Bamboo Discount Flooring

Bamboo discount flooring has become a popular floor treatment because of its beauty, but it’s also an effective use of the earth’s resources. Because bamboo is a grass rather than a wood product, it is easily renewable and grows rapidly. In fact, rather than 7-10 years which it the growth time for usable fast growing soft wood, this engineered wood product is harvestable in only 2-3 years.

Bamboo discount flooring is formed by cutting the bamboo into thin strips, and soaking them in water to remove the starch in the plant; the strips are then dried flat and treated with a preservative. Boric acid is a common choice as a preservative, although some manufacturers keep the ingredients of the preservative as a trade secret. Boric acid is a relatively nontoxic substance, often used for such purposes. Sometimes, additional preservative treatment is added after the lamination process but before the strips are finished.

The lamination process consists of laying strips of the bamboo veneer in a urea-formaldehyde glue in a three-layer horizontal grain or multiple layers of vertical grain until the product is built up to the required thickness. This is similar to the process of making plywood, lending strength and stability to the wood. More recently, experiments based on using alternative materials for the core of the board with only the top layer of veneer made of bamboo have proved quite successful. The experiments have used either fiber from old rubber trees or recycled tires. Once the sheets of what is essentially bamboo plywood are completed, they are sealed with UF sealant.

A heat and press procedure dries the sheet of veneer and core layers and causes it to fuse into a solid unit. The solid sheets of hardwood are then milled to standard widths, usually either three or five inches. The milled boards come in four foot lengths and are tongue and groove style.

When you choose prefinished bamboo discount flooring, the top layer of veneer is already heat sealed so there is no need for further finishing. Suppliers such as www.floorchamp.com understand the added advantage of bringing pre-finished engineered flooring to the job site. Contractors require less labor time, since prefinished bamboo flooring is ready to install either as a floating floor or over a subfloor.

The hardness of the finished bamboo flooring varies somewhat, depending upon the company importing the wood. It is considered to be slightly lower than that of red oak, but may be significantly higher. As more bamboo flooring is imported from the Hunan province in China where most of the bamboo is grown, certification and standardization is inevitable. Currently, there is some expansion of manufacturing facilities for finished bamboo hardwood into the country of Vietnam.

The bamboo flooring is much more stable with temperature and humidity fluctuations than other hardwoods, which is another reason for its popularity as flooring. At present, the major disadvantage appears to be the level of urea Formaldehyde emissions present, due to the adhesive bonding agent. However, these emissions are still within the safety levels set by the U.S. government. More studies are being conducted to find an acceptable alternative bonding substance for the veneer layers

For more details contact us at:

FloorChamp, Inc
944-D Rochelle Ave
Charleston, SC 29407