By Bret Lowder
VP & General Manager, The Floor Store
No variety of flooring has a better reputation among environmentalists than bamboo. Its potential renewability and sustainability are inarguable: it takes three to five years for most species to reach full maturity, compared to 20 – 120 years for traditional hardwood trees. Because it has a rhizome root system, there is no need to replant, and because the root is left intact at harvesting, there is no resulting soil erosion. In its natural environment it will need no irrigation or fertilizer, and it is attacked by very few natural pests, so no pesticides are required. Oh, and one other thing: a grove of bamboo can release 35% more oxygen and absorb four times as much carbon as an equivalent hardwood forest. Can this simple and common plant really be as green as all that? Well, yes.
And no.
Not surprisingly, most bamboo comes from China and other parts of Asia. This means it must be transported, first by ship and then by truck, to distributors and retailers around the world. One study comparing embodied energy (the total amount of energy required to produce a product, including transportation) found that shipping bamboo flooring from Hunan, China to Denver, Colorado would have a significantly higher environmental impact than using locally-sourced concrete.
Also – and ironically – bamboo's green reputation and resulting popularity has led to the clearing of existing trees to make room for bamboo plantations, deforestation which results in soil erosion and loss of biodiversity in the growing regions.
It is never advisable to underestimate the influence of human greed. Generally speaking, only 20% of a bamboo source should be harvested annually, and the harvested stalks should be four or five-year growths for optimum hardness. But since there is a lot more money to be made by harvesting 50 or 100% every two or three years – well, some growers do that. The result is immature bamboo which is much softer on the Janka hardness scale, so is easily scratched or gouged. Properly matured bamboo will have a hardness rating of at least 1400 psi, which is harder than oak. (Strand bamboo, made by compressing and binding together bamboo strips and pieces, is about twice as strong, with hardness ratings in the 2,500 to 3,000 psi range.)
There are variations in manufacturing processes as well, and these make themselves felt not only environmentally, but in the quality (and safety) of the final product. It has been common to use urea-formaldehyde (a carcinogen) as the adhesive for bonding the bamboo strips. The California Air Resource Board (CARB) says there can be no more than 0.05 parts per million of outgassed formaldehyde, and the Green Building Council will not qualify flooring containing urea-formaldehyde for their Low-Emitting Products category, so many manufacturers now offer formaldehyde-free products. Look for bamboo flooring that has met the CARB standards, which are stringent.
Apart from the glues, other key qualities are hardness, finishes, and moisture content (MC). The MC should be 8 percent or less and consistent throughout the batch. Most moisture meters aren't set for bamboo flooring, so be sure your installer has a meter that can be calibrated for accuracy.
The finish should contain at least one layer of a high-quality aluminum oxide for scratch resistance and durability, and have low – or preferably zero – VOCs or formaldehyde. Some products have only one or two layers of polyurethane finish, while others have five or six. Again, look for flooring that passes the strict CARB standards for indoor air quality.
The right product will have a good warranty on both the structure and the finish, and this, assuming you got the right answers to your other questions, will assure you of its quality. As for bamboo's much-touted greenness, you will want to see documentation from a third party such as the Forest Stewardship Council, which means the floor you are considering meets its criteria for environmental sustainability and social responsibility. The caveats outlined above notwithstanding, there are many such bamboo products on the market.
And that is the clearing we have been looking for in the bamboo forest.
Bret Lowder is Vice President and General Manager or The Floor Store (Albany, Concord, Dublin, San Rafael, Santa Rosa, and Pittsburg). You can read more at www.floorstores.com.
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