Bamboo: A History

Thanks to Chinese civilization and wisdom, the west can add bamboo floors to its existing repertory of flooring materials – much to the delight of homeowners and interior decorators.

Not too fast, however. Let’s go back thousands of years ago and see how bamboo started. Actually, bamboo was first used for medicinal purposes.

More than 5,000 years – that’s how long bamboo has been used in China. As a tool of ancient medicine, bamboo was used for acupuncture and to treat disorders like asthma and coughing spasms. The components of the black bamboo were extracted to cure kidney problems – and hear this – venereal disease and cancer. The bamboo sap was also used to reduce fever. In fact, given its healing capabilities, ancient Chinese people believed that gods lived within the bamboo hollows and were responsible for most of the healing miracles that occurred.

Then necessity became the mother of invention.

Bamboo’s versatility was taken advantage of by Chinese people outside the medical milieu. The material was harnessed to make books, food, paper and as a material for ornate palace structures. Finally, it was the Ming Dynasty that capitalized on bamboo’s potential for bedding and flooring. The Ming Dynasty ruled for three centuries, and some historians claim that this was the period when Ming China was considered the most developed country on the planet at the time.

Bamboo, as you know, is a wood-type plant that boasts of over 1,000 species found worldwide. Some of these species grow at a rapid rate, at times two to three feet in 24 hours. Bamboo takes about three to five years to mature. It is, thankfully, a low-maintenance material and has been described as “sustainable and renewable.”

Countries that supply bamboo for flooring needs include China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Korea.

There are numerous companies in North America that sell bamboo flooring these days as manufacturers. Some import the floors from China. You may be tempted to purchase bamboo flooring from the first retailer or distributor you meet.

Wait. Ask questions. For example, you can ask to see bamboo flooring that has been carved manually – handcrafted - as opposed to machine-made bamboo floors.

Some planks of bamboo come either solid or engineered. Solid bamboo floors mean those that are made of 100% bamboo, while the engineered floors consist of bamboo on the surface, and cross laminated with other types of wood underneath.


 

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