Recycled Makore flooring is unique for many reasons, including its variety of warm colors ranging from pale red to crimson-brown, a scarlet mosaic that is only enhanced by the one-of-a-kind Staybull® manufacturing process. Makore flooring creates an intriguing look for your home with it’s outstanding grain pattern.

Like the color, this too can vary from log to log.  Makore is commonly found with a straight grain, but some samples demonstrate a smooth moire pattern, like ripples through silk, that is truly a delight for the eyes.

Makore (or African Cherry) is a wood of medium hardness, rated at 1100 on the Janka scale, but it can still have a noticeable dulling effect on cutters, thanks to a high silica content.  It takes glue and stains well, and if you use filler, the surface can obtain an excellent finish.

As with any of Staybull’s recycled hardwood flooring lines, you can be sure that you are getting an eco-friendly floor when you order our Makore flooring.  We use 100% environmentally friendly methods throughout the entire manufacturing process.  So if you want an eco-friendly floor with an intriguing look, choose Staybull® Makore flooring.

Is bamboo harder than hardwood flooring?  Manufacturers would sure have us think so, and with Janka Hardness ratings reaching as high as 3000, it would appear to be true.  But there is one important fact that rarely gets mentioned: the Janka Hardness Test can be manipulated and made to present misleading information.

Assuming the bamboo flooring companies are not exaggerating the results (which they most likely are), the Janka test itself is an imperfect measure of bamboo’s toughness.  The arrangement of fibers in bamboo naturally resists round objects like the steel balls used in the test, acting like a trampoline that bounces them back out.  However, sharp objects, like a stone caught in the sole of a shoe, can cut these fibers, not only scratching the surface but also making the surrounding area more prone to dents.  Because of this, if a hardwood floor and a bamboo floor have identical Janka ratings, the hardwood will scratch and dent less than the bamboo.

Bamboo companies will also manipulate the Janka test by performing it on the “knuckle” or node. This part of the bamboo is much harder than the rest, and only makes up a small percentage of the entire surface.  This leads to higher scores, but a floor that is vulnerable to dents and scratches everywhere except these isolated hard spots.

Clearly, the most reliable flooring from a structural perspective is hardwood. Staybull Flooring can even compete with bamboo in the eco-friendly arena, so consider recycled wood flooring before you spend money on unreliable bamboo.