Preliminary requirements

i) Before Installation, the bamboo should be delivered to the home or job site at least 72 hours before the planned installation. The boxes should be opened and the bamboo laid out in the suitable room.

ii) Bamboo flooring should be installed in a similar manner to the more traditional types of hardwood flooring. It is important that the installer ensures the sub-floor is solid, level, clean and dry. Because bamboo is a natural product, there is an expected colour variation between the boards. Installers are recommended to simultaneously work from three to five boxes to assure blending or shading of these colours. It is also important to allow between one-half to three-quarters of an inch around the room's perimeter to allow for expansion. An expansion space is also required when a vertical obstruction like a pillar or fireplace is parallel to the direction of the flooring.

Installation methods

There are two methods to choose from:

i) To Install With Nails:

• Minimum requirements are a 3/4" plywood sub-floor. Make sure there are no squeaks in the floor. If you find a squeak, screw a long plywood screw into the sub-floor and joist where the squeak occurs(every 6inches). Remove shoe-molding from the room and sweep and clean thoroughly. No guarantee is applied to bamboo flooring installed over or onto particleboard (OSB is the exception).

ii) To Install with Glue:

• Bamboo flooring can also be installed over a concrete slab with glue. Again, its crucial that the installer is working on a flat, clean and dry base floor. Do not install the bamboo floor if the vapour pressure exceeds three pounds per 1,000 square feet in 24 hours using the calcium chloride test method. To ensure the concrete floor is level, the installer should fill in any holes, or low spots, while sanding down any high spots, leaving a variance of three-sixteenths of an inch or less in a 10-foot radius. Because freshly poured concrete slabs can emit gallons of moisture into the atmosphere of a building, it is important that no concrete be poured after the installation of a bamboo floor. Similarly, it is crucial to allow the concrete floor to cure before the installation of a bamboo floor. Some concrete base floors might need months of curing time before the moisture is sufficiently eliminated. Still, the concrete slabs should rest on a moisture barrier to prevent seepage into the bamboo flooring. When this base floor is ready to use, the bamboo should be glued over thee existing concrete slabs or a plywood sub-floor. Again, the surface of this base floor needs to be smooth and free of debris. A glue-down installation process that is enjoying a surge in popularity uses a cork underlay glued to the concrete. The bamboo boards are then glued to the cork, creating a layer between the flooring and the slabs.

Care and maintenance

Do Not:

• Do not use wax, oil, soap or any industrial strength cleaner on your bamboo floor. Use only light cleaning products that are urethane and aluminum oxide friendly. Cleaners which are specifically formulated for hardwood and bamboo floors are available through your local home improvement store.
• Do not use an excessive amount of water when cleaning your bamboo floor. Water and wood/grass (bamboo) are not naturally compatible - wet your mop/cloth sparingly. You may mop you bamboo floor with a very slightly damp mop.
• Do not walk on bamboo flooring with hard-soled or high-heeled shoes.

Do:

• Regular cleaning is recommended, if dusts get on the floor, just clean with a dust mop, broom or vacuum. Any food or liquid spills should be immediately wiped up with a soft, damp cloth.
• Use standard dirt-trapping doormats at all exterior doors to help prevent dirt, grit and sand from getting inside the building. Throw rugs or small sections of carpet just inside the entrances are also helpful.
• Place protective felt underneath your furniture to protect your floor. Clean the felt regularly and replace it when necessary.
• When moving heavy furniture (fridge, piano, etc.), place a thick rug underneath furniture legs before moving.
• Wipe up spills immediately with a lightly dampened cloth, then follow up with a recommended cleaning product.
• Keep indoor temperature and humidity reasonably consistent.
• Avoid heavy impacts, spiked heels and rotational loads.

Environment

Why do you only use Moso bamboo to produce your products?

There are more than 1,500 species of bamboo worldwide. The Moso species (Phyllostachys pubescens), which often grows to fifty feet in height and two feet in circumference, is found in low mountain areas of eastern China where temperatures can drop below freezing in the winter and reach over 100 F in the summer. It's in the Temperate Zone about 30 degrees North Latitude, about the same latitude as northern Florida. Although Tropical Zone bamboo are the largest of the bamboo species, their structure is more grainy than Mao bamboo and, because of the high humidity in these regions, the harvested product tends to be easily susceptible to moth and fungus. On the other hand, Moso bamboo has a fine even grain particularly suitable for flooring and paneling.

Are you depriving the Giant Pandas of easily accessible food?

There are about 700 to 1,000 Giant Pandas left in the wild in China. They mainly live in the western Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Shanxi. Their habitats are usually at elevations between 3,000 to 8,000 feet. Our bamboo is harvested in the Zhejiang province, about 2,000 miles east of the Giant Panda habitat and well below the cooler elevations that the Giant Pandas favour. Also, the Moso bamboo species in the area carries leaves and branches at a height well beyond the reach of any foraging Giant Panda.

Other questions

Carbonized or Natural?

Along with choices in style you may wish to consider in bamboo flooring, there is also the question of colour. Bamboo flooring is available in two colour categories natural and carbonized. The colour is determined at the boiling process. Natural bamboo appears in a creamy blonde colour that is known to add a touch of brightness to an interior. Carbonized bamboo is characterized by its smoky, caramel hue which is the result of a longer boiling process which causes the remaining starches in the bamboo to caramelize. It should be noted that by the end of the respective boiling processes, the natural remains to be the slightly harder bamboo flooring.

Horizontal or Vertical?

During the gluing process, the bamboo can either be bound with the narrow edges facing up, which results in a thin, channel pattern in the bamboo flooring, or so that the broader surface of the bamboo is bound facing upward, making for a surface that is more akin to traditional hardwood patterns. These styles of bamboo flooring are known as vertical and horizontal bamboo flooring respectively. There are visual benefits for each one, depending on your personal taste, but both remain to be decorative choices. The horizontal style is striking for its knuckle or node patterns, that is, the pattern naturally occurring in the bamboo that are the equivalent of growth rings in many hardwood species. The vertical style is a unique surface that remains unmatched by any other natural flooring material, characterized by decorative, narrow channels caused by the binding of the bamboo strips.

How is Bamboo Flooring made?

Once the bamboo has been harvested, the outer layer of green skin is removed and each stalk is cut into lengthwise strips or fillets. These curved fillets of bamboo are milled along their outer edges in order to flatten them. The flattened strips of bamboo are then kiln dried in order to remove the natural moisture in the bamboo, and are then boiled. The bamboo fillets are now ready to be glued together to make a solid, dependable surface that is more than suitable for flooring. The bamboo undergoes one final compression stage, which makes it that much more durable then most hardwood floors. Tongue and groove elements are added in order to make an installation as easy as possible.

If you have any other questions, please contact us.