FAQ
Quality questions
- Can you tell me about the compressed or composite bamboo boards?
- One of your competitors said that Bamwood® is 60% glue. Is this true?
- What Glue do you use to make the Bamwood® boards?
- Do we use cheap chipped up material to make the Bamwood® board?
- Why is ISO9001 so important when manufacturing in China?
- Will my floor look like the showroom floor?
- Is the floor going to require ongoing maintenance?
- Why don't all the floor boards cost the same?
- Are there different grades of Bamboo flooring like other timber flooring materials?
- How hard wearing is Bamboo flooring? (i.e. Will my dog scratch the floor? Will my kids damage the floor?)
- Can my bamboo floor be sanded and how many times can it be re-sanded?
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1. Can you tell me about the compressed or composite bamboo boards?
Bamwood® vs. Bamboo Solid Compressed Grain Flooring
When you are doing your research you will find a number of companies in Perth selling this solid style of bamboo, it’s usually called compressed grain bamboo.
In fact, we were one of the companies that first introduced this product to Perth a number of years ago. To our surprise at the time, we had a number of our customers calling us very distressed that their beautiful floor had started to cup on the surface, and this was happening just a few short months after installation. Past experiences have shown us that this product is not suitable for Australian conditions.
The structure of the compressed grain board is fundamentally flawed. The grain only runs the length of the board – there is nothing to stop it distorting across the face of the board under Australia’s extreme conditions. There are some companies in Perth that import this style of board that are adamant that this problem is only due to moisture in your slab – and they usually insist you put a moisture barrier down first which will solve the problem. It is our experience that this is just not true. Although some slabs do require a moisture barrier this was not why the floors were cupping. It is the structure of the board that is flawed. A classic case was our original showroom floor – which cupped only months after being installed, even though there was no measurable moisture in the slab. Interestingly the factories that produce compressed grain products are aware of this problem?
In most cases, the floors required sanding and polishing to flatten them again – not a nice process, quite dusty and smelly – and require the customer to move out of the house for a week or so – which is obviously a little distressing. In a couple of instances, the floors cupped so severely that they had to be ripped out and replaced – which was even worse for the customer.
Of course, all these floors are covered by our 10-year warranty, and we showed the integrity to follow through on all our obligations.
And obviously, this is something we all want to avoid... isn’t it?
The great thing for Bamboozle® customers is that you don’t have to worry about this problem any more.
Bamboozle® in conjunction with our partner factory have developed a superior product that has given our customers total peace of mind. Bamwood® flooring was developed by us to solve these problems. There are a number of steps that are essential to making Bamwood® suitable for Australian conditions. One of the visual differences was the addition of a cross-laminated bamboo centre layer – this essentially helps stabilise the surface of the board and prevents the cupping from occurring. There are also another 5 critical steps in the manufacturing of the Bamwood® board that improves the stability compared to solid compressed grain boards.
These extra steps include controlled moisture content, improved seasoning, a superior European glue formulation and system, improved pressure control, hot pressing and scientifically tested balancing times.
Even though the Bamwood® board costs considerably more to make, this is a much smarter choice and becomes an investment considering the flooring has to perform in your home for many years to come. It wouldn’t make sense to make these changes if the benefit to our customers was not significant.
It is worth mentioning that having the centre layer does not reduce the amount of times you can sand the floor and in many cases it allows you to have more board life (ie. if the floor cups you will always get a reduced sanding life). On any wooden or compressed bamboo floor you can only sand the surface down until you reach the tongue and groove.
Since we started implementing this product several years ago, we have installed over 34,000 square meters without a repeat of the significant problems associated with compressed grain flooring.
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2. One of your competitors said that Bamwood® is 60% glue. Is this true?
As you can feel, the product is quite heavy, so it could be assumed there is a lot of glue in the board, but in fact it has a similar amount of glue content as the other styles of bamboo flooring just under 2%. The increase in density is actually from the compressing process which uses a 2,000 ton press to compact the raw bamboo fibres.
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3. What Glue do you use to make the Bamwood® boards?
For both the Bamboo and the Bamwood® boards we use a proven European glue formulation that is manufactured to meet the very strict European Emission standards.
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4. Do we use cheap chipped up material to make the Bamwood® board?
No we don’t. We actually use the same premium grade bamboo raw material that we use to make the other styles of flooring. With the Bamwood® style we actually rough split the bamboo, so instead of being perfectly square, it has a random grain size and those rough fibres are orientated into the press with a small amount of adhesive to produce this solid board. So the fibres actually run the full length of the board which gives this style its unique appearance which is more reminiscent of wooden flooring.
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5. Why is ISO9001 so important when manufacturing in China?
Our experience over the last several years has been that without ISO9001 management systems and Bamboozle® trained Chinese staff it is virtually impossible to predict what quality of floor you are purchasing. It is all too easy to show a high quality sample, but it is consistently delivering a high quality product that counts.
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6. Will my floor look like the showroom floor?
Yes, all the floors are hand graded in the factory for colour and quality before being packed. Bamboozle® floors are all hand selected for colour tones and packed to give a comparatively even coloured floor. However, a small variation is maintained to achieve a natural look. We can achieve varying degrees of colour variation based on the customer’s preferences but please understand this is not a perfect science. Cutting corners on just one step and it is unlikely you will get a floor that meets your expectations. Following are some of the important factors that will determine the final quality of your floor;
- Experience and integrity of the Chinese manufacturers.
- The specification to which the product is manufactured. Which must be specific to the country it is to be imported.
- Experience of the supplying company.
- Professionalism and the integrity of the supply and install company.
- Skill level of the installer and the standard at which they are held accountable.
- Presence of Bamboozles® in-factory quality assurance inspectors.
- The training provided to all of the Bamboozle® team.
If you have any doubts feel free to read some of Bamboozles® any testimonials from delighted customers.
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7. Is the floor going to require ongoing maintenance?
No special maintenance is required; you simply treat your floor like solid timber or laminate flooring. A number of people choose to recoat their floor with one coat of polish every 5-7 years and on average you would expect to completely resurface your floor every 10-15 years. This is all dependant on how you treat your floor and the amount and type of foot traffic it receives.
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8. Why don’t all the floor boards cost the same?
All the Bamboozle® floorboards are manufactured to the same high quality standard. Each style varies in the time it takes to manufacture and the Bamwood® actually requires twice as much raw material to make than the Vertical or Horizontal Grain styles. You can feel this in the weight of the Bamwood®.
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9. Are there different grades of Bamboo flooring like other timber flooring materials?
Yes. As with timber flooring there are different grades of Bamboo Flooring material. Bamboo flooring is an engineered product that requires specialist machinery and skills. It takes an average of 6 hours of labour per square metre to manufacture. There are over 100 manufacturers of bamboo flooring of some description in China. However, there is only one manufacturer that consistently produces product to our high specifications and has experience producing quality flooring for overseas markets like Germany and the US. As you would understand, there are a lot of steps required to manufacture high quality bamboo flooring. In fact there are many integral steps in this process. Shortcuts can be taken with a number of these steps to produce a cheaper product, such as using cheaper glues, lower grade raw materials, cheaper finishes, and no insect treatments, to name a few. However, to compromise on any aspect of the manufacturing process will result in a sub-standard final product. For some of the most popular styles of bamboo flooring, such as the Bamwood® style, the adoption of the cross lamination design is essential for superior durability and product integrity. Bamboozle® is the only company that can supply this high quality product. Bamboozle® only supply the best quality, and our price reflects the quality we offer.
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10. How hard wearing is Bamboo flooring? (i.e. Will my dog scratch the floor? Will my kids damage the floor?)
Bamboo flooring comes in several different densities; therefore it is important that you choose a Bamboo floor that suits your lifestyle. The vertical and horizontal styles of Bamboo are about 23% softer than Jarrah, the Bamwood® styles are 73% harder than a Jarrah floor.
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11. Can my bamboo floor be sanded and how many times can it be re-sanded?
Yes, all Bamboozle® floors can be professionally sanded several times. As the Bamboo floors vary in density, so too does the amount of times that you would be able to sand them. The denser the floor the more sandings you will be able to get out of them. Our experience indicates that you should expect to get a minimum of 2 – 3 sandings with the vertical and horizontal boards and up to 4 sandings with the Bamwood® styles of bamboo flooring. All Bamboozle® floors will give you years of enjoyment.