Watch out for false eco certificates and low-VOC claims on flooring boxes!

More on bamboo flooring, below, from Michael Boulger at bamboo-flooring supplier Nadurra.  John Bleasby went with bamboo flooring on his new home build north of Orillia, ON (“From Pilot to Contractor…”).  Ben Polley of Evolve Builders, Guelph, gave us a great a post about the benefits – and things to watch out for – when buying bamboo flooring. Ben recommended Nadurra…

This isn’t an ad, part of the discussion – everyone feel free to chip in.

“Thought I’d chime in as we are the supplier of the eco-friendly bamboo flooring Ben mentions above: http://www.nadurrawood.com. (Thank you for the glowing reference Ben)

A couple of points regarding your post Bob:

1) The Vertical/Edge grain you chose is actually not much harder than Red Oak. However the Composite / Strandwoven bamboo is over twice as hard. So look for that to be even tougher;

2) As Ben says, it is really the finish – the first line of defense – that makes the difference in seeing scratches or not. We’ve found issues, as had Ben, with the standard bamboo finishes that are on most bamboo floors today. We have moved much of our line over to a low-gloss Bona-Kemi finish that far outperforms any we’ve seen. It has gone down in major chain retail stores across Canada and performed well;

3) Watch out for false eco certificates and low-VOC claims on flooring boxes! Asian factories will put anything on the box that the customer wants them to – we know this from 20 years of importing bamboo. Look for suppliers with actual formaldehyde or emission testing results from labs here in North America.

Good that you’re on the bamboo train now Bob. Sounds like you’re headed in the right direction.”

Best Regards,

Michael Boulger :: NADURRA