ᐅ Bamboo flooring with controlled ventilation and air exchange

We are currently building a prefabricated house with controlled ventilation and want to install bamboo parquet flooring (vertical, solid) throughout the house. The good swelling and shrinking behavior was also a reason for our choice. The house supplier refuses to install bamboo because of concerns about excessive shrinking and swelling. Does anyone have experience with this? Solid bamboo? Solid parquet flooring in houses with controlled ventilation? Which type? If not bamboo – then what alternative?

Hi, can you share what became of it?

The topic is a bit older, but since it is still found on the first page, I’ll share my thoughts:

I have read on various supplier websites that with bamboo, like with other types of hardwood flooring, you should pay attention to a relative humidity of 50-60%. Naturally, this is exceeded in summer and falls below that level in winter. A quote from a care instruction:

"Maintaining the value of the wood floor and the well-being of people requires paying attention to a healthy indoor climate (20°C (68°F) and about 50-60% relative humidity). If the relative humidity drops below this value, gaps in the flooring may occur."

A controlled mechanical ventilation system can cause the air to become too dry in winter. The system I chose has an enthalpy heat exchanger, which not only recovers heat but also, to some extent, retains moisture. This might help to counteract dryness in winter. But aside from that:

Bamboo flooring does not immediately get damaged by dry air. It shrinks and gaps may form. However, because the shrinkage behavior of bamboo is significantly better than that of other woods, I don’t see this as a problem. At least, I don’t consider it more problematic than with other types of wood.

In winter there were no problems, but now with 70-80% humidity we have slight gaps forming at the baseboards.

I always thought that with increasing humidity, parquet flooring swells/expands. How can a gap form in that case? Could you maybe take a picture?

Regards
Alex

So the gap widths depend on the day?

We currently have lacquered cherry wood flooring installed in the apartment. I basically notice only one difference between summer and winter. In winter, there is an estimated maximum gap of 0.75mm (0.03 inches) at a few spots. In summer, these gaps are almost not visible anymore.