Bamboo: Who knew?

I just installed a bamboo floor, and learned quite a bit about this exciting new building product.

First of all, bamboo is extremely hard, and much denser than oak or even maple. That's pretty impressive when you consider that bamboo isn't a hardwood or softwood or any other sort of wood. Bamboo is actually a grass. And because it's a grass, bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet.

Bamboo is grown in the Far East on sustainable plantations, where it's harvested after just four years. Most hardwood trees don't reach maturity for 30 to 60 years. And bamboo regenerates after cutting, so the same plant can be harvested again in another four years.

While researching bamboo, I discovered that there are three basic types of solid bamboo flooring: vertical-grain solid strip, strand bamboo, and flat-grain solid strip (see photo above).

Vertical-grain bamboo is made up of thin strips of bamboo that are stacked on edge and glued together butcherblock style.

Strand bamboo planks are composed of superthin bamboo fibers that are mixed with glue and pressed into rock-hard planks.

Flat-grain bamboo is the most commonly installed bamboo flooring, at least for now. Each tongue-and-groove plank is made up of 15 thin, flat strips of bamboo, which are laminated together.

Bamboo is available wherever hardwood flooring is sold, and it comes in dozens of colors. In fact one company, DuroDesign, offers bamboo flooring in 54 colors!