Bamboo Flooring Laminate

Bamboo flooring laminate is a relatively new engineered wood product which is being imported into the United States and Europe from the Hunan province in China and to a lesser extent from a manufacturing plant in Vietnam. Hopes are increasing that eventually manufacturing plants in the United States will be established which will allow for better control over such things as worker conditions, product standardization and quality and emission control.

Bamboo flooring laminate is produced by harvesting the three-year old hollow canes of the bamboo plant and splitting the canes. They are then soaked in water to remove the excess starchy content of the fibers. After drying, layers of flattened bamboo veneer are bonded together using a urea formaldehyde adhesive under heat and pressure. A preservative of non toxic boric acid is used on the bamboo either before laminating or just after laminating. Additional protection is produced by using two treatments of boric acid rather than just one.

After the rough panels are milled to standard sizes and sanded smooth, they are ready to be shipped. Several companies in the United States now import the bamboo flooring laminate product, which is increasingly popular with contractors and do it yourself project homeowners as well. The product is relatively light weight, compared to hardwoods of the same size. Its hardness, measured on a widely used scale places it just above that of red oak. This makes the flooring quite resistant to dents and scratches. Although there is some odor of urea formaldehyde in the days after installation, it usually dissipates fairly quickly and is well below the levels deemed questionable by air standard quality measurements.

Experiments are underway to create a bonding agent which will retain the positive qualities of UF adhesive, such as hardness and tensile strength, while eliminating the odor which can be offensive to some with sensitivities. Other research is ongoing to find alternative laminate core products, with some success reported in the use of old rubberwood trees with no other commercial significance or the use of old rubber tires and melamine glue.

The characteristics of the laminate product make it a visual feast. Patterns of light or natural bamboo strips interspersed with carbonized strips created by steaming the natural strips along with the somewhat darker bamboo joints, gives the bamboo floored room a truly beautiful appearance. The cost of the flooring is somewhat higher than that of traditional hardwood floors, but that may change as true hardwood becomes increasing difficult to harvest. Already environmental concerns have eliminated many of the areas where logging was possible in the past.

Bamboo, which is technically a grass, rather than a tree, produces a marketable product in less than half the time required to grow even softwood trees. Bamboo requires almost no fertilization and is naturally resistant to most types of pests which attack other trees. Some people have been concerned that the harvesting of the bamboo is impacting the giant panda, but the type of bamboo which the panda requires is not that used in the manufacture of the laminate. Giant pandas terrain is at a higher altitude than the “sea of bamboo”.

For more details contact us at:

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