Bamboo floorings fall into two types: regular (or traditional) bamboo flooring and strand woven bamboo floorings. Strand woven bamboo flooring is made in a different process. In order to understand the good quality of strand woven bamboo flooring, we need to talk about regular (traditional) bamboo flooring first. Once you understand the quality of regular bamboo flooring, you will see the difference of Hanlite regular bamboo flooring and strand woven bamboo flooring from other supplier's. Information provided here, especially when you want to be assured of making decisions as from whom to buy bamboo flooring, is edcational and helpful.
Bamboo flooring
- Raw material- the best year range of bamboo for flooring is 6-8 in terms of hardness, stability and color. The natural color will look golden or saturate, we call it mature color. The carbonized color will look warm and soft. If natural bamboo flooring looks pale, it must be around year of 3-4 or too much bleach is used. This bamboo is not as hard as year of 6-8 bamboo flooring. The same as carbonized bamboo flooring, if it is too dark, it means either the bamboo is too old maybe 10 years old or the bamboo is steamed too long.
- Processing - When bamboo is harvested, they can not be laid on the ground for more than 5 days. Once they are cut, bamboo become dead and protein and sugar inside bamboo will have chemical reaction. If not processed timely, it will develop mold all over and it can never been removed. Then, the bamboo flooring made form this material will look dull and dingy. We call it 'not fresh color'. So, once cut, bamboo has to be treated ideally, within 3 days, or no later than 5 days either by water boiling or carbonization steaming. Bamboo flooring treated within this time frame will have a healthy look.
There are a lot of other factors that will affect the quality and the cost of bamboo flooring such as glue that is used, finished, milling, moisture content, color variation, etc. For example, to kiln dry to moisture content to 12% would need 5-7 days, to dry to 10% would need 7-9 days and to dry to 8% would need 9-11 days. To kiln dry strand woven bamboo to 8% would even need 15 days. That would cause the manufacture's different cost on kiln drying, One other example, if you want to use strong bondage glue with low formaldehyde release, you'll have to pay more.
HERE IS THE QUESTION: WE ALL KNOW THAT MOST OF BAMBOO FLOORING IS IMPORTED FROM CHINA. US DOLLAR VALUE CONTINUES TO DROP, THE COST OF RAW MATERIAL OF BAMBOO CONTINUES TO INCREASE, BUY YOU CAN STILL BUY AT $1.99/SQ FT FOR SHORT BOARDS(3 FEET) AND $2.25/SQ FT FOR LONG BOARDS(6 FEET) IN THE MARKET. WHY? WE BELIEVE YOU CAN FIND THE ANSWER, ONE CENT PRODUCT IS A ONE CENT PRODUCT QUALITY.
Grade of hardness
Hardest: natural horizontal
Harder: natural vertical
Hard: carbonized horizontal
Less hard: carbonized vertical
Bamboo Accessories
We carry a full lines of bamboo flooring accessories to match our products. When a client buys our flooring they can be assured of obtaining matching accessories to complete the job.
Bull nosing 96¡± x 4 1/2¡± x 5/8¡± 48¡± x 4 1/2¡± x 5/8¡±
Stair tread 48¡± x 11 3/4¡± x 1¡±
Reducer 96¡± x 2 1/4¡± x 5/8¡±
T-molding 96¡± x 2 1/4¡±
Base shoe 96¡±
Floor register 4¡± x 10¡± x 5/8¡± 2 1/2¡± x 12¡± x 5/8¡±
Bamboo plywood and paneling
Our bamboo plywood has been widely used by customers in different fields. The Janpanese Sushi and Grill restaurant in Colorado Springs used our carbonized horizontal bamboo plywood for all the wall, tables and the front desk creating the atmosphere warm and cozy. The contemporary table is made out of natural vertical bamboo plywood by Chad Manley from New Mexico.
Plywood dimensions:
48¡± x 8¡¯ x 3/4¡±
25¡± x 8¡¯ x 3/4¡±
25¡± x 8¡¯ x 1/2¡±
15¡± x 8¡¯ x 1 1/2¡±
Bamboo veneer
This is our other specialty. We initiated this product and patented it in China. The dimensions that we can make this product are:
49¡± x 98¡± x 0.5 - 0.6mm
25¡± x 98¡± x 0.5 - 0.6mm
17¡± x 98¡± x 0.5 - 0.6mm
13¡± x 98¡± x 0.5 - 0.6mm