Wide-plank, engineered, strand bamboo in chevron style

We now offer a Sustainable Samples Box Tongue and Groove Bamboo

Green Building Supply (GBS) Strand Bamboo is our highest quality, safest, most durable and sustainable bamboo flooring. If you're looking for a beautiful wide-plank floor that is free of toxic chemicals, will take all the punishment your family or retail customers can give, and is reasonably priced, then this may be right choice for you. And if you want to help reduce carbon emissions and our dependence on petroleum products, this is an excellent eco-friendly choice.

DIY Installation Each box includes 16 planks in two styles (8 of plank A and 8 of plank B). GBS Chevron Engineered Strand bamboo is made with a multi-layer eucalyptus core that is highly stable. Our Chevron floors can be floated, nailed down or glued down over most plywood or concrete subfloors below, at, or above grade. They can also be installed over radiant heat. See the installation guidelines for more details.

Safety First Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our customers who live, work and play on our floors. Our GBS Strand Bamboo wood flooring is made with no added urea formaldehyde. Test results from Benchmark laboratories in Oregon indicate that our engineered bamboo emits less than <.005 ppm urea formaldehyde which is well below the CA standard (.05ppm) as well as the European E0 standard (.07ppm). It is also FloorScore® certified which gives you peace of mind that this product has been independently tested to comply with section 01350 of the California standard and that it will not off-gas hazardous air pollutants. Installing our GBS Strand Bamboo flooring will help you achieve a cleaner, purer indoor air quality.

Rapidly Renewable Trees provide wood for building and are essential to our ecosystem for reducing greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide while they pump life-giving oxygen into our atmosphere. Unfortunately, trees take 25-50 years to fully develop. Bamboo, on the other hand, is a grass that grows extremely fast; in fact, some varieties grow up to 30-35" per day!

Carbon Neutral Bamboo has been touted as a miracle cure for climate change and global warming. While that may be a stretch, its green credentials are unquestioned because it grows perpetually while maintaining its rhizome root system, is mostly free from pests and disease, and requires modest quantities of water. It's best known for its ability to sequester carbon and convert CO2 into oxygen faster than most other plant life. Some reports say bamboo stores 30-35% more carbon in its roots and biomass than an equal amount of forest. Bamboo's capacity to reduce carbon and improve the atmosphere—as well as to reduce our reliance on more intensive carbon emitters like plastic and concrete—make bamboo one of the most beneficial choices for the environment.

Sustainably Harvested GBS Chevron Strand bamboo is engineered from organically grown and sustainably harvested Moso bamboo after 5-6 years. GBS is one of the few bamboo floor companies in the USA whose products are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC-C141926). This certification ensures that the bamboo: is harvested from well managed forests, has not been clear cut, is grown without toxic pesticides, and that the manufacturer pays fair wages, supports the social, and economic wellbeing of the farmers and communities. These forestry practices have the least impact on the environment and ensure long term maintenance and growth of eco-systems and habitats.

Durability and the Janka Scale The Janka Hardness Scale is one of the best known benchmarks for rating the relative hardness and durability of wood flooring against dents and wear in both residential and commercial structures. It uses a metric called lbf or pounds of force. Overall hardness is based by the resistance to dents but the Janka Scale also takes into account the type of core for engineered flooring such as HDF, oak, pine as well as grain direction, thickness and floor wear surface. This scale was developed in 1906 and was officially standardized by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). Red Oak is the median for hardness which measures 1,290 lbf, Douglas fir measures 660 lbf, while Brazilian Cherry measures 2,350lbf.

Harder Than Wood Our GBS Strand Bamboo is compressed under heat and pressure to make a highly dense plank that averages between 3800-5000 lbf on the Janka Scale. This is clearly harder than 99% of all other types of flooring and explains why people love to use this type of bamboo in very tough environments. From a durability perspective there is no real difference between solid strand bamboo and engineered strand bamboo. Both can be installed throughout all rooms in the home (however solid floors shouldn't be installed in basements).

If you have children that play hard with their toys and skateboards, or have large pets that love to run through the house, you will find this floor is up to the challenge. In addition, this floor will hold up to puddles and spills for 24 hours after accidents making it suitable for kitchens and half baths. Smaller water droplets will evaporate. Just follow the manufacturer's easy maintenance guide and this floor will last a very long time.

Looking for molding to compliment your new floor? Check out our bamboo strand molding here.

This item description was written by Joel Hirshberg