About Bamboo

China has 4,000 years of history using bamboo products. Many ancient cultural bamboo artifacts were made for daily production and living purposes such as bamboo chopsticks, dishes, chairs and musical instruments, etc. Before paper was invented and developed, Chinese people used bamboo flakes as a way to record history for many generations. The flexibility and durability of bamboo products made this material very popular and reliable.

Botanically classified as a grass, bamboo matures into a merchantable size in three to five years compared with over two to four decades for most hardwood species. Controlled harvesting of the bamboo plant has very little impact on each individual stalk and adversely affects the plant, which will continue to grow long after harvesting. This is what makes bamboo such a renewable source of flooring material, and why it is often associated with environmentally minded choices for flooring. After harvest, the outer layer of green “skin” is removed and the round, hollow bamboo stems are sliced into lengthwise strips or “fillets”. These curved fillets of bamboo are milled along their outer edges in order to flatten them. The flattened fillets of bamboo are then boiled in water with preservatives. After this, they are kiln dried in order to remove the moisture in the bamboo to specified limit. The bamboo fillets are now ready to be glued together to make a solid, dependable surface that is more than suitable for flooring. In the final compression stage, the bamboo undergoes flat press and is processed into laminated boards, which makes it much more durable. To achieve the dark amber color, the bamboo is pressure steamed and undergoes carbonization. Hence it looks very similar to hardwood flooring.