Bamboo flooring is gaining in popularity with consumers who look for a unique visual effect, durability, and for a type of flooring that relies on a renewable resource; the hardy, fast-growing bamboo of the Far East.
Bamboo is a type of grass; an abundant and resilient species used for centuries in all kinds of applications. And the “green” aspect of bamboo flooring, centered on how renewable the species is, and for how little wastage there is when creating the flooring planks, make it a key choice in environmentally responsible building materials all over the world.
How Bamboo Flooring is Made
When the raw bamboo is harvested:
- The outer skin of each stalk is stripped and the bamboo is filleted lengthwise.
- The curved fillets are pared, so that the remaining bamboo strip is flat and ready for the kiln where excess moisture is removed.
- The kiln-dried bamboo strips are then boiled to make them even harder.
- The bamboo fillets are then glued together to make what can be recognized as bamboo flooring planks.
- The planks are treated with a finishing layer, most commonly an aluminum oxide layer
- They then undergo a final compression stage.
Tongue and groove elements are then added to each plank. This process transforms the bamboo flooring planks into solid, dependable surfaces, ready for shipping.
Horizontal and Vertical Bamboo Flooring
At the gluing stage, bamboo flooring can be made into two common styles; horizontal or vertical styles:
Vertical bamboo flooring - When the strips of bamboo are glued with the narrow edges facing up.
Horizontal bamboo flooring - When the strips are laid flat with the broader side of the bamboo face up.
There are decorative advantages for each one, depending on personal taste. The horizontal style tends to show up the unique patterns in the bamboo, the node patterns or “knuckles” that are characteristic of the species. The vertical styles show off the narrow patterns between the strips, offering a unique “narrow channel” effect.
Strand-Woven Bamboo
This is the hardest variety of bamboo flooring there is. The leftover parings which are set aside during the filleting process are used for the production of strand-woven bamboo flooring. The parings are intertwined and bound together using an abrasion-resistant resin, making the natural durability of the bamboo even more robust. And the resulting strand-woven bamboo offers a third option to vertical and horizontal bamboo flooring as far as surface patterns; an intricate, hardwood-like grain pattern.
Natural and Carbonized Bamboo Flooring
Further choices in bamboo floors extend to color - natural bamboo flooring and carbonized bamboo flooring.
Natural bamboo carries with it the creamy, blonde color which most people associate with the look of bamboo. But an additional choice in color – carbonized bamboo – delivers a smoky, caramelized brown, rendered when the bamboo is boiled for a slightly longer period. The natural sugars present in the bamboo strips caramelize during this boiling process, which explains the rich, chocolaty color.
Natural bamboo flooring is approximately 30% harder than carbonized bamboo flooring. But each choice represents two attractive options that have enormous interior design potential.
Bamboo Flooring are Green Building Products
Bamboo flooring can be defined as green building materials for a number of different reasons.
- Bamboo is an abundant species
- Bamboo is fast growing, mature in a fraction of the time when compared with many other sources of hardwood flooring
- Bamboo plants are not individually affected by the harvesting process
- There is little or no wastage during the manufacturing of bamboo flooring.
The decorative and practical values found in bamboo flooring mean that the movement toward the use of green building materials doesn’t mean sacrificing on look or long-term performance.