Costco Connection - February 2010

for your home

Anatural choice ch Bamboo’s beauty will floor you

Bamboo is not only a sustainable and Earth-friendly flooring option, it is also durable and beautiful.

By Will Fifield

IF YOU ARE considering installing new flooring in your home, bamboo is not only durable and beautiful, it is possibly the most Earth-friendly floor-covering material on the market.

“Bamboo is strong, hard and dimensionally stable, making it a perfect candidate for flooring,” according to experts at This Old House ( www.thisoldhouse.com). Botanically, bamboo is a type of grass, albeit a very wood-like plant. Bamboo reaches maturity in five to seven years, while other hardwoods require between 50 and 120 years to mature. Because it is a grass, bamboo generally does not require replanting or the use of pesticides to grow. Its grainy, warm tones have made bamboo a rising star among natural flooring materials in recent years.

While installing bamboo flooring can be a do-it-yourself project, there are a few things you should know.

First, measure your room carefully to
determine how much flooring you’ll need.
“It’s essential that you buy enough bamboo to
cover 105 percent of this square footage,”
explains Costco buyer Amber Dodge. “That
is usually enough to make up for any errors
you run into while installing bamboo. If you
are installing it diagonally, then purchase an
extra 15 percent or more, depending on
room size.” Amber also recommends pur-
chasing all of your flooring at the same time,
as bamboo, like any hardwood, can vary sig-
nificantly in color or shade if purchased at a
later date. It is also helpful to have extra
material that can be used for future repairs.

The Costco Connection The bamboo flooring available at Costco features an extremely durable 13-layer finish and a Uniclic® installation system with eco-friendly cork pad on the underside, making it a do-it-yourselfer’s dream. Each box covers 27. 44 square feet. It is available now at your local warehouse.

Amber Dodge Hardware Buyer Buyer’s pıck

IF YOU WANT to transform
your garage or basement
into an organized shop
area, the industrial rack
we’re carrying from Whalen
this month is ideal. It is
easy to assemble and super
strong. Each of its four
shelves holds 2,000 pounds
of evenly distributed
weight, so it can stand up
to your toughest storage
demands. It’s constructed
with heavy, 12-gauge steel
beams and features welded
and reinforced zinc-coated
wire decks. Some competi-
tors use melamine decks,
which can swell and buckle
in damper conditions.
The units are adjust-
able and expandable.
You can interlock them to
create a configuration that
fits your space and needs,
and they are approved
by NSF, a public health
and safety agency, for dry
storage so they can be
used commer-
cially. The best
part about this
item is that Costco
offers it for 55
percent less than
racks with similar
specifications on
the market.