Bamboo Flooring Diagrams
Every political cycle, the candidates make claims and the fact-checkers step in to set the record straight. The goal is a well-informed voter. Similarly, there are plenty of ‘alternative facts’ that have spread across the web regarding bamboo floors in particular, and flooring shoppers are also in need of some legitimate fact-checking.
. Well, it’s time to set the record straight on bamboo. We’re going to fact check the misconceptions, falsehoods, and beliefs people have about these floors. We’ll even look at some of those flooring horror stories and see what went wrong. Equip yourself with these helpful facts and it’ll be much easier to shop for bamboo flooring in 2021!
One of the greatest misconceptions about bamboo is the hardness of the flooring. People think bamboo isn’t hard, even though it is exceptionally hard flooring. There’s a couple of reasons for this. First, they see reviews and complaints like this one from a Home Depot customer:
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“My wife and I have just finished replacing all carpeting in our 1500 sq ft home with bamboo flooring. We continued our project by replacing our carpeted steps with hardwood.
In the process of replacing the stair treads, one slid down the stairs, hit the new bamboo flooring, and put a surface scrape about 1-1/2″ diameter in the bamboo. The wood doesn’t appear to be actually gouged, just has the surface finish scraped off.”
It’s easy to assume that because a finished surface is scratched, the material underneath must be flawed. However, any hardwood, tile, laminate, or even concrete floor surface can be scratched. That doesn’t mean that the flooring itself is an insufficient product.
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That said, some bamboo finishes are harder than others. If you see aluminum oxide used in the bamboo surface finishing process, you know you are getting a particularly durable finish.
The first bamboo flooring ever made came in only two options: “horizontal” and “vertical” grain bamboo. These floors were made up of rectangular sections of the bamboo culms that were laminated together (see diagrams below), and were a nice alternative to traditional hardwoods due to their sustainable, eco-friendly nature, and affordable prices. Since the bamboo plant itself has a tensile strength comparable to steel, some consumers thought this tensile strength would translate to these “classic” bamboo floors; meanwhile, horizontal and vertical bamboo floors are just average in terms of hardness. These original bamboo floors were in fact very similar to oak flooring, which is in the middle of the pack in the hardness department.
Furthermore, while strand woven bamboo flooring (2-3 times harder than oak) is now the most popular form of bamboo flooring in the market, the old horizontal and vertical floors (also sometimes referred to as edge grain and flat grain) are still sold by some companies due to their low price. Many consumers don’t realize that strand woven bamboo and “classic” bamboo are two very different floors in terms of hardness. They read about strand woven bamboo (which is the hardest wood flooring on average in the market) and incorrectly assume that “classic” bamboo floors have the same hardness. This misunderstanding helps to explain some complaints where consumers feel their bamboo floors aren’t ‘as hard as advertised’.
What Is Vertical Bamboo Flooring?
When it comes to hardness, you must differentiate between horizontal/vertical-style and the modern strand woven bamboo floors. There is a HUGE difference.
Here’s what the horizontal and vertical styles of bamboo flooring look like, if you were to cut a plank and look at it from the side:
Note that you can easily differentiate these floors from others by looking at a cross-section or side view, as well as a top-down view of the surface patterns.
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The more modern strand woven floors are built much, much differently than the early style. This method takes strands of bamboo, weaves them together, and uses high heat and advanced compression technology to fuse the strands into solid flooring planks. Here’s a look at the surface and cross-section of strand-woven bamboo:
Solid strand woven bamboo flooring has a much different surface grain and core appearance than its horizontal/vertical predecessor. It has a unique ‘marbling’ effect in the grain.
Did you know there’s actually an objective way to test the hardness of wood? Tuck this bit of information away for your next Trivial Pursuit! Wood hardness is tested and rated according to the Janka Hardness Test.
Clearing Bamboo Flooring Myths In 2021
Gabriel Janka determined a way to effectively test the hardness of wood. How? By measuring the force required to embed a steel ball halfway through a piece of wood 6 to 8 millimeters thick. As you can see, the Janka hardness rating for strand woven bamboo is higher than traditional hardwood flooring. And it’s
The Honest Truth: While horizontal and vertical bamboo floors are similar in hardness to oak floors, strand woven bamboo is WAY harder than other hardwoods.
Formaldehyde is a naturally-occurring organic compound that exists in everything, including our breath and our cellular structure. It is classified as a volatile organic compound (VOC), meaning it is a chemical that becomes a gas at room temperature. The primary use of formaldehyde is in the production of resins, and as a chemical intermediate. Microscopic amounts of formaldehyde exist just about everywhere, so it’s hard to proclaim that anything is “formaldehyde-free”. However, there
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Floors out there that come very close, with ‘effectively zero’ formaldehyde emissions that fully meet “No Added Urea Formaldehyde” (NAUF) standards. Floors like these are perfectly safe for use indoors.
Still, it’s not hard to find stories from people complaining about smells emitting from their new hardwood floors, and not just bamboo. Homeowners talk about experiencing sour smells and odors that cause headaches, and you could conclude that bamboo or hardwood floors are hazardous to indoor air quality based on these stories. But dig deeper and you’ll find the truth…
While some laminate floors (not bamboo) have been in the news for questionable formaldehyde off-gassing claims it’s worth noting that there has yet to be a case of bamboo flooring with elevated levels of formaldehyde or toxic chemicals. And keep in mind, bamboo flooring has now been around since the mid-90’s.
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In fact, some deliberate misinformation was put on the internet in the early years by wood interest groups about formaldehyde and bamboo flooring, which has inadvertently led to bamboo being one of the most tested and safe flooring products available today.
So how can you ensure you don’t end up with strong-smelling, high VOC-containing flooring in your home? Here are some tips for finding new floors that are healthy for your family to live with.
The Honest Truth: High quality bamboo flooring brands don’t contain harmful chemicals and they have the laboratory test results and certifications to back it up.
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To be honest – if you’ve installed strand woven bamboo flooring, the truth is that you may never have to refinish it as long as you live in your home, because it doesn’t get nearly as damaged as traditional hardwood, due to its extreme hardness. In fact, part of the eco-friendly appeal of bamboo flooring is not only the fast regeneration of the source plant but also the extremely long product longevity once installed. All that being said, you can still find articles bemoaning the fact that you can’t refinish bamboo floors. Once again, that’s simply not the truth. Both solid and engineered strand bamboo floors can be refinished. The only difference is the number of times either type can undergo this process.
Refinishing bamboo floors involves sanding down the existing finish (and stain, if it exists) and applying a new polyurethane clear coat on top. Solid strand woven floors of 9/16th thickness can typically be refinished 2-4 times. Since these products contain bamboo from top to bottom, you don’t have to worry as much about the sander reaching and possibly wearing down the actual hardwood flooring material underneath the existing finish after just one or two sandings. You can refinish bamboo floors that have a 3-4mm wear layer and an HDF, multi-ply, or rigid core up to 2 times.
Why the difference? The engineered floors are not comprised of bamboo all the way through like the solid planks, and instead thick wear layer of strand woven bamboo on top, and an HDF, SPC (rigid), or multi-ply eucalyptus core underneath the wear layer. Since the real solid strand woven bamboo wood comprises only the top ‘wear layer’ of the flooring plank, you’ll have slightly less opportunities to refinish them before the top layer is too thin.
Bamboo Flooring Facts
Thus, if your bamboo floors are sun-faded, dented, or are starting to show visible signs of surface wear, there’s no reason you can’t refinish them much as you would refinish any other solid or engineered hardwood floors.
Bamboo floors. Some homeowners want to change the color of their floors for decorative purposes, or alternatively to keep the same color on their stained bamboo yet refinish them just to restore the finish luster. Please note that strand woven bamboo flooring cannot be color stained when being refinished.
Therefore, after you refinish a bamboo floor you will be left with only one of two colors (no matter what color your floor was when you started). The final color is
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