The advantages of China bamboo flooring are low price, good foot feel, environment protection, excellent stability, great hardness and less color difference.

1. Low price
China bamboo flooring(F) is much cheaper than most types of solid wood flooring which prices are often 3times, 4 times higher.

2. Good foot feel
The foot feel of F is better than laminate flooring. It feels warm in the autumn and feels cool in the summer.

3. Environment protection
Bamboo grows very fast. Many solid wood can’t used for flooring purpose unless the tree is at least 10 years old. But bamboo can be used to make flooring when it is only 5 years old. It is an ideal wood flooring to replace solid wood flooring. So China bamboo flooring can reduce the cut of forest a great deal.

4. Excellent stability
F is not easy to be out of shape due to its proper structure.

5. Great Hardness
The natural hardness of F is 1 times more than that of most type of solid wood flooring, so it is well impact resistant and durable. Its life lime can be over 20 years if it is properly used.

6. Less color difference
The color difference of F is much less than that of solid wood flooring.

The disadvantages of China bamboo flooring are average wearing resistance and much less color choice.

1. Average wearing resistance
F is not strong abrasion resistant. Its surface is easy to be scratched by metal or sharp things. Some manufacturers will lacquer some paint which contains AL2O3 on the surface, but laminate flooring is much more wearing resistive than F.

2. Much less color choice
The colors of F are very limited. It is divided into natural type and carbonized type which is in terms of the carbonization process during the production. The natural type offers the natural bamboo color. The carbonized type offers brown colors. It is divided into vertical type and horizontal type in term of its structure. It can be stained with various colors such as red color. But the colors of China bamboo flooring are much less than that of solid wood flooring and laminate flooring.

The topic will be continued later.

tomioi;

the list of pro's and cons is great, but have you ever actually ever used any chinese bamboo flooring?

Twice same results  .......................

Hi cmkavala,
You obviously HAVE used this flooring: Do you mean you tore all of this flooring out after it was installed? A comment explaining would help, please!

Posted By missantarctica5 on 21 Feb 2010 01:39 AM
Hi cmkavala,
You obviously HAVE used this flooring: Do you mean you tore all of this flooring out after it was installed? A comment explaining would help, please!

missantartica;

Yes, this bamboo floooring (2000 sq.ft.) was installed over an AAC floor system, the moisture was checked before install and  was found within the accepatable range (by installer) , as an extra precaution we paid additional monies for a moisture proofing barrier.

Within 3 days the floor "cupped" the joints were wide enough you could stick a nickel in it

Yes, the pile is the torn out floor. After the job was inspected by a third party inspector, the product was found to be at fault and was replaced.

three days later.............. "cupped" again, to add insult to injury, after the junk sat there for over a month the installer backed in a 20 yard dumpster on the concrete drive breaking the edges in 6 places and we had to cut out and replace
.

.................................... THANK YOU HOME DEPOT !! ................................................

Chris, how thick was the bamboo flooring - was it solid or engineered?

Why did this cupping occur in this case when it doesn't occur for others? Was it a particular brand?

Posted By cmkavala on 21 Feb 2010 07:56 AM

Yes, this bamboo floooring (2000 sq.ft.) was installed over an AAC floor system......

....we paid additional monies for a moisture proofing barrier.

Chris,

Could you explain the AAC floor system?  Are these precast planks with topping?

What type of moisture barrier did you use?

Was the moisture check done to the floor and the flooring material?

Just curious.

Bruce

Posted By Jelly on 21 Feb 2010 10:17 AM
Chris, how thick was the bamboo flooring - was it solid or engineered?

As I recall it was about 1/2" thick , solid and vertical cut

Bruce;

Precast AAC plans by Aercon, with self level topping,
 
Home depot installed the barrier, I don't recall the mfg. but it was a rolled on blue in color

Moisture was checked on the slab, but I don't think it was on the bamboo until after the problem, the bamboo conditioned for at least a week before install

Posted By cmkavala on 21 Feb 2010 12:42 PM
As I recall it was about 1/2" thick , solid and vertical cut

Vertical grain orientation and it cupped? I would have thought that was the most stable form of flooring. Possibly both installs were done using planking from the same production run, allowing a production error/issue to cause problems. Although I am NOT surprised by the issues you had with Home Depot. While I have never used one of their "contractors" I have heard many stories from coworkers who have. Hopefully they were at least insured. What was the resolution with the second install? Did you give up on bamboo flooring and have something else installed?

Perhaps it wasn't boiled properly during manufacturing.  Sounds like bamboo flooring quality varies widely and destructive testing of a sample is wise before purchasing it.

Bigrig;

after months of agravation they agreed to come back and remove and replace with new bamboo floor, shipped horizontal cut instead, but rather than wait anymore the owner agreed to install the horizontal cut. 3 days after install same problem. This time they would not come back at all to even look at it, their customer service center is a joke.
It did not cup quite as bad the second time, so the home owner just decided to live with it instead of enduring the dust and inconveinence again

That does sound like their standard practice. I was planning on using bamboo flooring in the small home I am designing for myself. I may have to reconsider unless I hear of a lot of satisfied customers for a particular brand. Like all materials there are good and bad manufacturers and installers. Chinese drywall anyone? Or on a recent job I designed where 1 in 6 of the 2x4 troffer lights came misswired right from the factory. And an equal number had bad ballasts. This from one of the "big names" in lighting manufacturers.

Guys,

Any solid cellulose flooring, wood or bamboo will suffer from moisture by cupping. The fact that the material was acclimated before being laid and flat, and then cupped each time, indicates to me that there is a moisture problem below. Cupping only occurs with differential expansion, The bottom expands because of moisture whereas the top doesn't. Moisture is definitely higher underneath the floor. Don't blame the bamboo. It would happen with oak maple or other such materials. Might it be more sensitive than woods? perhaps, but the cause is a poor moisture barrier or other source of water. To blame the bamboo is "shooting the messenger"

Is temperature also a factor in cupping - ie, can cold floor, warm air also cause a problem?

Larry T;

Testing was done prior to each install, there was no exessive moisture present it was well within the allowable tolerances,

The "independent" inspector would never disclose to me the exact cause of the cupping, only that it was Home Depot's responsibility to replace, trust me they were looking for any excuse to get out of the replacement
 My theory is ...........that the water in the water based latex adhesive had no place to go, but to get absorbed into the bamboo, thus causing the cupping, it could not dry out to the slab because of moisture barrier.

Bamboo as fast growth sustainable flooring or not, it's still coming from China on a freighter. Not a very green suggestion for a green building forum.

Do you have data for that (as compared to other flooring)?