Bamboo Floors - Westcork Flooring - About Bamboo

Benefits

Installation

Details

Bamboo is harder than many hardwoods and requires less sanding and refinishing, making it an excellent choice for high traffic residential and commercial applications. Bamboo has a long straight fibre composition, providing an exceptional strength to weight ratio and dimensional stability. Bamboo has only straight grain and is not subject to the ripping, leaving and chipping problems common to the short and often erratic grain alignment of many woods. The reed-like pore structure of bamboo limits swelling and provides exceptional dimensional stability. Growth nodes, a light colour and straight grain give bamboo its exotic appearance. Bamboo has a high mineral content making it more durable and fire resistant than many hardwoods.

Structural Testing

Moisture Content	Impact Absorption Energy	Shear Strength	Coefficient for Elasticity
8%-12%	148 kgf/cm3	148 kgf/cm3	1,253,520 kgf/cm3

Dimensional Stability
Bamboo planks do not expand under high temperatures or high humidity conditions (Ortech Corporation).

Internal Bond Strength
The internal bond strength of bamboo was determined to be 2107 Newtons (Ortech Corporation).

Coefficient for Dry Conditions
The radial direction was tested to be 0.138 and the chord direction was 0.149 (Middle-Southern Woods University).

Fire Testing

Flammability
According to ASTM E648 "Critical Radiant Panel Test", bamboo passed with a Class 1 rating per NFPA. This means that bamboo can be used in all classes of buildings in the U.S. (United States Testing Company).

Smoke Density
When bamboo flooring was tested according to ASTM E622 "Smoke Density", bamboo was found to have considerable lower smoking properties than the leading oak product (United States Testing Company).

Surface Testing

Abrasion Resistance
According to ASTM 4060 "Taber Abrasion Test", it took over 4,000 cycles to remove the finish coating (United States Testing Company).

Hardness
The hardness of our bamboo plank flooring was determined to be 35.4 MPa between the joints and 49.8 MPa at the joints (Materialab).

Specifications

	Quality Comparison	Comparison with Wood and the Standard Rate	Test Results for Bamboo Floor
1.	Moisture Content	Fixed by IS0631-1975—At the time of Ex work, the moisture content of bamboo floor should be 8-13%. The standard rate is 11%.	The average of our production samples is 12%
2.	Coefficient for dry contractedness	WOOD Radial direction is 0.171. Chord direction is 0.322. Volumn is 0.519.	BAMB00 Radial direction is 0.138. Chord direction is 0.149. Volumn is 0.320. less than wood
3.	Density	Wood floor is 700.15 kg/m3	Bamboo floor is 670.98 kg/m3
4.	Hardness	The joint place is 20.3MPa.	The joint place is 49.8MPa. The jointless place is 35.4MPa.
5.	VARIX	N/A	Coefficient for Wrecking is 1,434 kgf/cm3. Coefficient for elasticity is 1,253. 520kgf/cm2.
6.	Absorb energy when Shock and Crook	N/A	148 kgf/cm3.
7.	Strength for Shearing	N/A	148 kgf/cm3.
8.	Strength for Shearing on glued layer	Standard Require > 2.5MPa.	Result of test is 2.92MPa.
9.	Strength for Cross Varix	Standard Require > 0.5MPa.	Result of test is 10MPa.

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