Kaguya Bamboo Subway Tile 2x4 inch

Live Close to Nature!

For those who love the rich look of wood together with the modern and contemporary feel of Bamboo and all with a bit of Asian influence thrown in for good measure, then our Bamboo Subway tiles are just for you. We know that many of our customers have struggled when deciding what to choose for the walls when installing hardwood or bamboo floors in your home? Well now look no further. Our beautiful Bamboo Subway tiles are a perfect wall tile compliment to any bamboo or hardwood flooring, they are available in a 2” x 4” size and they are made from 100% real Bamboo.

Kaguya Bamboo subway tiles are the perfect tile selection for residential or commercial interior wall tile projects that are not subject to repeated exposure to moisture. Areas such as kitchen backsplashes, bathroom vanity backsplashes, powder room walls, or an accent wall anywhere in the home are ideal choices. For our trades and commercial customers, our Bamboo subway tiles are an excellent choice for restaurants and hospitality projects as well as retail locations and office lobby and office foyer accent walls. Our trades and commercial customers should note that our Bamboo tiles can contribute to LEED MR Credit 6 for Rapidly Renewable Materials.

For a little background about Bamboo: Bamboo is actually considered a grass while growing and not a wood plant. When Bamboo reaches maturity at 5.5 to 6 years we harvest the Bamboo raw material and make our Bamboo tiles from the best Bamboo to come from each new harvest. We believe in our Bamboo products as a truly green product because they are sustainably harvested and as such, Bamboo is considered a rapidly renewable resource by the U.S. Green Building Council under the LEED building certification program. In addition, the benefits of using Bamboo in the home we believe are numerous including:

• Bamboo can contribute to better indoor air quality because bamboo plants absorb five times the amount of carbon dioxide and they produce up to 35% more oxygen than hardwood trees
• Bamboo plants are naturally anti-bacterial with excellent mildew resistance
• Bamboo is one of the strongest building materials in the world with a tensile strength comparable to steel

While some of these qualities may be lost in the manufacturing process, we do believe the inherent qualities of the Bamboo plant, albeit to a lesser degree, also remain in the finished product.

Our Bamboo subway tiles are always in stock and ready for immediate shipment to your door.

For installation and care of this product, click on the installation specs tab above for  detailed instructions on how to install our Bamboo subway tile in your home or commercial location.

Also Available: KAGUYA BAMBOO MOSAIC TILE WATERFALL DESIGN

Kaguya Bamboo 2x4 Inch and Waterfall Tiles Installation Instructions

Our Bamboo 2x4 Inch Subway and Bamboo Mosaic Waterfall tiles are shipped as mesh-mounted sheets of tile. The instructions that follow contain tips on installing our Bamboo tiles for both residential and commercial installations.

Before any bamboo tile installation can take place you will want to allow the tiles to acclimate to the installation location for 4 – 5 days before installation can take place. Once this time has passed the bamboo tile installation can commence.

The first item of consideration to monitor when choosing our Bamboo tiles is to make sure that they will be installed on a solid substrate such as concrete or a backerboard such as HardiBacker or Wonderboard to name just a couple of backerboard choices.

Next, we strongly recommend that a waterproofing and anti-fracture membrane be used to prep any surface. There are several suitable products on the market including those from Schluter Systems, Noble products, or RedGard by Custom Building products which can be purchased at any Home Depot store in the USA.

To actually install the product can be accomplished in several different ways depending on how involved you want to get and the level of difficulty you want to take on. All in all it is rather easy and we will detail three different methods and materials each of which is fine for installing our Bamboo tiles.

Easy installation with readily available materials
Our Bamboo 2 x 4 and Bamboo mosaic waterfall tiles can be installed using Liquid Nails construction adhesive for Wood. Liquid Nails for Wood is easy to find at any big box retailer or local hardware store and most homeowners and Do-it-Yourselfers are comfortable with using this product.

Simply apply Liquid Nails to the rear of each mesh mounted sheet and make sure that you have sufficient coverage on all areas of the sheet, especially the ends and corners of each sheet. Be certain not to use too much adhesive on each sheet in order to prevent the adhesive from coming up through the grout joints and on to the top of the tiles. If this happens and before the Liquid Nails cures and dries, simply take a Q-Tip applicator or a thin straw and use this to go in to the affected grout joints and gently remove any excess adhesive.

For grouting, standard grouts are NOT recommended because they are water-based and our bamboo tiles should not be grouted with any water based grout product. Because of this, we recommend either a urethane based grout product or epoxy grout.

For ease of use and the fact that the urethane material comes as pre-mixed material, we recommend Bostik Tru-Color Urethane based grouts which are available from several online vendors or your local Bostik dealer, or Star Quartz QuartzLock Urethane Grout (www.StarQuartz.com) which is available from selected materials dealers in many US cities. Check out the Star Quartz website for a dealer near you.

These urethane based grouts are simple to use, we found they dry quite evenly, and clean up seemed to be easier than with normal water based grouts. Follow the manufacturer directions when using. When wiping off excess grout be sure to wring your tile sponge very well so the sponge is only moist and not wet. When excess grout has been removed, dry bamboo immediately with a clean dry cloth to complete the process. Remove all grout haze before grout dries.

Installation with Urethane Adhesive and Urethane Grout
If Liquid Nails Wood construction adhesive is not in your comfort zone then one can also use Bostik’s Best Wood Flooring Urethane adhesive as the adhesive to install your bamboo tiles. The nice thing about this material is that it is pre-mixed and simply trowels on to the substrate. The only difficulty we found is you do not want to accidentally get any on the surface area of the tiles because it is difficult to wipe away and it can harm the finish in some cases on the bamboo tiles. So, extra care must be taken if you choose to use this product. Follow manufacturer recommendations for installation, and note that we found that the bamboo tiles only need a thin coverage layer of this material to provide full adhesion.

When a urethane adhesive is chosen for installation, we would also recommend one of the Urethane based grouts noted above.

Professional installation using Epoxy Thinset and Epoxy Grout
We have recommended Epoxy materials for many years for products with special requirements or unique installation situations. In the case of our bamboo tiles we recommend Epoxy because this material is not mixed with water during the installation process. We can recommend Laticrete Epoxy installation products (www.Laticrete.com) which are readily available throughout most of the US.

Epoxy can be a little bit more difficult to use for the inexperienced but if you can overcome the learning curve then it provides a solid bond, the grout is strong and durable, and it is quite easy to clean. Follow all manufacturer recommendations and instructions when using Epoxy materials.

Cutting the Bamboo tiles Simply use a fine tooth blade made for cutting wood when making cuts to the Bamboo tiles. Seal the cut Bamboo edge with Minwax Polyurethane clear satin (non-glossy) sealer.