WoodengineeredEngineered

Bamboo

A grass rather than a timber, laminated into boards from strips or strands. Grows to harvest in a few years and gives a hard, stable surface for flooring and worktops.

Stock forms — Board section and side elevation, end grain showingannual ringsend graintwLside elevation
Bamboo — stock formsSymbols only — no stock sizes are published

Properties

Family
Wood
Category
engineered
Density
0.7 g/cm³ · 700 kg/m³

Densityhow bamboo compares

Density of Bamboo — 0.7 g/cm³Bamboo0.70Water1.00Aluminium2.700369g/cm³
0.7 g/cm³ — 700 kg/m³Water 1.00 · Aluminium 2.70

Applicationswhere bamboo is normally specified

FlooringWorktopsFurnitureCutting boards

Practical notes

  • Density depends on whether the board is strip or strand laminated
  • Technically a grass — it is grouped here as an engineered wood product
  • Harder than most hardwoods in the strand-laminated form

Lumber sizeswhat bamboo weighs in each nominal size

Lumber size database

Dressed sizes are the same for every species — a 2x4 is 1-1/2 x 3-1/2 in in oak as much as in spruce. What changes is the weight, and that is derived here from bamboo's density of 0.7 g/cm³.

Tools used on itmatched on the wood family, not on this page

All tools

Which tools work a material is a property of the family (Wood), not of the individual species — so this list is the same on every wood page, and changes when the tool data changes rather than when this paragraph does.

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