Wellmade Strand Bamboo Featured in Fabulous Floors

Strand Woven Bamboo: Versatility for the 21st Century

Rugs, window shades, baskets and clothing. Aside from also being deliciously edible, bamboo has emerged as one of today’s most eco-friendly and versatile natural resources. And with it, design professionals and homeowners are discovering the virtues of strand woven bamboo, among the hottest trends in hard surface flooring.

A full spectrum of colors and surface treatments are available in strand bamboo, from naturals to mahogany and dark walnut produced in smooth or hand-scraped options. Carbonized and natural remain the most common color choices. Carbonized refers to natural bamboo that has been “cooked” during manufacturing changing its sugar content and producing a beautiful honey-brown hue. Both natural and carbonized strand bamboo offers warm earth tones with “stranding” that mimics hardwood graining. When packaged in multiple color shadings, these floors can produce the look of exotic flooring with an exceptional mosaic of colors and tones.

Strand woven bamboo can be manufactured in both solid and engineered construction. For example, Wellmade Bamboo produces solid strand in a 7/16” thickness for use on or above grade. The company also produces engineered strand with a multi-ply base and thick-sawn (4mm) wear layer that can be installed on any level of the home or office, including below grade basements. Choose from tongue-and-groove fit or Uniclic floating installation designed for the DIY homeowner.

Waste not. Want not. From trunk to top, the entire bamboo tree is used in the production of strand bamboo placing it squarely among today’s most eco-friendly flooring products. During manufacturing, thin strips (strands) of bamboo are cut from all portions of the tree and placed in molding forms along with low volatile organic compound (VOC) resins. The molds are crushed under 2,000 tons of pressure creating solid strand blocks that are milled to produce flooring planks. Strand bamboo is extremely dense and rated more than twice as hard as domestic oak.

When purchasing strand bamboo floors, it’s important to make sure they are “certified green.” The finest bamboo floors are produced from Moso bamboo, sustainably harvested at maturity every 5 – 7 years. The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) recognizes bamboo as a rapidly renewable resource and all bamboo floors should meet or exceed the European E1 Standard for low formaldehyde emissions.