How to Choose a Bamboo Floor
With bamboo becoming ever more popular as an alternative eco-friendly flooring option and with the internet making it far easier to source products, how do you really know what you are buying? And from whom? Well there are some key factors that will help you in making an informed decision when investing in your new bamboo floor for your home, office or retails space.
Yes price is important, however like just about everything you get what you pay for. But then at the same time don't over pay because a product is seen as a green product, this is something that is rather common these days. The price of bamboo flooring really is directly relative to the quality of the product. I will explain why and what you can look for.
• Even though bamboo is abundant and fast growing, considerable amount of investment has gone into researching, developing and manufacturing quality tesoro woods bamboo flooring. The quality of raw materials, resins, finishing materials and the manufacturing process are imperative to a top quality finished product. Bamboo may all appear the same on the surface; however this is most definitely not the case. Very often, as with most products, you get what you pay for. Cutting initial costs may well cost you more in the long run. Although price is a key factor in choosing a bamboo floor, there are other very important factors that must be taken into consideration.
• Bamboo is a natural product; hence colour variation is to be expected. However, a good quality product is well sorted and graded in order to avoid extreme colour variation, (even within each plank) and to ensure your floor is more consistent in colour tones and texture. Please ask for more than a small sample to be shown to you.
• The quality of the raw bamboo is very important as to the final quality of your floor. If bamboo is cut too early (before 3-5 years), the floor will be streaky in appearance. More importantly immature bamboo is not as hard as mature bamboo (5/6 years); therefore your floor will not be as durable as flooring manufactured from more mature, harder bamboo.
• Even though bamboo is extremely hard this is superfluous if the flooring has an inferior finishing sealant. Ensure the products have a quality finish, (ask to see a certificate) with either German manufactured Klumpp or Treffert – to test the quality of the finishing product, use a coin to try and scratch the surface of your sample. If you have to put in serious effort to make a scratch, you know you have a good finish! Please – let no one tell you it is NORMAL that bamboo floors scratch in the normal course of use – this is most definitely NOT the case.
• A quality Strand Woven Bamboo Floor will be using the patented (such as Uniclic®) technology. No other click system can match its simplicity and efficiency, making it quicker and far more cost effective than standard Tongue & Groove. Not only is it a healthier option (no glue between the planks), but it is easier to replace a plank, should there ever be a need to do so.
• Are the supplier and their products carrying the correct certification? ISO Certification, CE and FSC to name but a few. A product and its warranties are only has strong as it weakest link. For you the home owner the buck stops with where you bought your flooring. So really the warranty is only as strong as its weakest link. Where do their products come from? How did the supplier find their products? Does your supplier deal directly with the manufacturer or a middle man over the internet? Have they visited the manufacturer?