How do I install bamboo wall covering?

Bamboo Bricks are installed with industrial adhesive or hot glue.

The preferred installation of most other bamboo products on walls or ceilings calls for capturing the ends (and occasionally the middle) of the slats, poles, or reeds with molding of some kind. The molding can be bamboo half rounds. The advantage of this method is ease of removal. The following products are stiff enough to be so supported without sagging:

Good Neighbor Fence

Polished Reed

Willow fencing

Fern fencing

Individual poles or half rounds

If supported on the long edges of the 4x8 board the following can be supported with molding:

Bamboo Natural Herringbone board

Smoked Bamboo Herringbone board

Beamed ceilings with openings not greater than the width of the material are the easiest to cover by this method. If the ceiling has an area that requires butting the edges, it is necessary to add some kind of flat molding that supports both meeting pieces.

Other materials that might sag if supported only on the ends and require additional center support can be glued or stapled in one or more locations. If the ceiling takes staples well, that is preferred. Otherwise contact cement, hot glue, or industrial adhesive can be used.
Water based non-staining pastes can be used for sanguran on paper, Rangoon wall covering, Shanghai wall covering, Bangkok wall covering, and Bombay wall covering. Ask you wall paper supplier for a non-staining paste for grass papers. These papers shrink considerably on drying and the installer should allow the shrinkage to occur before trimming otherwise the wall coverings will pull away from the ceiling/wall edge.

Those products with wire lines (all the rolled fences) should be stapled on the wire only. This allows the staple to partially disappear between the slats or poles and does not damage them. For products such as:

Cabana Mats, Lampac mats, thatches: The material can be turned up to allow the staple to be installed and the leaf or other natural product allowed to return to its original location covering the staple.

The bamboo natural, natural skin, mottled, and smoked slat wall covering cannot be pasted on walls or ceilings with a water based paste. The material will swell with water and shrink after the paste dries. This will result in the material popping off the wall. You should capture this material with molding on the ends. Staples can be inserted between and in line with the slats for ceilings. Staples are normally not needed for walls since the product is stiff enough not to buckle out when the ends are captured.

For very bold ceiling or wall bamboo treatments, half round bamboo is normally installed with deck screws or dry wall screws, stick by stick. Pre-drill the bamboo and countersink. Do not over-tighten the screws as the bamboo will crack. Half rounds up to six feet can be split with a knife. For longer lengths the natural left hand twist of the bamboo grain make it necessary to make the half round cuts with a saw. The screw line can be covered with a thin slat or another half round if desired, however, a neat row of screws is not unattractive.

A recent addition to the wall covering offerings is bamboo half rounds filled with pre-injected interior foam. This allows you to install half rounds of most any size without using screws or nails. The foam can be fire retarded if required. Latex based industrial adhesive can be used to glue the half round to the wall or ceiling (a petroleum base would dissolve the foam).