How Much Do Bamboo Kitchen Cabinets Cost?
Last Updated: January 13, 2022
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Bamboo, although it's actually a grass, has come to rival traditional hardwoods such as oak, maple, and walnut due to its unique qualities. If you're a bit squeamish about using bamboo for your kitchen cabinets, keep in mind that the wood has been used in building for thousands of years. Having stood the test of time, bamboo is now proving to a new generation of builders why the Chinese have long regarded bamboo as representative of the harmony between nature and humanity. To learn more about bamboo kitchen cabinets, including how much they cost, continue reading.
About Bamboo #
Bamboo, among the fastest-growing plants on earth, is a native species of Asia, Africa, and the Americas, where it grows in nearly 1,500 varieties. Many animals depend on it as a staple of their diet, but it has proven equally useful to humans through uses as diverse as weapon-making, writing, and construction.
In this last regard, bamboo has been used to build everything from houses to bridges to scaffolding. In fact, in areas such as Hong Kong you can still see modern skyscrapers being built with bamboo scaffolding in a testament to the material's timeless strength and utility.
While the Chinese and Japanese have long used bamboo as a flooring material, the practice didn't take off in the West until the mid 1990s. Since then, the U.S. bamboo goods industry, which includes flooring, cabinetry, and furniture, has grown at bamboo-like speeds, with a wide variety of products now being offered by popular retailers.
The Benefits of Bamboo Cabinetry #
Bamboo is an excellent kitchen cabinet material for reasons that include the following:
- Strength: The kitchen is one of the most-used rooms in the house and kitchen cabinets are constantly being used. As they get banged around over the years, cabinets inevitably suffer nicks, scratches, and dents. Quality bamboo, however, is up to three times harder than some traditional hardwoods, allowing it to outperform much of the competition.
- Appearance: Bamboo boards and planks are available in vertical and horizontal grain orientations and can be stained in the color of your choice like other woods.
- Sustainable: Bamboo can reach maturity in 7 years or less, compared to decades for hardwood trees. In addition, unlike hardwoods, when bamboo is harvested, part of the stalk remains intact, allowing it to regenerate for future harvests.
Bamboo Kitchen Cabinet Average Costs #
The actual cost of bamboo cabinetry depends on the number of cabinets to be installed, the quality of the materials, local labor and material costs, and other factors.
- Installing bamboo cabinets in an average-sized kitchen should cost $12,000 to $20,000, although using top quality materials in a large kitchen could raise costs to $35,000 or more.