Star Bamboo Singapore

Hi all, it’s been another week since our extreme water test.

How is the bamboo flooring faring now?

Before I share the results with you, let me just emphasise again: This is an extreme test and not representative of the usual conditions. Do this to any wood or bamboo flooring, and it will be irreparably damaged.

As you can see, 7 days after being fished out from the water tank, the test specimen has completely dried out. It has now returned to its original colour.

To the casual observer, there is little physical change to the bamboo flooring.

However, close examination reveals that the test piece is now about 0.3mm longer.

It is also very slightly convex i.e. it is higher in the middle than at the sides. Since the warping wasn’t present 7 days earlier, it must have happened during the drying process.

The explanation is simple:

Our bamboo flooring comes pre-finished with a polyurethane coating on the surface. This coating acts as a barrier and prevents water from pass through.

As a result, more moisture escapes from the bottom than from the top. As it dries out, the bottom shrinks more than the top surface.

It is this difference in shrinkage that causes the very slight convex shape now. Even though the test piece is now completely dry, it doesn’t return to its original shape nor size.

When it bulges up in the middle like this, it is called crowning.

The size expansion is known as swelling, which is usually caused by flooding.

In bamboo flooring, the crowning and swelling is hardly perceptible, a testament to its high dimensional stability. But even the strongest wood floors cannot stand abuse like this.

So to keep your bamboo floor in tiptop condition for years to come, I highly recommend that you keep you it dry and away from water.

I subjected our bamboo flooring to an extreme test.

As you probably know, bamboo flooring is one of the most dimensionally stable wood flooring around. Overseas tests indicated that bamboo is over 50% more stable than American red oak.

High stability is great for flooring as it means that expansion problems are greatly reduced.

Some time back, we conducted a test at PSB Singapore, the national testing body over here.

They immersed a bamboo flooring plank in water for 24 hours and measured the changes in its size.

After such harsh conditions, the result was impressive: only a 0.24% increase in length and 0.19% increase in width. This equals an increase of only 2 parts per 1000.

Under normal conditions, the flooring would be expected to expand much less than this. The expansion gaps we leave along the walls would be much than adequate.

Note: You have to keep your wood or bamboo flooring dry at all times. Exposure to water can cause all sorts of problems such as swelling, warping, cupping, crowning, and buckling.

I wondered, what will happen if I soak it for longer?

So I decided to repeat the test on my own, but this time, for 7 whole days. After over 160 hours of continuous soaking, this is the outcome:

(The test piece has yet to dry out, hence the darker colour.)

The great news is that it is still relatively flat and level. There is no discernible warping, any expansion had happened evenly throughout the plank.

I deliberately chose the Horizontal pattern, as some customers had queried if Horizontal is more prone to warping than Vertical.

This result should put their minds at ease. Even in a humid climate like Singapore’s, bamboo flooring will not experience expansion problems.

But please don’t try this with your wood flooring!