I’m about to move into the next stage of remodeling my own house and have a few questions.
Has anyone put down a Bamboo floor? How does it hold up?
I’m undecided. Three kids and a big dog can eb hall on hardwoods but I’ve been told that the prefinished bamboo’s are as hard as a rock.
Also, my house was built in the early 80’s. At that time is was popular around here to put down a very dense particle board for underlayment.
When I pulled up my kitchen floor I replaced with basically the same thing from Lowes because there was a little water damage under the dishwasher. It was torture since it was glued down and I could pull up sheets and leave huge strips of glued down particle board that I ended up cutting free with a Sawzall.
The rest of the floor is in good shape and I can make sure it’s screwed down tight once the carpet is gone.
Anyone have experience nailing a floor down to this kind of subfloor? Does it hold?
Replies
Bamboo is not hard as a rock. A rolling refrigerator can mar the floor.
I wouldn't try to nail down any wood floor with particle board as an underlay.
A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
What Cal said and also talk with CloudHidden, he did the whole place in boo wood, I mean he did a great job on concrete.
PB substrate? NOPE.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
There is no cure for stupid. R. White.
The dog will hate the bamboo - too slick
My flooring supplier recently handed me a listing of "solid wood flooring hardness specifications."
It's a pretty simple chart with "pounds per square inch" values (I have no idea how the values were developed....ball penetration test or what) but there is a numerical comparison between species that, when I get some time, I'd like to explore further.
According to the chart, with 12 species listed, bamboo (1320 psi) rates just below Red Oak (1388 psi). White Oak is listed at 1463 psi, Maple at 1450 psi, Domestic Cherry at 1040 psi and Doug Fir at 660 psi. I've layed numerous floor species over the years and my sense is that the comparative order of hardness ranking of this chart is probably not too far off the mark.
Also bear in mind that any solid wood floor can get scratches and mars in the finish and even into the wood.
I've layed quite a bit of prefinished nail-down bamboo, and IMO, the "Vertical grain" option seems a little harder.
In addition, a bamboo floor can be sanded and refinished if and when desired and the vertical array in each 5/8" plank is full thickness (#### opposed to the 'stacked strip' components of a horizontal grain plank) and would offer a greater lifespan of refinishes.
It has been mentioned on this forum about more recent bamboo flooring being a little softer due to the harvest of younger bamboo stems for flooring manufacture. I have not had that problem, but I certainly don't doubt it.
I haven't installed my bamboo yet--I have about 1200 sf of it stacked and waiting. What I found:
Not all bamboo flooring are created equal. Cheap stuff (e.g. Lumber Liquidator's) should be avoided at all cost. You can find countless people who've complained about the cheap LL bamboo easily denting and scratching. Just Google 'em. When you go cheap bamboo, caveat emptor.
I found only one company that I'd buy vertical or horizontal bamboo from--Teragren (http://www.teragren.com/default.asp). It is a US company that actually manufactures its products in China. They do their own quality control, and will provide all the specs on their formaldehyde emissions and physical testing. But you will pay a premium. Yanchi is another decent mfg.
After finding this and the cost of Teragren's products, I decided on prefinished strand woven bamboo--much harder than the regular bamboo. It mills and sands like solid wood. Compared to the other hardwoods in my shop (white oak, hard maple, sapele), it was much harder to dent. Compares to ebony or cocobolo. Did my due diligence to make sure I wouldn't regret putting it down. It was cheaper, but not much.
Bottom line, the Chinese is shipping a lot of bamboo flooring, a lot of it from green and immature (read "soft") bamboo. Stick with trusted mfgs or importers. Get samples before taking the plunge. If you dog and kids can damage *quality* bamboo, other hardwoods will share the same fate.