Bamboo
Flooring:
Highly
Versatile: Bamboo is one of the most widely used
plants on earth. The split and flattened bamboo trunk of
this abundant versatile plant are used to produce bamboo
furniture, bamboo plywood, bamboo paneling, bamboo
kitchenware, bamboo cabinets, bamboo countertops, bamboo
scaffolding and bamboo flooring. Designers and architects
have found bamboo floors to be unique, elegant and serene.
Strong and Stable: Bamboo, the new product
for the 21st century, is a natural and durable alternative
to our limited global supply of hardwood. It is comparable
in strength to northern red oak and posses hardness
10-15% greater than maple, yet is remarkably stable with 50%
less contraction and expansion than most hardwoods.
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.
Renewable and Beautiful: Bamboo is a grass,
and like other grasses it has a short growth cycle of
approximately five years, depending on the variety of
bamboo. Unlike hardwood, with a growth cycle 3 or 4 times
longer, bamboo is truly nature's renewable resource.
Beyond its durability and abundance, is its beauty! The
rich, warm tones of the carbonized caramel color or
the light, natural hues of neutral blond color, with
nature's beautiful growth patterns, grains, and growth
joints inherent only in bamboo, make it truly a product that
enriches the environment and value of any commercial,
residential, or product application.
Where it grows: Bamboo is the common name
for about 45 genre 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 southeastern Asia, and some species are found in
the Americas and Africa, but there are none in Australia.
How it grows: The plants range from stiff
reeds about 1 m (about 3 ft) tall, to giants reaching as
much as 55 ft in height and 30 cm (12 in.) 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, which are not a food
source or habitat for Pandas, are found in East Central
China. If not harvested in six years, these plants stop
growing and fall down. The plant we prefer to use for our
floors, Hairy Bamboo, grows up to 55 feet tall and up to 10
inches in diameter within 4-6 years. Unlike wood trees, the
diameter of bamboo will not enlarge as it grows. The bamboo
tree culm (trunk) will grow only slightly larger than the
bamboo shoot.
A bamboo plant varies in hardness from top to bottom. The
bottom 15% to 20% of the plant is the hardest portion and is
used primarily for flooring. In a fully grown Hairy Bamboo,
this can amount to 10 feet. The closer it grows to the
ground, the harder the product. Planks from this bottom
section are very dense, heavy, and difficult to saw, but
this makes it ideal for flooring.
      
    
8 types of
Renewable energy
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