Coconut Flooring

Coconut flooring is beautiful and looks similar to hardwood flooring. It is strong, hard and durable. If properly maintained coconut flooring can last for several generations. It is also suitable for high traffic situations and can handle heavy furniture without being damaged. Coconut flooring is suitable for people with pets and it is also anti-allergenic which means that it allows no place for dust mites to live and breed. So coconut flooring is also a good choice for people who suffer from alllergic rhinitis and from asthma.

Most Coconut flooring is made from coconut palms that have finished bearing fruit. These coconut palms are known as senile palms and are palms that are generally between 50 and 70 years old. Much of the coconut 'wood' that is used for making coconut flooring planks are taken from senile palms in coconut plantations. Once a senile palm is cut down with a chain saw a new coconut seed is planted in its place.

I wrote 'wood' because technically coconut is not a tree (it belongs in the palm family), and oddly enough the fruit is not a 'nut' but a drupe. Although not technically a wood you can refer to 'coconut lumber' and 'coconut timber'.

The chopped down coconut palm is taken to a factory where it is milled and kiln dried. Coconut flooring is similar to bamboo flooring in that it comes in three types: vertical, horizontal and strand woven. Vertical and horizontal coconut flooring does not refer to whether the flooring is laid horizontally or vertically in a room, but instead refers to how the flooring plank is made. If the flooring plank is cut down the trunk it is vertical, if it is cut across then it is horizontal. Horizontal coconut flooring as with hroizontal bamboo flooring shows more grain. With vertical coconut flooring less grain is evident. To make strand coconut flooring the coconut wood is cut into strands which are then glued together under heat and pressure. This process makes a very hard and long lasting flooring plank that has a more homogenous appearance.

Also like bamboo flooring, the color of coconut flooring depends on if its 'carbonized'. Carbonized means the lumber has been heated so the sugars in the wood are 'caramelized' and the result is the wood turns a darker brown color. Natural coconut flooring is a light tan color and carbonized coconut flooring is a medium honey-brown. By combining carbonized and natural coconut it is possible to achieve a striped effect which is often called tiger stripe.

Coconut flooring is competitively priced and like bamboo is becoming a fashionable alternative to hardwood flooring. Because the senile palms are no longer of economic use they are a perfect resource to use for flooring, especially when you consider that a new palm seed needs only 5 to 6 years to reach maturity.