Most people in our society still have a lot of questions regarding bamboo floors. After all, it’s fairly innovative a flooring type that has only taken the attention of many in the last few years. Traditional hardwood however, remains a hot favorite, with few resorting to bamboo for sustainability and environment friendly nature. 

The Bamboo plant

The primary species, ‘Moso Bamboo’ is mainly of Chinese origin, though it can be found elsewhere in Asia and parts of India too. Given the fast growth rate and large production of bamboo, today most people are choosing this flooring type for its plentiful availability at a budgeted rate.

Factors to assess

People have started installing various types and brands of bamboo floors, with strand woven bamboo flooring becoming the most preferred option. But there are few considerations that buyers must always be wary of:

First, bamboo is not exactly wood. So if someone is more comfortable or habituated with wood flooring has to leave certain habits that were characteristic of it, before moving to bamboo. Excepting for the fact that both grows from the ground and are hygroscopic, there aren’t much similarities. 

Second, strand woven bamboo flooring differs markedly from wood. To an extent, it does look like wood more than bamboo, but there’s nothing beyond it. For those who choose this type of bamboo flooring, the material gets infused with glue and that makes it far lesser same like wood than traditional flooring made from bamboos.

Thirdly, all bamboo is not the same. Quality among the varied factories differs across China and so the knowledge patterns among people who own these factories. Since most flooring types have similarities galore, buyers can rarely make out the minor differences and get tempted seeing the low priced ones. But thankfully, the overall quality has witnessed a noticeable improvement in the industry. But one thing is clear- manufacturing quality bamboo flooring products is a tad trickier than wood.

The makeup and processing

Strong fibers inside bamboo plants are clustered together in a very dense pattern, especially at the outer stalk region, which decreases when moving inwards. In fact, the average density at the outer half is found to be double of the inner half.
To make the flooring, strips are cut from the stalk wall in rectangular patterns so that the strip has a denser side and another one is not so dense. Given the stable form of the inner wall, one side of eth strip always expands and contracts compared to the other. This poses a huge challenge for manufacturers to deal with the imbalance and make the flooring pattern. Yet, they believe in creating uniformity in all the planks so that the strips are oriented, thereby counteracting the flaws.

The newest form- Strand

The newest kid on the block in the field of bamboo floors is strand woven bamboo flooring. Traditional floors made of this plant are not as tough as the new one. The hardness and resistance ability in ‘high-traffic settings’ make the strand a highly chosen option among bamboo flooring enthusiasts. No doubt, the cost is also 50% higher than most other types of traditional bamboo floors.

Made of small strands of bamboo soaked in phenolic glue, the process also involves re-drying and thereby compressing in the form of a composite.  As a result, it looks like OSB, excepting for the fact that the strands run along the complete length of the plank much like natural wood. While in the composite form, there’s typical hardness and dimensionally too, the stability is much more than its traditional counterparts.

One problem that arises as a result of the unique process of making is that the glue binds it all, so acclimatization becomes difficult. As a consequence, cracking and cupping issues are more frequent than traditional bamboo, especially if it’s glued to any slab. 

The matter of fact is the glue and processing in strand woven bamboo flooring is completely exclusive. So the quality bit is important to assess. Also, manufacturers need to be wary about the two types of manufacturing for this type- cold press and hot press. Though there’s nothing like one is better than the other, the requirements of clients and way of fitting determine the choice of method.