What is the Best Bamboo Species for Making Floors?

I am considering bamboo as a flooring material. Are some species better than others for bamboo flooring? Love your site. So informative. So readable. Keep up the good work!

Comments

Wayne

What's the best species of bamboo for flooring? It's probably a lot like coffee in that many differing opinions are out there as to where the best coffee grows, but bottom line, all coffee beans can be roasted wrong. They can all be brewed wrong.
My guess is, it's more critical how bamboo is handled and/or processed than where it comes from, i.e. fair trade practices, manufacturing environmental compliance, efficient and stable distribution. Am I right? Anybody else has a thought?

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Maureen Heffner

Bamboo hardwood flooring is quickly becoming the most popular exotic hardwood flooring option on the market. Many bamboo species like Guadua and Bambusa are popular. Appearance wise, bamboo's light color and soft sheen is considered very trendy. It is important that when creating a structure made from bamboo, as well as a hardwood floor, that the wood is treated with certain solutions, so it does not crack from moisture.

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Stéphane Schröder

Choosing the right species for bamboo floor making is very important because the strength of bamboo fibers varies greatly from species to species. Generally speaking, the best timber species are found in the genus: Guadua, Dendrocalamus, Bambusa, and Phyllostachys.

Moso (Phyllostachys edulis) from Asia is most often used for flooring purposes. The preferred species in the Americas is Guadua angustifolia. A comparison of both species can be found here.

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What is the Best Bamboo for Making Charcoal

I've been reading a lot on bamboo these last few days and am interested in growing bamboo to make charcoal. What is the best bamboo species for this? Would I also be able to make furniture with that same bamboo?

I would appreciate any answer that you could provide.

Comments

Stéphane Schröder

Bamboo charcoal can be made from any woody bamboo species as it is often produced from waste materials (branches, roots, imperfect culms). Personally I think it is better to chose the bamboo species according to your furniture needs and make charcoal as a by-product, because furniture will give a higher financial return than charcoal (especially for smaller plantation projects).

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Albert

Thanks. Can you also help me with plans on how to build a kiln to make charcoal? Dimensions and a bit of process info. I have looked on the net but i'm concerned most of those might not be the right way of doing things. If you look at some of those designs they seem a little way out.

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Stéphane Schröder

Yes, there is a very good pdf presentation from the NMBA available on our website about making bamboo charcoal and kilns.

Attached also a video where you can see the production process of bamboo charcoal and bamboo gasification.

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Keith

This is something I would recommend to investors as the world scene is changing rapidly. Renewable energy produced from bamboo is a very sustainable venture to benefit all, however, because of politics these seem very hard to implement. Nevertheless, the concept is very good.

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Muyideen Badru

I have always known that bamboo being a renewable resource could help a great deal in poverty alleviation in my country Nigeria, but I found it very difficult to get the necessary funding from my Ministry to promote the utilization of this versatile plant that is readily available in most of the ecological zones of the country while I was in public service.

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Ami

Can bamboo charcoal also be made from recycled bamboo or bamboo salvaged from deconstruction of existing built forms (construction waste) or does it have to be freshly harvested bamboo?

What is the Fastest Growing Timber Bamboo Species?

I love the size of the large timber bamboos, like Moso, but I have heard that these are slow to create large groves. I got lots of land for these to spread on. I would like a quick, large grove with thick canes. So what are the quicker types of large running timber bamboo? I am located in Central Florida, USDA Zone 9a.

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⭐ Best Answer:

Phyllostachys vivax is by far the fastest of cold hardy timber bamboos in my garden 9a/9b zone...