Bamboo Flooring Hardwood

Bamboo flooring hardwood appears to be an answer to the growing shortage of timber. Because so many primitive societies practice slash and burn land clearing techniques, and because much of the world’s paper is not yet being recycled, the use of bamboo for a beautiful durable and quickly renewable wood source is a godsend.

The advantages of bamboo flooring hardwood are obvious. First, it’s quickly renewable. The bamboo plant starts out as horizontal Rhizomes or underground stems from which the upright canes grow. Since it is the shoots that feed the main plant, they must be allowed to grow naturally for the first two years. During the third year, the hollow stalks or canes can be harvested.

The rapid re-growth compared to that of even relatively fast growing Southern pine in the United States, which takes at least seven years before harvest. Southern pine forests are softwood and not suitable for flooring.

The Hunan province in southern China provides most of the bamboo flooring hardwood which is imported into the United States. There are miles of bamboo trees owned by the government of China. Individuals lease the right to harvest the bamboo.

Once the hollow canes are harvested, they are split, soaked in water and flattened. The split canes are layered to the correct thickness and glued together in layers of the appropriate thickness. The layers are bonded with a combination of heat and pressure with a urea Formaldehyde adhesive. It is the adhesive that gives the finished product its strength. The bamboo hardwood is also very stable in both dimensions. Other hardwood products, not of bamboo, tend to shrink or expand depending on the humidity and temperature of the outside air.

The bamboo hardwood boards once milled and shaped can be handled in the same way as other types of hardwood flooring. Many contractors choose the prefinished product such as that marketed by www.floorchamp.com. The boards are milled in the standard sizes for flooring, usually 3” or 5” width. Thickness of the boards is also standard, such as ½”. The grain of the wood can be either horizontal or vertical, with the length of the board the most common. Three layers of veneer usually make the needed thickness.

In recent days, experiments have been using other products for the core of the board. For instance, the wood from over-age rubber trees, with no other commercial significance has been used. Another experiment involves the use of rubber from recycled tires, used as the core. This is an even better use of the earth’s resources. The glue used as a bonding agent in the case of a rubberwood core is melamine glue.

he price of the bamboo flooring is somewhat higher than the price of standard sized hardwood flooring. The beauty of the flooring is undisputed, and the hardness is in the range somewhat higher than that of red oak, which makes it extremely durable. The main drawback seems to be the noticeable odor of the urea formaldehyde

For more details contact us at:

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