The Stain Library

Material

Bamboo flooring

A hard laminated grass milled into planks, as vulnerable at the joints as any wood floor and prone to visible colour change with light.

  • SurfaceSemi porous
  • WashingSpot only
  • Colour run riskLow
  • Reviewed7 September 2026

What bamboo flooring can and cannot take

  • Heat Use with care
  • Water and soaking Use with care
  • Acids, including vinegar Use with care
  • Strong alkalis Avoid
  • Solvents Avoid
  • Chlorine bleach Avoid
  • Abrasives Avoid

Always test on a hidden area first and let it dry before you treat the visible mark.

General rules for bamboo flooring

Treat it exactly as a wood floor. The hardness of the surface does not change how the joints behave.

Damp cloth, spills up immediately, dry the floor, and no steam. Bamboo planks are laminated from strips of glued material, and water at a joint can delaminate them.

Bamboo also lightens or darkens in sunlight more noticeably than oak, so an area under a rug already differs from an exposed one, which affects how a cleaned patch looks.

Check the label

Bamboo is a grass rather than a hardwood, milled and glued into planks. Strand woven bamboo is extremely hard on the surface and no more resistant to moisture at the joints than any other wood floor, so the usual damp cloth and immediate drying rules apply unchanged.

Stains on bamboo flooring

Bamboo flooring is milled from a grass, glued into strips or strand woven under pressure.

Surface hardness is not moisture resistance

Strand woven bamboo is harder than most hardwoods, which resists denting, and does nothing at all about water in a joint.

It is a glued laminate

Strips bonded together, so prolonged moisture can separate them along a glue line. That is a delamination rather than a swelling and it looks like a split.

It moves with humidity

More than many people expect, which is why gaps open in dry winters and close again.

Colour shifts with light

Carbonised bamboo in particular lightens in sunlight, so an area that has been covered differs from one that has not, independently of any stain.

Sources

What we checked and when. Where a manufacturer instruction disagrees with anything here, follow the manufacturer.

  1. How to care for engineered wood flooring, Havwoods manufacturer

    UK wood flooring supplier guidance to use a damp cloth rather than a soaking wet mop because excess moisture causes swelling, to wipe up spills immediately to avoid water damage, that steam cleaning does more harm than good by forcing moisture into the wood, and to avoid harsh chemicals such as bleach and ammonia and vinegar based cleaners, which dull the floor.

    Checked 7 September 2026

  2. Care and maintenance guidance, Atkinson and Kirby manufacturer

    UK wood flooring maker's guidance to clean spills immediately and not leave wet items on a wood floor, to damp mop with a well wrung mop or a barely dampened microfibre cloth, that steam cleaners and steam mops are not recommended, that oil based, wax based and ammonia based cleaners can damage the floor, and that an oiled floor is maintained by reapplying maintenance oil and polishing it until the surface looks uniform.

    Checked 7 September 2026

  3. Luxury vinyl tile care guide, Tapi retailer

    UK flooring retailer guidance to avoid steam cleaners and overly wet mops on smooth flooring because steam forces moisture into the joints and lower layers and causes warping, to avoid cleaners containing harsh chemicals, ammonia or wax and abrasive materials because they permanently damage the surface, to spot test any new cleaner, and that the wear layer on LVT cannot be refinished the way engineered wood can.

    Checked 7 September 2026