Cali Bamboo

I purchased 5,830 SF of a java distressed strand bamboo from this company in 2010. I spent over $ 20,000 on the product and then another 20 plus in installation. It was supposed to be a stable bamboo with little to no shrinkage and expansion. Let me tell you this is NOT true. Within 3 months of install we saw major gaps in the floor boards… it was winter time and thus heat was on. My installer told me, the bamboo is acting like solid wood and shrinking with heat. He predicted it would expand and possibly pop during the summer… which it. The clanking noise never goes away despite thick underlayment. It also scratches easily and chips on the edges of expansion/​contraction joints. The edges causes splinters on bare feet! It is so embarrassing for me to have my friends and family see this floor every time they come to my home. I tried contacting the company within a few months of install and not one email was answered. I left messages as well. After many years I write this review because even today the floors get worse everyday. Having spent over 40K on floors only to be told by multiple contractors that it is best to start with a fresh product is very disheartening. This company did not support their product. Not once was a compensation of any kind offered. Not once did anyone replace the product. Not once did they have anyone come from the company to check out our problems. I would not recommend this company. They do not stick by their promise. I now wonder if the product is even made with safe material to be around children and how sustainable is it.

Don’t do it! Order somewhere else. Just trust me. We spent a lot of money on these floors and will end up ripping them out.
We outfitted our entire house with Cali Bamboo. We are NOT happy. We followed installation instructions perfectly. Many of the boards have huge shrinkage while others did not. So in some places there are ¼ inch to 3/​16″ gaps right in central locations. It’s aweful! What the heck am I supposed to do now!!!
it’s hard and seems to handle most wear well but scratches easily sometimes. Even the vacuum can scratch it. I can live with it, they look nice when totally flawless and not looking at a massive shrinkage gap, and when perfectlyclean but otherwise they show dirt like crazy.
Honestly we’d be happy it they didn’t shrink so obviously in several places.
Don’t risk buying this product! We followed every direction perfectly and they will cost us three times more when we sell our house. They’ll need to be replaced. Argh!

Contacted Cali Bamboo for flooring. They generously sent samples for free. They are pretty awsome looking and felling floors in comparision to the big box stores and Lumber Liquidators. I thought it was strange they have NO pricing on the website. Okay no biggie it is wood prices change like gasoline. Samples arrived, with NO price list HUH!!! Called the rep. Of the FIVE samples we were sent we liked 3. I asked the Agent the price TWICE to make sure I got it right. I wrote the price on the sample for my wife to see and so I would know the cost.
Two weeks latter the agent says the price is $ 1.00 more per square foot!!! Might not seem like a lot but it is POOR business. Especially as I purposely asked the price twice to make sure I got it right.
Floors seem pretty good, NO PRICE LIST smells like they are sales people making commission. They want a pay day and will take you for every penny they can squeeze from you BE CAUTIOUS.

I am installing black bamboo rolled fencing for privacy in my new outdoor massage space /​hot tub area — covering over a 5 ½ foot concrete block wall — wall and house were built in 1958. Corbin, my sales rep has been fantastically helpful in both information on how the install should go, as well as holding my hand with what to order, and helping me with dividing the purchase onto 2 different forms of payment. He has been very professional, in close communication with me via phone and email, and has been extremely patient and personable. Very grateful and I cannot wait to get the project complete. Will post photos.

Around January of this year my father and I installed antique java fossilized (7 003 001 000) in the second floor of a clients home. They liked the wood so much they asked us to do the first floor also. The wood we ordered at lowes base on the SAMPLE was dark. So we did another order at the SAME lowes using the SAME sample based on the first order. You would think you would get the same product right? I opened all the boxes and all the wood were lighter from the first order we did. I sent over pictures and compared the new wood with the store sample and with the already installed wood. I even compared the cut outs so the middle of the wood can be compared. The wood are different colors.
The response I got from the agent at cali bamboo was that it’s not their fault that’s the nature of the wood. Since it’s a different order the wood will vary in color. I’ve installed a lot of hardwood and I’ve worked with bamboo before and I know that the marbling and the grains can be different but how can ALL the wood be different in color.
TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT. THE WOOD WE RECEIVED WAS NOT THE SAME AS THE SAMPLE. The difference colors were to obvious for the client to accept.
So it is your fault as a vendor to put dark samples in stores and deliverer light products.
The agent said ok we’ll take care of it. We will deliver the wood for free. Well the wood was delivered for free in the first place. And lowes can put a direct delivery note for you guys as well.
I spent money on having people unload and install the wood (although it wasn’t installed I still have to pay the workers for the days they came in)
Neither Cali bamboo or Lowes is accepting responsibility for this. As a small contractor we rely on these stores to give our customers options. But when these mishaps happen its the contractors that have to pay. (I asked for a discount with cali bamboo they said they can’t. I asked lowes to pick up the product from site they said the cant that will cost lowes money)
What’s ironic is I find out the company is less than 10 mins from where I live in San Diego. I just moved back to San Diego and here I am having to fly back to the east coast to help install this wood because my father slipped on some ice and hurt himself. The time I should have spent installing the wood I spent talking and emailing with cali bamboo and lowes.
Spent so much TIME and money just for an agent to tell me that what they can do for us is replace the wood with a darker one and offer free shipping (well when I gave the store more than $ 3k that’s what I expected in the first place). Maybe the «sorry «ill get in response to this Unilocal will make me feel better? As I write this review this issue is still not settled. I tried calling and leaving emails yesterday but I was not lucky to get a hold of the agent. no sense of urgency
product looks good but God forbid they send you wood that does not match the sample because it will be YOUR fault. not lowes and not cali bamboo.
Update: The agent im communicating with said «The color is not out of our color range «well they need to have a disclaimer on the sample. «the color of the wood you choose my be the same But it could be darker or it could be lighter. But its in our color range if you dont get the color you like»
Will not recommend this company. Hard wood roulette.

We LOVE the way the floors look, but we’ve only had them installed just a few months ago, and we’re having major shrinking problems. Lowe’s has been very helpful in trying to come up with a solution via the mfg., but the 3 options we were given today make no sense to me at all. I thought someone would come out to at least take a look at what’s happened. We just gutted this home that we bought in June, so everything it ALL totally new, so it’s embarrassing and very frustrating for people to see these floors, and the aggravation of the expense for these floors. Very frustrating!

I love their cork plank flooring. It is a high quality product. Everyone that has seen it installed is amazed at the beauty of it. Looks great in contemporary and midcentury modern interiors. I’m a big fan of the colors Twilight and Dusk.

We just had the Calibamboo fossilized Java stranded bamboo flooring installed on New Years Eve by Lowes in our master and upstairs hallway to replace the former carpet. We decided to go with the stranded bamboo from Calibamboo based on some research and reviews. Flooring looks great and Lowes installers were professional and knew what they were doing. Floor was delivered about 2 weeks before install and we stored in master bedroom to acclimate to area where it will be installed. Humidity in our area of Vancouver WA area has been around 50% as well. Underlayment barrier as recommended by manufacture and to meet Lowes install for product warranty was also used. Only concern I have at moment is there is some crackling when walking on floor as this is a floating floor install so we will give it some time to see as it’s only been a day and being in winter with central heat having to run more often could be part of it. Looks great though. I’ll update review rating later as we have more time to evaluate flooring.
Update. After having floor for a full week, we are enjoying it more and seems to be a good product and choice for us. Increased rating to a 4.

Awesome, but with some challenges:
Here are the details: — The wood is EXTREMELY hard. To the point where pneumatic hammers wouldn’t always fire the cleat nail all the way in, necessitating a manual cleat nail driver; — Watch out for splinters.
Because the wood is so hard, it has the tendency to create some splinters during installation. Be careful as these can be evil. — I’ve chipped some of the flooring by dropping something hard and metal. It is however, impervious to the nails of a 95 lb German shepherd. — I recommend getting the distressed, hand scraped style.
Even if the wood gets chipped, it isn’t noticed, especially if you touch up the chip. It is well worth the installation challenges and the minor wear issues. FYI, I installed about 1000 SF of the antique, hand-​scraped, java fossilized flooring.

I strongly encourage you to stay away. We followed their installation guidelines to a «T». There’s something wrong with this product; I think it has to do with the chemistry of the resin or perhaps a hydroscopic nature of the bamboo.
We left ¾″ expansion gap around the entire perimeter of the flooring, which equate to 1−½″ total, well above Cali’s requirements at 5/​8″
Seven months after installation the floor grew. After swallowing all of the expansion spacing, it began to warp and buckle. It took seven months to happen. That tells me that it continuously absorbed moisture from the environment, which in Southern California is very minimum.
Cali Bamboo refused to acknowledge or address the problem. In hindsight, I ‘ve learned of many many problems with this product. Half appear to be with shrinkage issues, and the other half concern problems like ours — warping and buckling.
Cali needs to research and address these issues. I understand the company is now up for sales as legal problems are mounting.

I’ve had ~1000 square feet of Cali Bamboo Antique Java Fossilized installed in my house for about a year.
Pro’s: looks great and had no problems with the install (done my my local contractor)
Con’s:
1.Will scratch extremely easily!!! Really this flooring will scratch if you even look at it wrong!
2. expensive: about twice the cost of some other laminates
Conclusion: if I could do it again I would not buy cali bamboo. If you have a house with high traffic, kids, animals, chairs, couches, or basically anything that touches the floor it will scratch the F*** out of it.

While I had an excellent experience purchasing the product, and actually really like the look and feel of the product itself, we are having significant gapping issues with our T&G floor over 9 months after installation. We left the flooring in our home for 1 month prior to installation and have paid over $ 1000 to fix the gaps so far. More and more are popping up every week. They are all over and its the first thing people comment on when they enter our home. I understand wood flooring «moves» and changes with seasonality/​humidity, but new gaps forming each month that are over ¹⁄₈ an inch wide is unacceptable.
Customer service is very responsive, however does not help solve my issues. They only recommended that we have a NWFA inspector come to see if it is a product or installation issue. However, the only NWFA inspector in our area informed me that they do not do these types of inspections! So we are stuck. This is the headache of our whole remodel. Our house is finally DONE and we are dealing with more and more gaps as time goes on. Do NOT buy T&G product — the expansion/​shrinkage capability is WAY too much.

My experience with Cali Bamboo was a five star experience for sure. I tried a few other warehouses at first, but the sales people were not excited about bamboo products so I kept searching. Then I found Cali Bamboo online and completed a brief form for someone to call me back. I figured some high pressured jerk would call, but when the phone rang I was pleasantly surprised that there was zero pressure, other than my own pressure to make a choice. My sales rep sent me samples on three separate occasions and didn’t once doubt that I would end up making the perfect choice. I finally made my decision to order distressed mocha, and what a fabulous decision it turned out to be. Love the patterns in every step I take across my new floors.
If you are wondering just how strong this bamboo flooring is, I will tell you that we had a party here last week. Friends in the thin high heals were dancing salsa and not one mark was left. I will say that I forgot to put felt on one couch and when I pulled the couch across the floor to sweep, I did cause a white scratch, but followed the care instructions and was able to remove the scratch. Very happy about that.
When people come over to visit, I get compliments on the beauty of the floors. They have created the wow factor that I was dreaming of.
Seven months with my new floors and I am so happy. I will order from Cali Bamboo for all future hard wood floor needs.

Service was great. Jon answered all my questions, which were a lot. A+ there.
We got the Java Fossilized T&G. The planks are solid and don’t reek of any chemicals. The color is fantastic, rich, and variable but not too variable.
We’ve had the floors for 6 months now, and they look great. Here are my only complaints.
1. Our installer said the tongue was too narrow to nail, so we had to shell out a few hundred bucks more for glue. I have no idea if other installers would have nailed it, or if the wide planks would have made it easier. This is just my one experience.
2. Cali Bamboo touts that they have the hardest floors. While I still believe that, I didn’t know how easy it would be to still scratch the floors. I imagine we we are harder on floors than average, but we’ve been a little surprised. May be our fault for not being careful enough.
Overall I pretty happy with it.

Excellent Decking and Good Cork Flooring
I installed Slate BamDeck 3G Wide Composite Decking at a clients home and they love it. It was easy to cut, drill etc. Installation went very smoothly. It has been in for a year and it is weathering very well.
The Ridgeline Greenclaimed Tile Cork Flooring ClickLock wasn’t quite as easy to install as the decking. I had to glue it down in places, but honestly I think that it was a super tough install due to having a drywall reveal instead of a base-​board.
The cork seems durable and it hides nicks and scratches really well.

I first noticed the Cali bamboo samples at Lowes and I fell in love with the grey flooring. After checking out their website I got about 3 other samples to choose from but I still liked my first choice, the vintage moonlight! I wanted quality, Eco friendly floors that were grey and that flooring fit my needs after checking out many other flooring stores.
I spoke with with Josh over the phone many times and he was able to answer all my questions about the floors and trims and gave me a quotes right away. He was so courteous and I could tell he really believes that Cali bamboo products are the best. I live San Francisco and I received my order within one quick week! We followed the simple directions online and were able to install the beautiful flooring right after acclimating.
I love my new floors so much! It’s a smooth, matte color and feels great underfoot. I ordered cork underlayment from Home Depot and I think it works really well with sound, feel and temp (floors are never too cold). My daughter has been dragging chairs, boxes and all sorts of tools over the floors and I have yet to see any type of scratching. Thanks Cali Bamboo for your top notch service and product! I get compliments every time someone steps into the house!

As a professional craftsman and an architectural design college student, I am always searching for great materials to work with during my projects. One project of which I sought out a sustainable and beautiful material to work with, which of course brought me to Cali Bamboo from friends recommendations.
I can honestly say the plywood more than met my needs for the bar project. The bamboo provides an excellent hard material and finishes off very nice. I must say it is not the easiest material to work with but with patience and proper tools it is worth the while.
I used the cali bamboo ply scraps to try to do some cnc and laser work. The bamboo with the laser works excellent at ¼ inch but is difficult with anything thicker after because of the density and adhesives used to produce it. The cnc took many tests to fine tune the cutting paths I wanted to create. I dont think it is very good for 3 dimensional work due to the nature of the ply, but does cut quite nicely with proper bits and setting for 2 dimensional designs.
I do also want to mention that using Titebond III for the bar project proved that the wood grain holds extremely well and is incredibly strong. I would recommend using biscuit joints and a premium glue for furniture and show of the edge grain of the bamboo. It is beautiful and everyone loves and compliments my work with it.
Not only is it a very nice material it is also sustainable which is fantastic. However, it does come with a price tag and is substantially more expensive than your standard plywood but also closely comparable with other hardwood sheets. They deliver very quickly and have great customer service. I will continue to use Cali Bamboo for all my bamboo needs.

From the flooring to the bamboo fence screens, personally, I love all of the products that I’ve used from these guys. I’ve read some of the bad reviews here and must say, make sure that you hire someone who knows how to install the flooring. The truth is, that If you follow the instructions correctly, you will have an amazing finished product. If your contractor doesn’t do his or her homework on the flooring installation procedures then and only then would you be in trouble. As a licensed contractor and someone who has personally installed these, I know this to be true. Bottom line, Get a PRO to do it right :)
Cheers!
Jake

First a bit of background information. My partner and I opened a 3000 sq ft Yoga Center in Jersey City and of course the floor is one of the most important parts of the studio. We did our research but neglected to read any of the reviews here and now regret it. We purchased over 3000 sq ft of wide plank bamboo and followed the installation instructions carefully regarding the amount of time that the product needed to be adapted to the environment. We opened the boxes, stacked the flooring and left it there over 4 weeks while the contractor was working on other areas.
15 months later and much stress and botched repairs we have a floor that has shrunk not just a little but inches and we are going to have to pull up the entire floor and put it down again. When we reached out to customer service they told us to contact a certified wood floor inspector and pay over $ 600 to have an inspection done. We contacted the inspector who told us not to waste our money because there was virtually no chance that any company was going to cave in to a claim of shrinkage. He also told us the dirty secret of strand bamboo is that all of it shrinks in the first year and is made pretty much by the same manufacturers who although they are Kiln drying the bamboo do not have it dried long enough to get the moisture out of it due to the pace of which this stuff is produced.
We now know that the only way to have avoided this would be to have installed engineered flooring that would not have shrunk. Do not use this in large spaces and do not leave any room for expansion or you will regret it.

Ultimately I chose Cali Bamboo for my master bedroom, entry, and dining room area because I LOVED their product and was impressed by the unique look, how «green» the material is, and the supreme hardness of the product compared to wood. In that regard, Cali Bamboo absolutely delivered.
My order worked out to about $ 5.50 a square foot before tax & shipping, which I feel is reasonable for a product of this quality. The «Vintage Moonlight» floors that I bought were totally unlike any bamboo product I’d ever seen. I was in love instantly.
After making an online inquiry, Cali Bamboo’s salesperson Elizabeth gave me a call. She was great. She was super helpful and diligent about following up. And she mailed me some free flooring samples.
BUT…
At least one star off for the shipping. Granted, the shipper is a third-​party freight company hired by Cali Bamboo, but CB is still accountable for them. The freight company quoted me a five-​hour delivery window. Really? Cable companies offer four-​hour windows, and they can’t even do better than that? Not acceptable. Also, $ 155 on shipping for 560 square feet of flooring isn’t bad, but it was only «curbside» and the delivery men won’t even bring it into the driveway? Kind of tacky.
And a second star off for a really crummy return policy. It’s common to budget an extra 10% for materials for overages and mistakes, and the sales rep made darn sure of it as well. In the end, I had over two extra boxes of material. At first I thought — Great! I can return two boxes and get $ 260 bucks back. But no, Cali Bamboo won’t allow a return unless I have at least five boxes to return. My boxes were unopened and undamaged, and the attempted return was made within 30 days. So now I have two boxes taking up space and $ 260 less in my pocket. BOOO.
I would have loved to buy some of their matching accessories (like T-​moldings and stair nosings) to finish off my project, but the pricing was just outrageous. $ 58.49+tax and shipping for a three-​foot piece of stair nosing? Come on! My flooring contractor developed a much more workable solution instead for a lot less.
Overall, the product is outstanding, but they need to make a few customer-​friendly policy tweaks before I’d enthusiastically recommend them.