Strand Woven Bamboo Flooring

Unlike hardwood lumber which can take decades or even centuries to mature, bamboo is able to quickly replenish itself. Most bamboo flooring material is grown and harvested in the Guangzhou Zhujiang province of China in strictly controlled bamboo forests. Bamboo itself is actually a grass rather than a tree, and like most grasses its a very fast grower. Bamboo that is harvested properly for flooring will regenerate itself without replanting. In addition, the strand will be ready for harvesting again in four to six years rather than seventy some years for the average hardwood to mature. In addition, bamboo is a plant that is good for the ecosphere. It produces more oxygen than a comparable stand of lumber trees and will also absorb around five times as much carbon dioxide than those same trees. Pretty impressive stuff all around.

Strand woven bamboo is made by processing the bamboo stalks into strands. This process effectively uses all of the plant material harvested for the flooring itself. Once the bamboo is stranded, it is boiled down to remove all the sugars from the plant material. Sugars in wood are what attracts pesky termites and other insects. They just love to eat through floors that still have their sugar content. Once these strands are dry after boiling, the bamboo is fused together into planks using compression combined with a low-VOC adhesive. The resulting bamboo planks are harder than any former types of bamboo flooring including engineerred bamboo. The hardness of stranded bamboo can be compared to that of oak which is a very popular flooring material indeed.