The growth of strand woven bamboo is very interesting, yet most of the general flooring shoppers are still unaware of this very interesting product.

Strand bamboo, sometimes called woven bamboo, or even strand woven bamboo is basically some bamboo that has been shredded and then compressed with a very tough resin to make a beautiful and extraordinarily tough flooring.

As I have talked about for years, the key is to be sure that strand is a low emission E1 or better from a formaldehyde perspective. That is critical for your family’s health or that of your client.

There are some really great styles that will be hitting the shores of the US in the next 60 days or so – which will make your new flooring that much more special. Some of the benefits will be:

1) Beautiful Design and Styling

2) Earth Friendly Bamboo

3) Excellent construction

4) Extraordinary Toughness

5) Pricing that will make you feel great!

Keep your eyes open for this exciting new introduction.

This is a picture of strand woven bamboo before compression. Look how think it is going in!

That bamboo after compression will only be 5/8″ thick! Now that is dense.

The one thing I know is that one of my guiding principles (as I learned in the Boy Scouts) is to leave this earth how I found it (or better.) That’s why I personally travel around the glove to try and inspect each manufacturing facility to ensure that no unneeded chemicals are used in the process or that potentially toxic waste is being dumped into surrounding rivers and streams. We even help promote the idea that proper re-forestation practices are followed, that worker conditions are not substandard and to the extent possible that recyclable and reusable materials are used wherever possible. Bottom line, if you don’t pass my “smell” test, we will not buy or sell your products.

To try and bring a little more awareness to the huge strides made in “green” flooring, we’ll be offering Free Shipping on select Green Floors (60% off shipping on everything else.)

Why only green floors?

In a nutshell, I think they’re gorgeous and that you’ll love them. So much as that I’m willing to pay a little more so you can experience them. It definitely doesn’t cost me any less to ship Green Floors like Cork or Bamboo, but anything I can do to perpetuate their use, I will do. Heck, you can do your part to help save us all the emissions of unnecessary shipping by picking up at your local iFloor store on select items.

They aren’t for everyone, and that’s why we carry 3,000 different products and have a bigger selection than anyone. But if you’re in the market for flooring, you should definitely take a look at the “green” alternatives and I’ll try to give you the incentive to do just that. But whatever floor you do end up purchasing, you’re definitely in the right place!

There are lots of differences in bamboo flooring, but we want to be sure that we try to understand how to build the best flooring possible and in some cases that means you have to take time to go to the origin of the bamboo itself.

Below are photos from a trip to the Anji province in China.

1. Hand scraped flooring is hot and fashionable
2. Bamboo is an emerging trend and can have a very eco-friendly story when done right. remember that no all bamboo is created or made in a green way.

It turned into a reese’s peanut butter cup kind of story. One day we said, hey what if you put those two trends together?

Ming Dynasty is a true original from a expert craftsman who originally designed and handcrafted the line.

There is no doubt that the colors and styles were so good they were copied by just about every mill that we visit in China. If they make bamboo not only have they copied the look and stain colors, but often they copied the color names as well. Watch out for imitators. The knock offs don’t always hold up to the originals.

That is a ringing endorsement to the original team that designed the unique invention of hand scraped bamboo. (CLICK TO SEE MY FAVORITE HANDSCRAPED BAMBOO AT THE MOMENT.)

The good news for flooring enthusiasts is that there are a couple ideas in the hopper that will be the next generation of things to copy by those who cannot create something unique!

As promised, here are our before and after images.
I’ve also included a photo from during installation (believe it or not our dogs love the floor too).
We found the installation simple – after prep it only took us one weekend.
Finally the outdated – green sculptured carpet is gone and our beautiful green choice Bamboo is in. Easy to clean and gorgeous to look at.
Thanks again for all your help.

Jeanette & Carl
Troy, MI

** PS – All of the artwork on the walls are original creations by Jeanette. It is nice to know that an artist’s eye can appreciate the pure beauty of a eco-friendly bamboo floor!

TerraPass

For our part we are working on a project for this spring which would plant a tree for each carton of material a customer purchases. We think stewardship of our resources is a shared responsibility and something we take serious. (Of course it will also be helpful if there are more trees that I can make into floors in the future too. That is what I can economically sustainable thinking!)

We certainly believe that you can have mutual interest when it comes to the environment as well as the economic development. It just has to be balanced.