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Monday, Nov 9, 2009
It's long, strong and pleasing to the eye. So -- who needs wood?
Oct 14, 2004 | I asked my lady what could I do
to make her happy and to keep her true
she said my friend one thing I need from you
is a little tiny piece of the big bamboo
She wanted big bamboo four feet long
big bamboo so full and strong
big bamboo stands up straight and tall
only big bamboo pleases one and all...
-- from the Calypso traditional "The Big Bamboo"
Get a bamboo enthusiast talking, and it's not unusual for the excitement -- about the plant's miraculous properties and environmentally important uses -- to get a little out of hand. Even a casual investigation quickly reveals that bamboo doesn't just attract admirers, it inspires a heavy-breathing obsession, as the following tome from American Bamboo Society pages illustrates:
"Bamboo feels so good. Grasp a culm and energy is defined. A strong culm advances from underground to sky, often many tens of feet, many meters, in a matter of weeks. All of it is there from the moment it breaks ground. Every thrusting inch, foot or meter, from node to node, every future leaf is compactly folded in place ready and willing to come out."
And so forth.
Since they were first introduced in the mid-'90s as an alternative to regular hardwood floors, bamboo floors have grown in popularity at a rate rivaled only by their astounding vertical growth. (A new shoot of Moso bamboo, the type used for flooring, can grow up to eight inches in diameter and 80 feet tall in two months.) As recently as five years ago, bamboo floors were distributed primarily by a small handful of U.S. manufacturers who imported the bamboo from China, but today, American imports of bamboo products have exploded. What briefly had been the province of architects, interior designers, high-end hotels and exclusive health spas, bamboo floors are now available almost everywhere: Lumber liquidators sell them online, big box giants Home Depot and Lowe's offer them in many of their stores, and they even debuted on MTV recently, when the "Pimp My Ride" crew installed bamboo floors in a yoga instructor's Land Cruiser.
A modern innovation on a timeless resource, bamboo flooring is "an ideal product," says Taryn Holowka, a spokesperson for the U.S. Green Building Council, a building industry coalition. The council oversees LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, which sets the standard for sustainable designs among architects and developers. The use of bamboo floors qualifies project designers for points toward LEED certification. "Bamboo flooring is attractive and it can grow anywhere," she says. It's also promoted by the Sierra Club. In other words, it's that rarest of innovations -- good looking, and good for the world.
Ann Knight, who has watched her Bainbridge Island, Wash., manufacturing company, Teragren, double in size almost every year since she co-founded it in 1994, said that since bamboo has begun to flood the market it's becoming more affordable; with bamboo floors offered at $3 to $7 per square foot, Teragren's products are comparable in price to conventional hardwood floors such as oak or maple, she says, and are often even cheaper than more exotic woods, such as cherry. Thanks to competitive pricing, and an increased interest in creating healthy homes, bamboo floors have steadily seeped into more mainstream markets.
