Bamboo flooring for Your Home

Bamboo flooring has emerged as a new material for the commercial design market. It’s unique look and earth friendly properties has made it popular for flooring and panels. Although bamboo has been used as a construction material for centuries, it has only recently emerged as engineered flooring.

Bamboo floors are suited to both casual and formal environments and will compliment the decor of both minimalist and eclectic flooring designs. Today’s State-of-the-art technology coupled with an almost limitless choice of stains, finishes, styles and designs make bamboo floors one of the most practical and versatile choices available.

Here are some important facts you should know before selecting your floors:

Bamboo is a grass not a wood. As a grass it regenerates faster than wood. In fact, it is typically harvested within five years of sprouting, making it a truly renewable resource. Its use can provide a positive impact on the enviroment and provides a great flooring option. Harvesting serves to stimulate the growth of very extensive underground root systems, which develops fast growing sprouts the following Spring. Sprouts breaking through the soil can grow as much as 2 feet the first day.

Bamboo hardness varies.While northern red oak's characteristics are the same regardless of where it is grown, the same cannot be said for banboo grown in the different Provinces in China. Although bamboo used for flooring is always the same species, there are significant differences caused by enviromental conditions. Where it grows, what time of year it is harvested, the age of the grass, the soil chemistry and the amount of rain are all variables that will affect the hardness and stability .

During the carbonization process, bamboo loses about 20% of its hardness. The fibers are weakened by the presence of high pressure steam, which is used to change the strips to a coffee color. The color change is found throughout the entire plank. Carbonizing creates many different tones which cannot be precisely controlled.

Maximum stability and hardness. The best bambo for a floor grows on the top portion of a mountain with moderate rain, is five to eight years old, is harvested in the winter, is five to seven inches in diameter and is located in either the Fujian os Zehjiang provinces in China. The bamboo harvested in these provinces is harder and more stable than other locations due to the enviromenatal conditions.