Bamboo Flooring

Are Bamboo Floors Ecologically Friendly?

Bamboo floors. We’re not talking about some uneven, bumpy tiki-lounge decor here — we’re talking about a manufactured product much like our familiar hardwood flooring that comes in tongue and groove planks. Only bamboo flooring is not made from trees like oak or pine or maple — bamboo flooring is made from grass, the woody shoots of bamboo to be specific.

Except for the grain, bamboo flooring materials can be made to look very much like the hardwood materials they are meant to replace. They typically come in light colors resembling beech and dark colors resembling oak. Because darker bamboo flooring goes through a process called carbonization that partially breaks down the bamboo, dark bamboo floors are somewhat less durable than light bamboo. Manufacturers put bamboo through an intensive process to make it into ready-to-install tongue-and-groove strips. The process begins with the removal of knots from harvested bamboo stalks. Then the manufacturer sorts the bamboo stalks by size and splits them in order to attain a uniform raw material ready for further processing.

At this point, the manufacturer either lays the split shoots side-by-side or stacks them. The side-by-side technique produces what is known as horizontal style bamboo flooring and shows off some of the natural bamboo grain. The stacked technique produces what is known as vertical style. Vertical style is distinguished by a very finely striped wood-like grain that runs throughout the flooring.

Whether the bamboo floor will be vertical style or horizontal, the next thing to do is press the bamboo strips together and laminate them into boards similar to plywood. Laminating usually involves hot-pressing with steam heat and the application of adhesive substances. This is where one of the least ecologically friendly aspects of bamboo floors come into play — the adhesive substances used often contain formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, which the laminated bamboo strips can breathe out into the air inside your home once the bamboo floor is installed. Making bamboo into a usable plywood-like material is an intensive process than can ultimately lead to compounding any indoor pollution you might already have. With this in mind, you can minimize your risk of breathing volatile organic compounds (“VOCs”) like formaldehyde by searching for bamboo flooring made only with water-based adhesives.

If you can get around the intensive processing and the VOCs, there are a lot of factors that may make bamboo more ecologically friendly than hardwood as a flooring material.

It is a given that most commercial bamboo is grown and harvested in Asia, especially in China and Vietnam. Harvesting commercial bamboo is not a threat to pandas — pandas eat bamboo species that grow in forested mountainsides at higher elevations, while commercial bamboo species grow on vast plains. The next big problem with bamboo, however, is transportation, so you have to weigh whether flooring made from locally grown and manufactured materials like pine has less ecological impact than the transportation of bamboo. In the United States, where the transport distance from bamboo plantations is great, but the tree harvest cycle is five or more times longer than the bamboo harvest cycle, comparative ecologic impact almost comes out as a wash.

The bamboo harvest cycle is short compared to trees — bamboo is a grass and grows faster than trees. You can plant bamboo and come back just three years later to harvest the stalks. In addition, if just the stalks are removed and the plants left behind, you can come back three years later and harvest the stalks again. The bamboo plants do not die in the interim, so replanting is not necessary.

In addition, bamboo plants themselves are very hardy and require little fertilizer and insecticide. Unfortunately, many growers are still inclined to over-use these harmful chemicals even though they are not necessary. Also, as bamboo becomes more attractive as a crop, farmers are clearing forests and other ecologically sensitive areas to make room for new bamboo plantations.

Besides its abundance, rapid harvest-cycle, and attractiveness as a flooring material, manufacturers tout bamboo flooring’s resistance to insects, imperviousness to water damage, and greater durability, compared to standard hardwood floors. The durability claims are debatable, especially for darker carbonized bamboo floors. In any case, like hardwood floors, bamboo floors are still quite vulnerable to sharp metal objects, rocks, falling chandeliers and the occasional stiletto heel. If you do happen to ding up your bamboo floors a bit, chalk it up to normal wear and tear and just say the damage adds “character”.

Advantages of bamboo floors:

• Bamboo is a grass and grows faster than trees. You can plant bamboo and come back just three years later to harvest.
• If harvested correctly (describe method) the plants do not die and will be ready for harvesting in another three years, or less. No re-planting necessary.
• The plants themselves are very hardy and don’t need much in the way of fertilizer or insecticides.
• As hard as many hardwood floors. Even so, bamboo floors, like other hardwood floors, are still vulnerable to sharp metal objects, rocks, falling chandeliers and the occasional stiletto heel.
• Comes in a variety of natural light colors or, if it’s gone through a process of carbonization, darker shades. Carbonization detracts somewhat from durability.
• There’s a lot of bamboo in the world

Disadvantages of bamboo floors:

• Process to flatten and shape bamboo into a usable plywood-like is intensive and usually requires dangerous chemicals like formaldehyde. But it is possible to find bamboo flooring made with water-based adhesives
• Many growers over-use insecticides and fertilizer
• As bamboo becomes more attractive as a crop, forests and other ecologically sensitive areas are being cleared to make room for new bamboo plantations.
• Not a locally grown product

Stick with lighter shades of bamboo flooring if you’re concerned about durability and stay away from any non-natural “funky” colors like purple, red, or green. Many colored bamboo floor materials are dyed with compounds containing heavy metals.

Find a manufacturer that uses a “low VOC” process.

Judge for yourself, but Vietnamese bamboo growers and flooring manufacturers are touting themselves as labor- and environment-friendly. They claim to eschew clear-cutting, over-fertilization, and accelerated harvesting, a practice that could adversely affect the quality and durability of your bamboo floor.

If you want your floor to look like everyone else’s hardwood floor, choose vertical style rather than horizontal. No one will be able to tell what it it is by the grain, but it won’t have that hint of a tropical bamboo character that you get from the horizontal style.

I’m not too keen on the bamboo floor myself — I looked at some at Costco the other day, and its character doesn’t hold a candle to cork flooring (which is another pretty green alternative…). I also think I like cork’s acoustic qualities. But cork is expensive compared to hardwood and bamboo, so if you want to be green and can’t afford cork, it’s bamboo for you.

For more information about bamboo flooring, see:

• Bamboo Flooring – Is It Really Treehugger Green?
• Bamboo Flooring at BuildingGreen.com
• Bamboo Part I, How do they make it into boards?
• How Is Bamboo Converted To Flooring