Can Carbonized Bamboo Be Refinished
Every political cycle, the candidates make claims and the fact-checkers pace in to set the record straight. The goal is a well-informed voter. Similarly, there are enough of 'alternative facts' that have spread across the web regarding bamboo floors in particular, and flooring shoppers are also in need of some legitimate fact-checking.
The internet is a nifty source of data, but it's as well a rich source of misinformation. Well, it's time to gear up the tape directly on bamboo. We're going to fact check the misconceptions, falsehoods, and beliefs people accept about these floors. We'll even expect at some of those flooring horror stories and see what went incorrect. Equip yourself with these helpful facts and information technology'll be much easier to store for bamboo flooring in 2021!
Usually Confused: The Hardness of Bamboo Floors
I of the greatest misconceptions about bamboo is the hardness of the floor. People retrieve bamboo isn't difficult, even though it is exceptionally hard flooring. In that location's a couple of reasons for this. First, they see reviews and complaints like this one from a Home Depot customer:
"My wife and I have just finished replacing all carpet in our 1500 sq ft home with bamboo flooring. We connected our project by replacing our carpeted steps with hardwood.
In the process of replacing the stair treads, one slid downwards the stairs, hit the new bamboo floor, and put a surface scrape about i-1/2″ bore in the bamboo. The wood doesn't appear to be actually gouged, just has the surface finish scraped off."
It'due south piece of cake to assume that because a finished surface is scratched, the material underneath must be flawed. All the same, any hardwood, tile, laminate, or fifty-fifty concrete flooring surface can exist scratched. That doesn't mean that the flooring itself is an insufficient production.
That said, some bamboo finishes are harder than others. If y'all see aluminum oxide used in the bamboo surface finishing process, yous know y'all are getting a particularly durable stop.
Now that we've taken a surface look (pun intended), let's await at the bodily "hardness" of bamboo floors.
"Archetype" Bamboo Floors Are Much Softer Than Strand Woven Bamboo Floors
The first bamboo flooring ever fabricated came in simply two options: "horizontal" and "vertical" grain bamboo. These floors were made upwardly of rectangular sections of the bamboo culms that were laminated together (see diagrams below), and were a overnice alternative to traditional hardwoods due to their sustainable, eco-friendly nature, and affordable prices. Since the bamboo establish itself has a tensile strength comparable to steel, some consumers thought this tensile strength would translate to these "classic" bamboo floors; meanwhile, horizontal and vertical bamboo floors are just average in terms of hardness. These original bamboo floors were in fact very similar to oak flooring, which is in the center of the pack in the hardness section.
Furthermore, while strand woven bamboo flooring (ii-3 times harder than oak) is now the well-nigh popular grade of bamboo flooring in the marketplace, the quondam horizontal and vertical floors (also sometimes referred to equally edge grain and apartment grain) are still sold by some companies due to their low cost. Many consumers don't realize that strand woven bamboo and "classic" bamboo are 2 very unlike floors in terms of hardness. They read about strand woven bamboo (which is the hardest forest floor on average in the market) and incorrectly assume that "classic" bamboo floors have the aforementioned hardness. This misunderstanding helps to explain some complaints where consumers feel their bamboo floors aren't 'every bit hard as advertised'.
Horizontal and Vertical Bamboo Flooring VS Strand Woven Bamboo Floor
When it comes to hardness, y'all must differentiate between horizontal/vertical-style and the modern strand woven bamboo floors. There is a HUGE difference.
Here's what the horizontal and vertical styles of bamboo floor look like, if you were to cutting a plank and look at information technology from the side:
Note that you can hands differentiate these floors from others by looking at a cross-section or side view, also as a pinnacle-down view of the surface patterns.
The more modernistic strand woven floors are built much, much differently than the early fashion. This method takes strands of bamboo, weaves them together, and uses high heat and advanced compression technology to fuse the strands into solid flooring planks. Here'southward a look at the surface and cross-section of strand-woven bamboo:
Solid strand woven bamboo flooring has a much different surface grain and core advent than its horizontal/vertical predecessor. It has a unique 'marbling' outcome in the grain.
For a total step-by-step caption on how these strand woven floors are made, check out this commodity.
Floor Hardness Co-ordinate to Janka Testing
Did you lot know in that location's actually an objective way to test the hardness of forest? Tuck this bit of information away for your next Trivial Pursuit! Wood hardness is tested and rated co-ordinate to the Janka Hardness Test.
Strand woven reigns supreme in hardness. "Natural bamboo" above refers to vertical/horizontal flooring.
Gabriel Janka adamant a manner to effectively exam the hardness of wood. How? Past measuring the force required to embed a steel ball halfway through a piece of forest half-dozen to eight millimeters thick. As you lot tin can see, the Janka hardness rating for strand woven bamboo is higher than traditional hardwood flooring. And it'due south more than double the hardness of vertical/horizontal bamboo flooring.
The Honest Truth: While horizontal and vertical bamboo floors are like in hardness to oak floors, strand woven bamboo is WAY harder than other hardwoods.
Frequently Falsified: Excessive Formaldehyde in Bamboo
Formaldehyde is a naturally-occurring organic compound that exists in everything, including our breath and our cellular construction. It is classified as a volatile organic compound (VOC), pregnant it is a chemical that becomes a gas at room temperature. The master use of formaldehyde is in the production of resins, and as a chemical intermediate. Microscopic amounts of formaldehyde exist but near everywhere, and then it's hard to proclaim that annihilation is "formaldehyde-free". However, in that location are floors out at that place that come very close, with 'effectively aught' formaldehyde emissions that fully meet "No Added Urea Formaldehyde" (NAUF) standards. Floors like these are perfectly prophylactic for utilize indoors.
Still, it's not hard to discover stories from people lament almost smells emitting from their new hardwood floors, and non but bamboo. Homeowners talk almost experiencing sour smells and odors that cause headaches, and you could conclude that bamboo or hardwood floors are hazardous to indoor air quality based on these stories. But dig deeper and you'll discover the truth…
While some laminate floors (not bamboo) have been in the news for questionable formaldehyde off-gassing claims it's worth noting that there has yet to be a instance of bamboo flooring with elevated levels of formaldehyde or toxic chemicals. And keep in mind, bamboo flooring has now been effectually since the mid-xc's.
In fact, some deliberate misinformation was put on the internet in the early on years by wood interest groups almost formaldehyde and bamboo flooring, which has inadvertently led to bamboo being one of the near tested and safe flooring products available today.
Then how can you ensure you don't end up with strong-smelling, high VOC-containing floor in your home? Hither are some tips for finding new floors that are healthy for your family to alive with.
How to Find Healthy, Rubber, Not-Hazardous Floors 
- Opt for a production that is FloorScore® Certified, a certification that verifies low or zero-VOC emissions in floor.
- Look for flooring companies that test their floors annually for off-gassing and formaldehyde content for proof of the product's condom.
- Find out if the floors you lot like comply with wellness and prophylactic regulations like CARB Phase 2 and OSHA Air Quality standards.
- Don't be agape to ask the manufacturer what level of formaldehyde their products contain.
- See if the floors y'all like qualify for LEED credits. If they practise, this can offering further proof that the product is a low-emitting material (Indoor Ecology Quality – IEQ Credit four).
The Honest Truth: High quality bamboo floor brands don't contain harmful chemicals and they have the laboratory test results and certifications to back it upwards.
Modern Myth: Bamboo Floors Can't exist Refinished
To be honest – if you've installed strand woven bamboo flooring, the truth is that you may never have to refinish it as long as you alive in your home, because information technology doesn't go nearly as damaged every bit traditional hardwood, due to its extreme hardness. In fact, part of the eco-friendly appeal of bamboo flooring is non only the fast regeneration of the source found but also the extremely long product longevity once installed. All that being said, you tin can still notice manufactures bemoaning the fact that you can't refinish bamboo floors. Over again, that'due south but not the truth. Both solid and engineered strand bamboo floors can be refinished. The only difference is the number of times either blazon can undergo this process.
An Overview of the Refinishing Process
Yes, Virginia, y'all tin can refinish bamboo floors.
Refinishing bamboo floors involves sanding down the existing finish (and stain, if information technology exists) and applying a new polyurethane articulate glaze on top. Solid strand woven floors of 9/16th thickness can typically be refinished 2-4 times. Since these products contain bamboo from pinnacle to lesser, you don't have to worry as much nearly the sander reaching and possibly wearing downwards the actual hardwood floor cloth underneath the existing end subsequently merely one or two sandings. You lot can refinish bamboo floors that have a 3-4mm wear layer and an HDF, multi-ply, or rigid core up to ii times.
Why the deviation? The engineered floors are not comprised of bamboo all the way through like the solid planks, and instead thick wear layer of strand woven bamboo on summit, and an HDF, SPC (rigid), or multi-ply eucalyptus core underneath the wear layer. Since the real solid strand woven bamboo wood comprises only the top 'habiliment layer' of the floor plank, yous'll have slightly less opportunities to refinish them before the top layer is also thin.
Thus, if your bamboo floors are sun-faded, dented, or are starting to show visible signs of surface wear, in that location'south no reason you can't refinish them much as y'all would refinish any other solid or engineered hardwood floors.
Tin can I Stain Bamboo Flooring While Refinishing?
The short answer is no. Additional confusion sometimes arises when information technology comes to staining bamboo floors. Some homeowners want to change the color of their floors for decorative purposes, or alternatively to keep the same color on their stained bamboo withal refinish them just to restore the finish luster. Delight note that strand woven bamboo flooring cannot be color stained when being refinished.
Therefore, after you refinish a bamboo flooring you will be left with merely one of ii colors (no matter what colour your floor was when you lot started). The concluding color is not a choice: it is whatever the base/raw bamboo planks are fabricated of: either natural (blonde) or carbonized (brown) bamboo. If you want to see what color your bamboo floor will exist after y'all refinish it, just flip over a plank and look at the lesser – that will tell you lot if the raw/base of operations color of the plank is natural or carbonized – that will be your final floor color if you cull to refinish your flooring.
Refinishing Pre-Stained Floors
Refinishing a dark/brown/reddish stained strand woven bamboo floor? You lot will nigh probable be left with a carbonized bamboo floor once done. If you refinish a low-cal/grey/white stained strand woven bamboo floor y'all will most likely be left with a natural bamboo flooring once washed. This is because strand woven bamboo flooring cannot be stained dorsum to its original color (or any other color for that affair) on site. This color staining process tin can simply be successfully performed on strand woven bamboo in a controlled, advanced finish environment.
Why can't strand woven bamboo floors be color stained on site, you may ask? Considering the density of the strand material prevents it from arresting color stains on-site. The floor will only absorb the stain in a controlled terminate line environment. Thus, the final color of a refinished bamboo floor will be the color of the base material.
The Honest Truth: Both solid strand and engineered bamboo floors can exist refinished, but they cannot be color stained. When refinishing a bamboo flooring, yous will always stop upwardly with either a natural (blonde) bamboo floor or a carbonized (brown) bamboo floor, depending on what the base of operations color/fabric of the planks is. To meet if your planks accept a natural or carbonized base material, only flip them over and await at the bottoms of the planks – this volition be the color of the final floor if you refinish information technology.
Previously Puzzling: Bamboo & the Panda Population
In discussions about the sustainable or eco-friendly properties of bamboo, you'll inevitably hear the claim that cutting down bamboo deprives the earth's panda population of their primary food source.
This 1 is like shooting fish in a barrel to disprove:
- Pandas live *very* far from where bamboo harvesting occurs. The bang-up majority of Moso bamboo harvests for flooring is on the East Coast of China. This location is very far from panda habitats and has a unlike climate than pandas prefer. The majority of the wild pandas in China live West and Fundamental, virtually 4,000-10,000 feet to a higher place sea level in loftier, humid, and remote mountain ranges.
- The species of bamboo that flooring manufacturers harvest is not one that pandas relish. Moso is the just bamboo species that is hardy and stable enough to apply in the manufacturing of this type of flooring. Pandas primarily swallow species of arrow bamboo, black bamboo, and about 20 other varieties of bamboo in Communist china – not Moso.
The ii key factors that are threatening pandas in the wild are
one) Habitat loss due to deforestation/encroachment due to growing cities (urban sprawl)
2) The killing of pandas by hunters and poachers for sport.
Eat upwards, Mr. Panda – there's plenty more!!
More on Bamboo Affluence in Red china
Research published in 2018 surveyed bamboo forests in Communist china and constitute bamboo grown in 21 provinces. Bamboo production grew at near four% annually. In other words, there'south plenty of hectares of bamboo for flooring and pandas. And that research project just surveyed the bamboo situation in China. Bamboo also grows throughout Asia and in 2019, a Florida farm harvested its first crop of Moso bamboo.
As a crop, bamboo regenerates very quickly and tin can exist harvested every four-v years. It also doesn't crave heavy fertilization. These facts make information technology an eco-friendly fabric to use in floor and building products. Despite any rumors, the manufacturing of bamboo for flooring is not starving or harming the panda population.
THE STRAIGHT FACTS: Pandas practice not live most bamboo forests used to brand bamboo flooring and pandas don't swallow the species used to make bamboo flooring (Moso).
Iterated Inaccuracy: Cupping and Gapping in Floors
Other bamboo flooring horror stories are those of homeowners experiencing bug like cupping of their flooring or gaps between planks. Where would y'all point the finger if the high-quality floors you purchased began looking like in the pictures below?
Examples of gapping in hardwood floors.
The get-go affair some people do when they feel this issue is blame the product or manufacturer. The questions below should often be asked earlier jumping to conclusions, as nearly gapping issues can be a outcome of the surround in which the floors are installed:
- "How long did you acclimate your floors earlier installation?"
- "Where did you acclimate your flooring planks?"
- "Did you use a wet barrier or underlayment when installing?"
- "Did you install the flooring over an unconditioned space?"
This common do actually seems to bother people similar this homeowner over on Houzz. While product moisture balancing during manufacturing processes are non always perfect, they tin can be responsible for a very small percentage of gapping issues. The truth is that the bulk of the gapping people experience on their hardwood floors (bamboo or otherwise) are totally normal and to exist expected – they are the nature of the brute when information technology comes to hardwood flooring, or they a effect of improper flooring acclimation and/or installation. Meanwhile, cupping is almost e'er the upshot of too much wet in the sub-floor.
Gaps: Natural Expansion & Shrinkage
Retrieve that bamboo is a found. Even though bamboo is a grass, information technology's still a living, breathing organism just like oak and other hard woods. It will naturally expand and contract as the weather changes. Acclimate the floors before installation! This is what minimizes the corporeality that the floors will peachy and compress as seasons change from hot, humid summers to freezing, dry winters. Keeping the humidity in your home within a 20% range (i.e. 35-55%) is the best medicine to continue your flooring looking healthy and beautiful and keeping the planks tightly 'racked'.
Bamboo and other hardwoods require installation in a space with sufficient climate control. Check out this article to get the low-down on how to properly acclimate hardwood and bamboo floor.
Cupping Floors: When There's Moisture Below
Loving cup on the floor vs. cupped floor
When installing over crawl spaces, unconditioned spaces, or directly on a physical slab, a moisture barrier is a must between the subfloor and the wood/bamboo floor. Why? Because otherwise, yous may experience cupping with your floors. This is where the middle of a flooring plank appears slightly sunken while the edges of the plank curl upwards.
Cupping is most frequently the outcome of moisture hitting the underside of the hardwood flooring from thesubfloor. This issue doesn't just bear upon bamboo, either. Cupping can occur in any hardwood floor that has a significant imbalance of moisture in its surroundings.
Hither'south more: Our Tips and Tricks for Bamboo Flooring Installation article provides details on the necessary prep work required before a flooring install.
The Honest Truth: The slap-up majority of gapping and cupping in this flooring are the upshot of improper installation or environmental factors, not lacking flooring. Bamboo and other hardwoods require proper acclimation and should always exist installed in a climate-controlled environs.
Tall Tale: You Can't Install Bamboo in Humid Climates
Bamboo floors actually practise very well in tropically-located homes.
Whether you live in an arid desert, on a tropical island, or anywhere in between, youcan install bamboo floors regardless of climate. Some folks think that bamboo is sensitive to humidity and then it isn't good for homes in boiling areas. Luckily for those residents in embankment houses, island homes, or otherwise tropical areas, this simply isn't true!
Humid climates are actually very suitable for bamboo flooring because they take relatively stable humidity year-round (even if information technology is college than normal). Always acclimate the floor co-ordinate to the manufacturer's communication. If you do this, you'll rarely experience any problems with this floor in a boiling climate. If it becomes too wet, the boards tin can expand and two planks can begin to "tee-pee". Desire an like shooting fish in a barrel way to preclude this? Use a programmable dehumidifier or put in a portable dehumidifier to reduce the moisture in the air. You tin can too cut expansion gaps at the sides of the planks where they're pushing up against the walls.
More on Humidity Controls
A whole-house humidity modulator or humidistat will cost more than purchasing a portable device, perchance. But many homeowners retrieve it's a worthwhile investment. Also, HVAC professionals offer many options for integrating humidity controls into a domicile's air quality command system. Chances are, there is one that fits your household budget. An automatic system allows you lot to control the humidity levels even while you sleep or are away on vacation.
A Trustworthy Company Will Have Trustworthy Floors
Not all bamboo manufacturers and retailers produce the same quality products. You lot might find low-cost bamboo floors, just information technology's likely that what you're saving in toll, you'll exist sacrificing in quality.
Research the flooring company as well every bit you research the floor to assistance y'all avoid ending upward with low-quality products. Choose the least-manipulated and well-nigh-reliable review websites to see honest customer feedback. A few reliable reviews sites to cheque include the Better Business Bureau, Yelp, and ComplaintsBoard.com.
A reputable company won't but try to sell you on their floors; they'll as well be honest and upfront with the reliability of their products and the potential problems yous may run beyond.
Heard a dissimilar rumor about bamboo floors that you lot'd like to accept fact-checked by an skilful? Let us know in the comments below!
Categories: Flooring
Source: https://www.ambientbp.com/blog/bamboo-flooring-in-2021-clearing-up-the-confusion
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