some really creative lighting projects, you need to look into LED’s.
If your wondering what is so great about LED’s, let me explain. They have great advantages over conventional light bulbs. Here is a list of just a few things:
A Busy Four Hour Week!
Do you ever wonder what you’re doing with your life? “How was your day honey, what did you do today?” Often elicits a somewhat vacuous response to fill the gap whilst we ponder the discrepancy between our busyness and actual accomplishments. Tim Ferris has to be having a laugh, with his extolling of THE 4-HOUR WEEK, though must grant him ‘big respect” for such a great book title. Who wouldn’t be sold on that Holy Grail? The premise of this gem of a book, is that retirement is wasted on the retired. He asserts, with a dazzling account of personal life experiences and achievements, that effectiveness is the goal. Not activity per se. Ferris postulates a major paradigm shift in how we spend our time. This digital age that offers every service and information resource one could ever need at the tip of our Google finger, also uniquely allows us to outsource the mundane in our life.
‘Your Man in India’ seems like the sort of chap we’d all love to have at our beck and call.
Organizing our time consuming trivialities, with panache and, dare I say enthusiasm. Eliminate the mundane, the drudgery, the important but uninspiring, and what are you left with? Well frankly speaking, about 4 hours per week, to be super effective, clutter free and invincible. Whether you believe, that you can metamorphose into a superhuman uber-productive, semi retired, filthy rich WINNER, is debatable. Ferris does a good job of advocating through his own life experiences, that living outside conventional and cultural expectations of what it means to be productive, is now a choice.
Pretty compelling one too. Even if you dismiss the premise, as fiction, the book makes for a fascinating and entertaining read, as you follow the journey of this modern Indiana Jones following his own somewhat hedonistic life.
Ferris is generous with his resource notations. almost as though challenging us to overcome our procrastination instincts. “Look I’ve done it so can you.” If ever a book were to inspire you to query your world view, sack the boss, move to France and buy a vineyard, this is it. Whether we can actually pull it off with such ease, grace and savoir faire as the incredibly accomplished Tim Ferris is unlikely. Just don’t call him busy!