Home Eco-Logic bamboo flooring Water Damage – Hotel

Water Damage – Hotel

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The phone rang – it was a client who had been the first hotel to install a Strand Woven Bamboo floor in the Western Cape. They had wanted to go green as was the international trend, so had decided to take the plunge and installed an Eco-Logic Strand Woven bamboo floor in their lobby. It had been three months and they were very happy with the floor, what could this be all about?

“We have a problem”, was the opening line. “What’s wrong?”. “The floor is lifting, we need you to come round a see what’s happening”. As I jumped in my car to go have a look, my mind was racing:- “whatever could be the problem?”

Upon arrival, all my fears were confirmed, the floor was lifting a good few centimetres in the middle. Hotel clients were tripping over it, this was serious. It wasn’t long before we had the installer out to see what was causing such a big movement in the floor.

We quickly discovered the cause; the hotel was an older building that had been refurbished. Some roof leaks were not discovered and repaired during the refurb, so with the usual Cape winter rains, water had poured down the wall cavities and under the floor from both sides.

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The flooring specialist asked how long the water had been running down the walls and it was calculated to have been about three weeks. He was amazed, after installing floors for many, many years, he had never seen a floor sustain water damage for so long. He said that “had it been a laminated floor, it would have lifted within a maximum two days”.

Lifting the flooring planks - notice the huge wet area in the middle of the floor

It was decided to lift the floor planks, fix the leaks whilst drying the planks in the sun, then see what options remained.

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We left the sopping wet planks to dry in the sun.

It took five days to sort the leaks out and by that time the Strand Woven bamboo planks had dried and returned to normal. The original planks were re-installed with only 4 sqm of replacement planks being required to complete the re-installation (some planks were damaged when the floor was lifted).

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The owner was over the moon, not to mention the insurers. The installer? He has gone on to be our biggest evangelist for bamboo flooring.


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About The Oriental Bamboo Team

We only deal in Bulk Quantities of Solid Bamboo Timber Products - boards, counter tops, plywood panels and doors - nothing else.
  
Through extensive manufacturing research and experience, we specify our products at our factories to perform well in our diverse African climatic zones.
  
Being solid bamboo pioneers in Southern Africa, we have worked with users in all facets of timber application over the years.
 
We are driven to understand our customers specific requirements. As a result of these relationships with our varied clients, we have accumulated a lot of experience in using solid bamboo products wherever one would traditionally use timber.
  
This blog documents a few of our experiences and comments on various aspects of solid bamboo timber as used in various applications.
  
Oriental Bamboo is a BULK bamboo timber supplier of "specified for Southern Africa": bamboo boards, bamboo plywood panels, solid and hollow core bamboo doors, direct from our factories to the manufacturer - NO MIDDLE MEN. We supply bulk volume clients in South Africa and sub Saharan Africa.