Countertops & Worktops – made from Bamboo

Countertops Suitability

Bamboo countertops are a great alternative to using cold and hard concrete, granite or marble counter tops. Being the perfect “solid wood replacement”, bamboo countertops add the warmth of a timber countertop to your kitchen while being gentle on your crockery.

Bamboo is food safe. This is the reason bamboo is so popular as a cutting board material. A kitchen countertop is a surface that needs to be suitable as a food preparation surface. Unlike most hard and soft woods, bamboo is hyper-allergenic. Plastic countertops on the other hand become less and less food safe as they are used over time. See what a study at the University of Wisconsin revealed …

Wood is considered to be the most eco-friendly option when it comes to choosing a kitchen countertop as wood is a renewable resource. Wood countertops must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected after contact with foods such as raw meat. Although the use of wooden work surfaces is prohibited in commercial food production areas in the EU and the US Department of Agriculture advises against the use of wooden chopping boards, research by the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin has shown that wooden work surfaces are no more dangerous, and in some cases safer than plastic alternatives. They have shown that whilst that bacteria does get absorbed by the wood it does not multiply and eventually dies. Whilst brand new plastic work surfaces are indeed easy to disinfect, once they have become heavily knife scarred they are nearly impossible to completely disinfect. This is not a problem with wooden work surfaces where the number of knife cuts made little difference.

Countertops Refinishing & Durability

Eco-Logic Bamboo countertop boards are available in the standard bamboo colours; lighter Blonde (Natural) or the darker Coffee (Carbonised) colours, as well as in the vertical and horizontal surface construction formats.

Bamboo stains wonderfully, so whatever colour or finish (stain, paint, wax, oil, polyurethane, etc) you desire can be applied to your kitchen countertop board. So if you’re wanting a dark finish, no problem, any colour you want and it’s possible.

What about burns from hot pots, etc? Well, we’d obviously recommend you use a suitable material for placing hot pots onto rather than onto the countertops surface. Bamboo has a “Class A” flammability rating. This is the same category that Asbestos-Cement is rated. This means that bamboo can withstand temperatures of up to 1000 ° Celsius for up to 20 minutes. As a comparison, Red Oak is only rated with a “Class C” rating. It is more likely that the top coat on the bamboo countertop will suffer damage before the bamboo itself is scorched. And if you do end up with a scorch mark? Simple, sand and refinish.

As granite is permeable, if something “stains” a granite countertop, you get to live with it. With bamboo countertops, you can simply sand the stain out and refinish.

Countertops Moisture Tolerance

One special characteristic of bamboo countertops is their moisture tolerance.

With post-formed plastic laminate countertops and the like, water is always a concern with a kitchen countertop – especially around the prep bowl & washing up areas. Too much water, and they start to expand. The only option for repair is to replace.

Bamboo is affected by moisture, but is a LOT more tolerant. In fact, whilst we were testing the product, we popped a few boards into a dish washer and ran them through two hot cycles consecutively – the result? After the bamboo boards had dried properly, they returned to their original dimensions.

If the bamboo countertop is sealed correctly you will not experience the water related swelling so commonly experienced with post-formed plastic laminate countertops.

Have a look at this video!!!