hardwood flooring

You might think that I am smoking it as I write this article, but I’m not smoking Hawaiian Gold or taking other hallucinatory drugs. There is a grass, that is one of the most luxurious, environmentally friendly, and durable, flooring materials that you can install and you won’t find it at your local nursery. You will find it at most flooring and DIY big box retailers.

The flooring material that I am promoting is “Bamboo”. You may have thought that bamboo was a hardwood, its not! Bamboo is a species of grass and although it is usually sold as a flooring product by the regular hardwood flooring manufacturers, it is definitely not a hardwood.

It is a grass that has the ability to grow to full maturity in 5 to 7 years, about 1/10th of the time of oak or walnut, and unlike a hardwood tree, the bamboo plant is not killed in order to harvest its stalks. That is why using bamboo products such as flooring admits you to the group of eco-friendly renovators.

So how do we get a beautiful bamboo-flooring plank from a stalk of grass?

Subsequent to harvesting, which does not kill the plant – it’s similar to pruning, the stalks are sliced into strips approximately the width of a flooring plank. There are a few methods of manufacture but the most common process would then take the strips and steam them under pressure. The steaming process carbonizes the bamboo giving it color and eliminating any sugars and insects in the product.

At this point in the manufacturing process, the bamboo is graded in the same manner as any hardwood. Lower grade products are often sold into the market, so it is important to purchase your bamboo flooring from a reputable retailer and manufacturer. Following grading the bamboo is kiln dried to ensure stable moisture content and then the strips are surface milled to size.

After milling the strips are glued face up for horizontal and side-by-side for vertically faced flooring. These assemblies are then hot pressed. It should be noted that lower grade bamboo flooring might use formaldehyde as part of the gluing process. This is another reason to purchase from reputable manufacturers and retailers.

Once the assemblies are hot pressed, they are milled with a standard tongue and groove found on most hardwood flooring. Generally, bamboo flooring cannot be integrated with other hardwoods to provide for patterns. Bamboo is usually manufactured at a thickness of 5/8”, whereas most hardwood flooring is milled to a thickness of 3/4”.

It might be noted that bamboo flooring is harder and more durable than oak flooring.

As with any home renovation project, knowledge and planning are the keys to success.