California Bamboo Flooring

The Short answer is that ALL Bamboo flooring is technically engineered.

Unlike solid maple or oak flooring that came from a tree, there is no such thing as solid bamboo. It does not exist. Anybody that tells you different does not know what they are talking about. Bamboo grows as a hollow trunk and only the outer shell or bark / trunk (what ever you want to call it) is used to make the flooring. The bamboo strips are bonded together during the manufacturing process, making it engineered. Most bamboo flooring on the market is 100 percent bamboo with many strips of the bamboo trunk bonded or laminated together to make the finished planks. Some of the higher-end bamboo floors on our site use a multi-ply core made from the birch tree with a top wear layer of bamboo. The birch core is similar to plywood in construction, but the layers are much thinner.

The more layers in the multi-ply core, the better the stability. The flooring is built this way for a couple of reasons. First, the factory is able to make a wider and longer plank. Second the birch core helps eliminate the potential for any cupping or warping associated with this size of plank. Third, it is built with the multi-ply birch core for added stability in climates that are not safe for bamboo flooring made solely of 100 percent bamboo. This would include climate zones with seasonal weather changes and/or high moisture and humid areas.

Many shoppers or customers are under the assumption that they are not getting the full value for their money if the bamboo flooring is not all bamboo but this is simply not true. The multi-ply birch core, as it is known in the industry, is actually much higher in cost than the bamboo itself. So, once again, it does not matter if it is horizontal grain, vertical grain, natural, carbonized, or strand woven bamboo.

ALL bamboo flooring is technically engineered.

The above was written by Michael Krause owner of California Bamboo Flooring.

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