Hi.
I really have learned so much about your blog. Thank you for all the time you invest in that service. We are remodeling our kitchen on the East Coast which is behind the times in terms of ecological remodeling projects when compared to the West Coast.
There is a store in my local area that offers a line of bamboo cabinets that I like quite a bit. However, as I don't know anyone who has them here I am wondering how smart they are for an investment. Do they hold up well? Does the finish take being used and grabbed and touched and wiped? If you know much about them it would be helpful and interesting reading.
Thank you. Anne
Hi Anne,
Thank you for the kind words. I can't vouch for your cabinet company because I don't know what they have, but let's see if we can go over some of the aspects which make bamboo a viable alternative:
*Edited to add: 1/26/2010: Ann Knight, Executive Vice President of Teragren, was kind enough to respond and offer her advice. She tweaked some of what I know and added her own professional insight, for which she has my thanks.
There are 1500 species of bamboo – which one is the right one?
Bamboo isn't a wood - it's a fast-growing grass with over 1500 species available. However, you only want to focus on one for your cabinet doors and panels – a timber bamboo called Moso or MaoZhu (technically known as Phyllostachys Pubescenes. Say that 3 times fast.)
Moso bamboo, grows in Zhejiang and Hunan Provinces, China, used to manufacture bamboo flooring and sheet goods grows 6” – 8” round and up to 80 feet height. It needs a temperate climate and a steep hill. Even though they’ve been trying to make it grow in South Carolina, the makers of sheet goods claim that the best climate for this bamboo is its original birthplace – China.
Ann adds some clarification:
Actually this is not absolutely true- the soil in the Carolinas is ideal for growing bamboo plus bamboo uptakes nitrogen in the soil – ideal for pig farmers! The reason it hasn’t been grown in the US to make building products is because of the labor costs associated with harvesting the bamboo and then fabricating products – we are in discussions with various landowners across the US, especially the Delta region, to grow bamboo and create factories and jobs – however this is a long-term project.
Bamboo can take some abuse
One of the good things with bamboo is that it’s a durable product if the bamboo is harvested and processed correctly, much harder than red oak, and can takes a fair amount of abuse. Can you dent it? Sure. (When I used to ask my dad about durability of materials, he used to snort, “Nothing’s idiot-proof!” Thanks, Dad.)
Even with the rapid growth of bamboo – literally two feet a day – it can’t be harvested too soon or products may be as soft as pine or fir. If hydraulic presses and the right adhesives are not used during the manufacturing process, delamination and voids may occur – an expensive lesson! If it is, the bamboo won’t only be too soft, but it’ll delaminate in nice long strings, usually after it’s been installed. We (meaning, California designers, builders, and architects) ran into these problems when bamboo flooring first hit here in California and the rush was on to get bamboo, any bamboo. We know better now, plus you get the benefit of that hard-won experience. (Rest of the country– you take the next new product, okay?)
Harvesting time is a minimum of 5-1/2 years. The FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) is aware of this, and most products with the FSC certification harvest bamboo correctly.
(Photo credit: Smith & Fong Edge grain door – looks like natural on cooktop wall on left and amber on island and oven walls)
What is the door made of?
There are two types of bamboo cabinet doors – those with a bamboo core and those with a MDF core. It’s what we might refer to as a 3-layer sandwich board – the bamboo veneer is layered on both sides of the core. Naturally, the one with a bamboo center core is more expensive. The two makers of bamboo paneling for furniture that I'm aware of are the San Francisco-based Smith & Fong aka "Plyboo" , and the Washington-based Teragren.
( Teragren® 4’ x 8’ x
3/4” cross-ply panels, Vertical Grain Caramelized
Photo by John Granen;
©2009 Teragren LLC)
Some say the 3-ply bamboo is the Best Thing Ever and hint that there could be delamination of the less–expensive 2-ply over MDF, but I can’t say that’s been my experience. The edge of the door has to be wood-taped with the bamboo-and-MDF product, whereas the bamboo-centered panel doesn’t need it.MDF is a stable core and the bamboo is also very hard; laminate the two together and I’m not seeing much movement. If you have budgeting concerns, I might recommend the MDF core as a less-expensive alternative.
But there is a caveat here: those in a tropical climate or in an area with very high humidity might not be able to select this MDF center-panel option – Hawaii, for example, has bugs that love recycled wood products. As in, “yum, thanks for dinner!” love. You won't have the same issue with the bamboo core.
(Photo credit: Berkeley Mills via Trendir. Berkeley Mills uses Teragren.)
Bamboo looks and colors
There are 2 main colors for bamboo – one is natural, which you see at the left; the amber or caramelized color on the right is the result of cooking or heating the bamboo until it turns that color. (Ann adds: Bamboo is part of the sugar cane family which means the longer you heat it, the darker the sugars become – just like cooking sugar on the stove.) The color does indeed go all the way through the material – no worries about scratching the surface.
So what you’re going to see is 3 different styles depending on how the bamboo is sliced (yes, there are other styles, but let’s stick to doors for now.)
(Note that all samples here are from Smith & Fong – clicking on them will send you to their website.)
Flat – The above is the flat side or face (face is my term - the manufacturers’ll be wincing at me). Here’s the giveaway – the widths of the strips are typically around 3/4” wide. (The darker serrated markings are called the nodes – they’re where the leaves and branches grew from the actual pole or culm.)
Vertical or Edge- The above is an example of an edge profile – we’re literally talking about cutting and laminating the strips of bamboo together. Giveaway sign is that the strips are around 3/16” - 1/4” wide.
Strand - This above is engineered bamboo. Just like any engineered wood, it’s crushed and remixed with phenol-based binders to be stronger, faster, better. Might even out the color too and eliminate some of the distinctive bamboo-stripes, but it will remove node lines as well.
Ann adds: "Strand bamboo panels and flooring with Teragren’s Xcora™ technology are manufactured under a process that fuses bamboo fibers with an environmentally safe adhesive (phenol-based) under extreme pressure to form homogenous, high-density sheets that are sliced and milled into flooring planks or sheet goods.
Investment range
This is still a higher priced option. Depending on the cabinet line and the style, bamboo in my cabinet books ranges a good 25% – 40% higher than maple or cherry. (Edited to add: Looks like costs might have dropped -- I'll plan a later post with a cabinet I have and see what we find.) We’re simply talking the doors and paneling at this point, not the boxes. Add a low-VOC 5-ply, non-urea-formaldehyde recycled board, corn, or soy-based box construction, and you’ll be at the higher end of that cost and then some.
If a bamboo seems too good to be true price-wise, I’d run, yet Ann adds: "If Teragren’s S4S furniture-grade (sanded four sides) ¾” cross-ply 4’ x 8’ panels are used, there’s no labor cost to edge band and the finishing is easy – we’ve found cabinetmakers using this process are very competitive with maple and cherry products."
(Panels for cabinetry:
Teragren® 1’ x 6’ x 5/8” panels, Vertical Grain Caramelized
Photo by Steven Young;
©2000 Teragren LLC)
To be truthful, I haven't seen it in the factory lines I used, but other designers and those of you considering bamboo cabinets out there may have other stories to share. I do think that eventually demand will lower the cost of the product.