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!

The new BCA Gallery was officially launched last Friday, and Star Bamboo is honoured to be part of the exhibition.

As reported in Straits Times newspaper last Saturday, the new gallery is a showcase of the development of Singapore’s built environment:

I had a brief tour of the gallery a month back when it was still under construction. I haven’t had a chance to visit it since its official launch, I’ll take a couple of photos the next time I go.

The Gallery is sub-divided into three zones and the most interesting one is definitely the one with the latest eco-friendly building technologies.

Star Bamboo’s eco-friendly bamboo flooring is one of the exhibits there, do check it out the next time you’re there!

For more information on BCA gallery, check out their web site.

Well, I still can’t help fixing it.

The old contact form was working OK, but I felt it could deal with the re-direction “thank you” page more elegantly. It did seem a bit odd to have it as a separate page. You could access it even without having to fill in the form.

Luckily WordPress is such a flexible and well-supported platform. After researching a few different options, I finally settled on this contact form plug-in.

Check out our spanking new contact form! And while you’re at it, do drop us a message.

And I couldn’t just stop at a simple form, I had to revamp the look of the web site as well.

Again, with WordPress, it’s a simple matter of using an appropriate template.

I’ve settled on a simpler, 2-column layout, in response to feedback that the web site seemed too cluttered.

The colour scheme is still green, but it does seem much tidier now.

Hope you like the new look.

It has been a busy week for Star Bamboo.

Last Wednesday I gave a lecture on bamboo flooring to 2 groups of design students at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). I was invited by Kenneth, owner of Infiniti Studio who also lectures part-time there.

It’s certainly a refreshing experience for me. My usual sales presentations are delivered to individual designers/architects or very small groups. I realised that I had to deliver my content differently when faced with over 30 young people.

I decided to use loads of photos and very few words in my slides, and then tell a story revolving around each photo.

The reception seemed pretty positive. They paid enough attention to ask pertinent questions, and thankfully no one fell asleep even though it was right after lunch time.

That was my warm-up for the big presentation on Friday to Ong & Ong Architects Pte Ltd.

Even though I’m already working with Ong & Ong on a current project, the company has so many architects in various departments. So it was a great chance to create awareness of our bamboo flooring.

I’ve a soft spot for this company, because the founder of the company is not only a former President of Singapore, but we happened to be alumni of the same school.

I was a bit concerned when the conference room was still empty at the stipulated time. But thanks to the energetic efforts of the secretary, people began to troop in.

I delivered a tweaked version of the NAFA talk, and once again, the feedback was positive.

I think I could begin to enjoy this.

The Singapore Environment Council is organising an Eco Action Day on 5 June 2007, to raise awareness of environmental issues among companies.

Not much effort is required, just a simple flick of the switch to turn off any unnecessary lighting or office equipment.

I have already signed up Star Bamboo for this programme, to show our support and commitment to reduce energy wastage. The lights for our Singapore warehouse are usually turned on whenever we step into the adjoining office. Now, we will only turn on the lights when we actually retrieve stocks from it.

It’s a simple act, but it will save us 1/3 off our lighting bills. It’s so simple that we will be practising it every day starting right now – why limit yourself to 5 June?

Although this Eco Action Day programme is meant for Singapore companies only, all overseas visitors reading this are welcome to start similar initiatives in your company.

It’s easy, it’s simple, and speaks volumes of your commitment to the environment. If you decide to join in this effort, please drop me an email to tell me all about it. I’m all ears!

OK, better sign up first because the 28 May deadline is just around the corner. Click here to register now!

People know Star Bamboo for our eco-friendly bamboo flooring, but we also offer other bamboo products. One of our most popular and versatile products is bamboo veneer.

Bamboo veneer are thin sheets of bamboo material, with a frieze cotton backing to minimise breakage. They typically come in 4′ by 8′ sheets of 0.6mm thickness, and are made by thinly slicing big blocks of bamboo material.

The beauty of bamboo veneer is its flexibility. Our bamboo material, like that of bamboo flooring, is very hard and strong. But this strength can be a double-edged sword, making it difficult to mould and press.

Bamboo veneer, on the other hand, is so flexible that it can be used to wrap curved surfaces. The most popular application of bamboo veneer is on kitchen and bedroom cabinets.

But it can be so much more than that.

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The big news last weekend in Singapore was the announcement by S Iswaran, Singapore’s Minister of State for Trade and Industry that the F1 carnival is finally coming to our shores.

F1 is the most un-green sport today. Today’s Straits Times newspaper carried an article with some fascinating nuggets of information to show just how polluting it is:

• Each F1 car burns up to a litre of fuel and releases 1,500g of carbon dioxide per km, which contributes to an estimated 10 tonnes of CO2 per race weekend.
• The mooted night race format requires an estimated 500 energy-sapping high-intensity light poles.
• F1 car engines are loud enough to be heard literally half way across Singapore, or shatter glass windows of nearby buildings.

Coincidentally, S Iswaran was also the Guest-of-Honour at the prize-awarding ceremony for the Eco Products International Fair (EPIF) 2006 where Star Bamboo won the Silver Medal for our bamboo flooring:

The EPIF and F1 are at opposite ends of the eco-friendliness scale, but there is one common link.

From the outset, the Singapore government has cited commercial reasons for courting F1: tourism receipts, branding of Singapore as a cosmopolitan and glamourous city to 500 million television viewers, and jobs creation.

That is why the Singapore government has committed itself to spending up to S$90m per year for the F1 race. If green businesses were ever to enjoy this level of support, we would have to demonstrate the same kind of ROI.

After all, it’s just business.

Bamboo is a beautiful sustainable material. It’s strong, durable and extremely fast growing. Did you know that some species of bamboo have been known to grow an astonishing 1 metre in a single day?

No wonder companies have been making all sorts of products from it for years, from flooring to chopping boards and other household items.

Star Bamboo was one of the first companies to make furniture out of the bamboo material. But it’s a matter of time before other companies caught on to this.

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One of the most common issues we face during installation is dents on our bamboo flooring.

During a renovation or construction project, flooring is usually the last item. Ideally, most of the other works would already have been completed when we are installing the flooring, leaving perhaps some light carpentry work.

That’s the theory. Due to time constraints and unforeseen delays, job sites are usually chaotic places. One of my installer half-jokingly calls them as “war zones”.

Bamboo is very hard and durable, but it is nowhere as hard as a metal hammer. Accidents do happen.

So what can we do?

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