Why Bamboo?

Bamboo is a very versatile, environmentally friendly material. Under controlled environments, the new shoots that bamboo produces can be individually harvested within 4 to 5 years. For traditional bamboo species, it takes at least 20 years for the same harvestation to take place.

"There is only one Earth - help us to protect it."

The natural appearance and soft colours of bamboo make it a clean, elegant option to any environment where applied. These unique characteristics also allow it to enhance the ambience by creating a warmer ambience in winter and a cooler ambience in summer.

Bamfox bamboo flooring feature a 'tounge & groove' design and is constructed by laminating three or more layers of bamboo-veneer, glued together under high pressure. Bamboo does not shrink or swell like other hardwoods tend to, therefore making it a very stable flooring product.

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Read below for more exciting and detailed information about why bamboo should be your next choice!

Introduction to Bamboo

Bamboo is one of the plants most widely used by humans. In the tropics, it is used for constructing houses, rafts, bridges, and scaffolding; culms of large species may be used as containers for liquids. Paper is made from bamboo pulp, and fishing rods, water pipes, musical instruments, and chopsticks from other parts. Many varieties of bamboo are planted as ornamentals and young shoots are eaten as a vegetable. The grain is also a food.

The split and flattened bamboo are used in furniture production, plywood, panelling, cabinets, counter tops, scaffolding and flooring. And that's just the beginning.

For flooring, we find that bamboo is harder than Northern Red Oak or Tasmanian Oak or Victorian Ash and more stable in it's resistance to movement caused by moisture than any other wood product with the exception of mesquite. With a tensile strength superior to mild steel (it withstands up to 52,000 pounds of pressure psi) and a weight-to-strength ratio surpassing that of graphite, bamboo is the strongest growing woody plant on earth.

Designers and architects have found bamboo flooring to be unique, elegant and serene and specify it frequently for use in homes, offices, hotels, hospitals and retail stores.

Bamboo is the common name for about 45 genera and over 1,000 species of perennial, woody, usually shrubby or treelike plants of the grass family. Bamboo occurs mostly in tropical and subtropical areas, from sea level to snow-capped mountain peaks, with a few species reaching into temperate areas. They are most abundant in south-eastern Asia, and some species are found in the Americas and Africa, but there are none in Australia.

"Bamboo, the new product for the 21st century, is a naturally beautiful and durable alternative to our limited global supply of hardwood."

The plants range from stiff reeds about 1m (about 3 ft) tall to giants reaching as much as 55ft in height and 30cm (12in) in diameter near the base. Most bamboo varieties are erect, but some are vine-like, producing impenetrable thickets in some areas, all of which provide a constantly renewable resource.

Some taller, wider and harder plants are found in East Central China or the Philippines which are not a food source or habitat for Pandas, and which, if not harvested in six years, stop growing and fall down. The plant we prefer to use for our floors, Hairy Bamboo, grows up to 55ft tall and up to 10in in diameter all within 4-6 years. The diameter of bamboo will not enlarge as it grows, like wood trees. The diameter of a bamboo tree will be the same as the bamboo shoot. As a bamboo tree grows, it will only become taller, not wider. A bamboo plant varies in hardness from top to bottom. The bottom 15% to 20% of the plant is the hardest portion and is what is used for flooring. In a fully-grown Hairy Bamboo this can amount to 10 feet. The closer to the ground, the harder the product. This results in some unusually hard bamboo planks from the bottom 10 feet. Planks from this section are very dense, heavy and difficult to saw, but this makes it ideal for flooring.

Bamboo, the new product for the 21st century, is a naturally beautiful and durable alternative to our limited global supply of hardwood. It is comparable in strength to northern red oak and posses similar hardness to that of maple, yet is remarkably stable with 50% less contraction and expansion. Bamboo is a grass and like grass it has a short growth cycle of approximately five years, depending on the variety of bamboo.