Article Number : 607 |
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| Date | 9/3/2005 2:47:09 PM |
| Written By | LGM & Associates Technical Flooring Services |
| View this article at: | //floorbiz.com/BizResources/NPViewArticle.asp?ArticleID=607 |
| Abstract | Hicksville, N.Y... |
| Article | Hicksville, N.Y.—With more consumers, architects and designers getting interested in bamboo flooring everyday, manufacturers are making sure they have as many options as possible to offer their customers. Whether it be the natural look, stained, handscraped or varying sizes, those desiring the hard grass product are now being given a plethora of choices from which to choose. “We are one of the first, if not the first to offer stained and handscraped bamboo products,” said Bill Smith, president of Bali Flooring. “We are one of the few companies that actually grade our horizontal natural and horizontal carbonized bamboo into three different shades. We offer —in horizontal natural, horizontal vertical, vertical carbonized and vertical natural—light, medium and dark. Some people mix and match light, medium and dark. About 80% of what is sold is medium. So, we offer our consumers a choice. “For instance,” he explained, “if she says, ‘I really like this bamboo, but if it were a shade darker or lighter it would be perfect for my home.’ Well, we can offer her that option. This certainly is an inventory burden, but it certainly offers some good customer service to our retailers and ultimately, the consumer. “The second thing we do is offer stained looks,” Smith continued. “Staining bamboo is not that easy to do but once you get it right, it really is beautiful. Not only can you use that stained bamboo in and of itself or as a mix and match, you can use it as borders, for instance. Imagine how beautiful a natural bamboo floor is with a red or green or black accent border around it. That’s nice. So, the options available to the consumer today to really be creative with bamboo are so much greater than they were even a few years ago. “For now, offering the different tones in the regular bamboo and offering the three colors of stained and the three colors of handscraped in stained is something that no one else offers, in that whole package,” he added, “along with the click bamboo. We’ve sold several jobs recently where the architects and designers did use the borders and they just love it. They love having that option of taking an elegant bamboo floor and customizing it to their own desires.” Jane Wu, import manager for Tico Bamboo Flooring, said, there seems to be a growing desire for different sizes of bamboo flooring. “This is true. The simple reason for it is, people like anything different. If you have standard planks of 33-in., they say, ‘I want 36-in.’ As long as it’s different. Size Matters “There is one aspect of this that is a little bit dangerous,” she warned. “A factory or company cannot always follow the customer because they only look at the beauty on the outside of the product. Some sizes are not very stable. If you just follow what the customer wants regarding how wide and how long, it may not be very stable when you install them. That is the problem happening right now. “You need to keep the customer, this is what is most important,” she emphasized, “The customer may say, ‘I want this kind of look,’ but a few months later, if something happens, the customer will come back to you and ask, ‘What is going on?’ because she is not a professional.” The American consumer, according to Wu, definitely seems to be warming up to bamboo flooring. “They like bamboo flooring, more and more. And they do have more knowledge now than they did previously. I remember the first year we went to Surfaces, and they asked, ‘Bamboo floors?’ They actually thought it was round and people might fall down on it. They had no knowledge of it. “The next year we were there, however,” she explained, “nobody asked this kind of question anymore. People now are ready. They see it as being stronger than a regular hardwood floor. They have basic knowledge already.” Regarding bamboo flooring’s green characteristics, Wu, who is Chinese, noted, one thing about Americans is, they “do want to protect this Earth. So, this is yet another reason bamboo flooring is getting popular in the states. In China, almost no one cares about this. A very little percentage of the population uses bamboo floors. That’s why in China, more than 90% of the bamboo floor that is produced is for export. People there buy from other countries, import other kinds of hardwood. “When I was in China 10 years ago,” she continued, “I didn’t even hear about bamboo floors. Of course, we already had them before, but it’s as if people don’t care. Another reason it isn’t too popular in China is, bamboo flooring, compared with other types of real wood flooring in China, it’s a little bit expensive. So, people would think, ‘Bamboo is more expensive than real wood? OK, I will go ahead and choose real wood.’” “We are doing reasonably well in the U.S.,” said Seymour Ellis, president of Ellis USA - BamStar Bamboo, which has been importing and manufacturing bamboo flooring in China for the last six years. “I’ve traveled extensively for 30 years and we have extensive background knowledge as to what we are doing that many importers of these products, particularly Chinese products, do not have. “We have what I feel is probably one of the two or three best bamboos in the United States,” he added. “We have a very high quality product. We may not be the cheapest, but we are competitively priced and have an exceptionally good product that really has no problems. That’s the most important thing from the prospective of both our distributors and dealers. We now have a number of distributors handling our product in several different states in many parts of the country, although we maintain our warehouse in Miami. We’ve really grown the product.” BamStar has quite a collection of colored bamboo which, according to Ellis, is used to attract customers to its more traditional offerings. “We’ve had some nice size orders for the colored bamboo, but generally it’s your sugar in a grocery store. It brings the people in, it looks good, and then they go with the bread and butter. It’s a very specific look which is great for decorators and designers, but, practically and seriously, it’s probably not in any large demand [right now]. “Generally, for us, the biggest moving product is carbonated in the vertical design,” he said. “It is by far our biggest mover. It is something that is used in both residential and commercial applications. We’ve used it in Ford Field in Detroit, the home of the Detroit Lions football team. There are four floors on one side of the stadium and two floors on the opposite side which have our carbonated vertical product in them and they have used them for the surrounding areas of the suite level, and public areas as well. It’s the largest single job we’ve done so far.” Smith & Fong Plyboo offers its products in two colors, natural and amber. The natural color is the color of the bamboo untreated. The amber color is derived from a heat treatment process that darkens the bamboo, giving it a warm, tea-stained, amber tone. —Louis Iannaco |