Can You Sand And Stain Bamboo Flooring?

can you sand and stain bamboo flooring

Sanding and staining bamboo flooring is one of the most popular talks in flooring planets, right? Most people have different choices on the quality and procedures of sanding and staining Bamboo flooring. That’s where the question arises, can you sand and stain bamboo flooring?

The emergence of sanding and staining bamboo flooring is to do away with the dents and scratches. Sanding and staining bamboo floors facilitate the refinishing process and make the floor more durable than ever.

But, wondering, how to sand and stain bamboo flooring? No worries! I got your back. In this article, I will terminate all your queries while explaining the sanding process in the first phase and the staining process in the second phase separately. Here we go!

3 Steps To Sand Bamboo Flooring: The Easiest Way

Do you want to sand your bamboo flooring? The following steps will guide you throughout the sanding process. Let’s move on there without further ado!

Step 1– Prepare The Floor:

Before sanding the floor, you have to prepare your floor for sanding. Firstly, you need to remove everything from a wrap-around sofa to a step stool. 

To protect the rooms from sawdust, you can use a plastic drop cloth along with painter’s tape that covers the other rooms from the entrance.

Secondly, you can use a pry bar to remove the baseboard material that will enable you to sand the floor. 

Step 2– Sanding The Bamboo Flooring:

In this step, you can sand your floor by using a buff sander. Now you need to pull the sender to your body by applying constant gentle pressure. While sanding the floor, you have to think of bamboo’s length as well. You should continue sanding this way until a couple of floors have been completed.

If you are unable to reach any areas of the floor, you can use a palm sander with a square buff floor sander that will enable you to reach the areas. Three times sanding comes consecutively with the grit sandpaper of 100, 120, and 180. 

Step 3– Final Floor Preparations:

Finally, the floor gets a different look once the entire floor has been sanded down. Now, you need to clean the sawdust with a broom using soft bristles. You can clean up the particles with a vacuum as well

Then, you need a tack cloth to remove the dirt from the floor. As the tack cloth is made of fabric, it is pretty easy to do away with the sawdust. Most importantly, take a rug and soak it in water. Afterward, squeeze the rug well to make it damp. Lastly, you can open up the holes of the bamboo by removing the bamboo flooring. 

6 Simple Steps To Stain Bamboo Flooring: The Best Way

Wondering how to get started with the staining process? Don’t worry! These 6 easy steps will guide you throughout the staining bamboo flooring process. 

Step-1 Prepare The Room:

The very first step of the staining process is to prepare the room. And you need to follow the things below to prepare the room:

  • You need to move the things like rugs and furniture from your room to another place. 
  • To do away with the dirt and sawdust, sweep the bamboo floor.
  • By using an exhaust fan, air and dust can be emitted out from the room. 
  • Then, using plastic sheets, you need to cover air vents while closing the door. So that VOCs with air can be held in the room to prevent the air from spreading in the entire house. 

Step-2 Prepare Yourself:

If you prefer sanding yourself to professionals, you must bear the things in mind that Bamboo flooring contains the dust that causes allergies. Be ready mentally if you have an allergy to dust. Because sanding bamboo floors release VOCs and dust that can make your breathing difficult even without any prior respiratory issues. 

The following things you should abide by while sanding bamboo flooring:

  • Wear a mask to cover the face to prevent VOCs and dust so that they can’t reach your lungs. 
  • Wear a pair of hand gloves to protect your hands from the particles. 

Step-3 Sand The Floor:

Now, you are all set for the sanding process. Before sanding the bamboo floor, you have to do away with the existing or old layer so that the floor can absorb the stain. The following things you need to care about while sanding:

  • Wearing a mask you need sandpaper to put on a drum sander.  
  • Next, while sanding the floor, make sure the angle is to the bamboo grain that helps prevent splinters during the sanding process. 
  • Now you should sand the top layer only and drum sander makes this sanding process quite easy and needs no extra pressure to deal with it as well. 
  • To make sure whether you are generating the required pressure, you need to look at the sawdust. When you see white sawdust, it means the measurement is right. You need to lessen the pressure if you see the stain gets darker. 
  • Use sandpaper and floor edger for sanding your bamboo floor edges.

Step-4  Vacuum It:

After sanding the floor, you need to clean the area with VOCs and dust by vacuuming. You can do away with the dirt particles that are left in the air by vacuuming. Vacuuming also helps prevent uneven finishing on the bamboo flooring. 

Step-5 Apply The Stain:

Once you are done with vacuuming to get rid of the dirt, you are to apply the stain now. The following points will help you to apply the staining process. 

  • Two ways can be applied while staining the bamboo flooring. Using a cloth to remove the stain from the floor is one way. The second way is to use a paintbrush.
  • Apply two coats that are thin for best finishing. 
  • Each coating takes two hours to dry. Give it enough time to dry. After coating the first one, you need to apply the second one.

Step-6 Apply The Finishing Coat:

Let’s move to the coating process once staining is done. Follow the points below and apply them to finish the coating process. 

  • Like the staining process, you can apply the finishing.
  • Once the stained floor is dried, you can apply the finish that is of a thin layer. 
  • If the layer is also dried, you can apply another layer. 

Sanding And Staining Bamboo Flooring Differs On Two Criteria:

Based on cost and duration, sanding and staining bamboo flooring demonstrate the interesting facts the table below shows. 

CriteriaSandStain
CostSanding bamboo flooring cost depends on the size of the floor. You can sand your bamboo flooring in two ways, by doing it yourself or hiring a professional. Professional charges $3 a foot whereas DIY costs you around $1 to $2. Staining bamboo flooring offers you a variety of colors. When it’s about to cost, it depends on whether you do it yourself or someone does it for you. DIY costs around $1 to $2 a foot while professionals charge $3 to 5$. 
Time DurationProfessionals take one to five days to sand the floor while DIY takes around two to fifteen days but depends on the size of the room. Professionals need one day for one room and on the contrary, DIY needs around two days for one room. Staining bamboo flooring takes around two to three days but it takes around twenty-four hours to forty-eight hours to dry. So the whole process takes around 4 to 5 days.

Related Questions About Sanding And Staining Bamboo Flooring:

Can You Change The Color Of The Bamboo Flooring?

Bamboo is a natural grassy plant that can change its color like any hardwood flooring color. While staining the bamboo, it also darkens its color and can even have more color transformation in this process.

Non-carbonized bamboo flooring can also change its color due to the heat of the sun for a long time. So, bamboo flooring can change its color lighter to darker both in carbonized or non-carbonized bamboo flooring cases. 

Can You Sand And Stain Engineered Bamboo?

Engineered bamboo contains a small portion of bamboo on its top that doesn’t facilitate sanding this type of bamboo flooring but the sanding depends on the thickness of the bamboo surface and how much you can sand. In contrast, you can refinish staining engineered bamboo but staining is impossible. 

Can Bamboo Be Stained Dark?

Bamboo can be stained dark or other colors as well. Staining bamboo offers you a variety of mixed colors. With the heat treatment bamboo darkens its color to brownish or mahogany color. Amteco 300 is highly recommended to stain and seal your bamboo flooring product.  

Can You Stain Finished Bamboo?

You can easily stain bamboo that would give your flooring an attractive new look. Bamboo is a hard grassy product that you can stain your finished bamboo flooring quite easily. It can be painted as well but staining makes it more catchy. 

Is Bamboo Easy To Sand?

Like traditional hardwood floors, sanding bamboo flooring is pretty easy. Sanding bamboo is a must to do away with the scratches and dents and to refinish the bamboo flooring as well. Classic or traditional floors can be easily sanded while the strand bamboo needs extra effort. 

Final Verdict:

By now you know if you can sand and stain bamboo flooring. Sanding and staining bamboo flooring distinguish some differences in terms of cost and time that have been discussed in the table above. Would you like to know more? 

If you have any further questions, leave them in the comment box. I’ll get to it in no time.  

Jahidul Alam

Hello dear! This is Jahidul Alam. I am the admin of this Tidy Floor. I have been in the floor cleaning business for the last 20 years. My business is all about ensuring affordable flooring cleaning services for Americans.

2 thoughts on “Can You Sand And Stain Bamboo Flooring?

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