China bamboo flooring | Access floor | Raised floor

1. Don’t walk on the bamboo flooring within 24 hours after installation. Don’t put heavy matter on the floor within 72 hours after installation. The planks begin to touch moisture in the air after installation. And the planks will expand a bit in a short time. Some time is needed before the floor planks can work well with each other.

2. Use clean broom to get rid of the sundries and dust. Then clean the floor with cleanser or damp mop(half-dry). Don’t use water to clean the floor.

3. Regarding the dirt on the floor, scratch it with a obtuse knife Then use damp mop(half-dry) to clean the dirt. Wax the surface of bamboo flooring periodically.

4. Handle with care while moving furniture on bamboo flooring. Don’t put heavy furniture on the floor directly. Put soft pad between the legs of the heavy furniture and floor to protect it. Avoid the leg of metal furniture from touching the floor surface directly. Avoid metal or sharp things from damaging the surface. Lacquer the finish if the paint on the surface is damaged.

5. Close window and door before leaving to avoid rain from falling on the planks because the rain will make the floor planks expand and warp after the planks absorb too much water. Wipe any liquid away immediately if it falls on the floor.

6. Keep the room ventilated to make the indoor damp air and the little formaldehyde from bamboo flooring goes out when it is damp. Keep the air a bit damp when it is too dry.

7. Avoid sunshine from irradiating the bamboo flooring directly as direct sunshine irradiation does harm to the lacquer’s life time.

Many people don’t know to install bamboo flooring. The points below may help your installation work:

1. Open the package in the installation area at least 4 days before the installation to make sure that bamboo flooring be used to the temperature and humidity.

2. Keep the installation space dry and flat. Paint moisture proof lacquer or fit underlay with PE film on the installation space.

3. Choose ceiling joist with hard and dry wooden wood plank. And the ceiling joist must not be wormy. Fit the ceiling joist to the subfloor and make it with multi cross appearance. The size of the cell should be around 20cm*20cm. Make the surface of ceiling joist flat. Keep at least 5 pcs of ceiling joist under plank.

4. Keep 0.6mm gap between each bamboo plank. Fix the bamboo plank on the ceiling joist with nail. The knock angle is should be around 45 degree.

5. The short side of the bamboo plank should head the door to have a better look.

6. Keep a 12mm wide gap between bamboo flooring and wall for the expansion purpose. Paint the cut end with varnish for the moisture proof purpose.

Bamboo flooring(B) is usually installed neighboring to ceramic tile(C) whatever the place of the C. The transition space is usually covered by bamboo T-moulding or reducer. Sometimes copper reducer is also used. C is water resistant while B is not. There is often large amount of water on the surface of C which is installed in bathroom or kitchen. So it would be better that the surface of ceramic tile at these places is a bit lower that B and the surface is leaned to waterspout which is far from B. The color of bamboo flooring is usually natural bamboo, carbonized bamboo and strand woven design, which is a bit simple. So it is important to choose C with suitable color to match them. Usually beige color is a good selection. It seems red and black or other dark colors can’t match the color of B well.

Someone had the wall of his house painted again. There is some lacquer falling on the bamboo flooring. And the lacquer hasn’t been removed for a long time. It has become solid and attached the floor firmly. He wonders how to remove the lacquer.

Below are some ways he can follow to do the clean work:
(1) Don’t use steel ball to rub the painted area. Also don’t use strong alkali or acid or cleanser to get ride to the lacquer as these ways will make the color of the touched area quite different from other floor place and affect its look.
 (2) Use moist mop to soften the lacquer. Scratch the lacquer with a knife. Avoid the edge of knife to scrape bamboo flooring as it is not strong abrasion resistant. Then use mop to get rid of the separate lacquer. For the left lacquer, wet it with acetone as acetone can dissolve the left lacquer. But the quantity of acetone can’t be too much is this type of floor is water proof. Get ride of the acetone as soon as the lacquer is got ride of.

Now there is a kind of laminate flooring with bamboo color(L). And it looks like bamboo flooring(B) very much. But both of them have their own advantages.

1. Price
L is much cheaper than B. L is mainly made up of high density fiber board instead of hardwood. So its price is much lower.

2. Color
The color of bamboo colored laminate flooring(L) is from the decorative paper which is imitated from the real bamboo flooring(B) with computer. The color of L is usually vertical natural or carbonized in vertical direction. Anyway it can’t be as vivid as the real color of B. And B offers many other looks with strand woven and stained types. The stain type offers various looks due to the different types of lacquer and paint technology.

3. Dimension
The size of L is usually 1213*193*8.3mm and 1213*193*12.3mm. And the size of B is usually 960*96*15mm. So it is easy to recognize the real B with the dimension if you are familiar with bamboo flooring.

4. Foot feel
The foot feel of B is much better than that of L even L is  12mm thick or with attached underlay. L is mainly made up of high density fiber board. People feel hard when stepping on it. And there is some noise when people walk on it as it is of a “floating” type. B is usually 14 or 15mm thick. And it is mainly made up of bamboo strips. So it offers better foot feel and thus make house more valuable.

Besides, laminate flooring is much more abrasion resistant as its first layer is mainly made up of alumina which is main material of diamond. But bamboo flooring contains less formaldehyde.