Can anyone comment on a prefered method of installing 5/8″ vertical carbonized bamboo on 16″ floor trusses @ 24″o.c. with 3/4″ subfloor?
Glue down or float?
I have not spec’ed Bamboo before and just wondered if it had anything to watch out for. I don’t have a brand yet as there seems to be many to choose from.
Thanks in advance.
Replies
Why not nail?
I nailed my bamboo with my 18 gauge finish nailer with no ill effects
Have never intsalled the stuff, but I talked with a rep at a show recently. They are called Bamboo Advantage. http://www.bambooadvantage.com. 617-670-1288 They seem to know there stuff and claim to be the oldest importer of bamboo flooring They are ISO certified, have a lifetime warranty against delam, three finishes, six colours, and custom staining available. They only use a species called chinese mao which grows something like 80' in 2 yrs! They said the stuff is also availabe in wide boards for counter top and furniture construction.
We put these in a remodel last year, very good product.
Nailed it down.
http://www.teragren.com/teragren.asp The bamboo flooring is called TimberGrass.
Doug
I have samples of bamboo from maybe 14 or 15 different manufacturers. I've seen several different manufacturer's products put down, seen how well they're manufactured, etc, etc.
My favorite, and the only one I put down now, is TimberGrass, now known as Terragren. I order straight from the company and have them ship either out of CVG or SEA.
Glue it, float it, nail it, staple it. In your case, I'd staple it.
I prefer the 6' long planks, they go down fast and easy.
The vertical grain gives a very nice, almost contemporary look. Realize that the carbonized product is not quite a tough as the non-cabonized.
Not too many tricks in the installation, but if using a pneumatic fastner, run a few into a scrap piece of flooring set over 3/4" cdx. It'll help you get the compressor set to the right pressure. Bamboo can be brittle, so you want to minimize misfires and half-sunk fasteners. whe face nailing, pre-drill so you don't split the plank.
Two votes for Terragren... Sounds good. I'll direct my client to their website for a look.
Funny, I thought Carbonized was harder than non..
Thanks for the replies, just what I needed!
I peeked on their site to see what they say about hardness:
Grain/Color
Hardness (lbs.)
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Flat Grain Natural
2156
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Vertical Grain Natural
1846
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Flat Grain Caramelized
1926
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Vertical Grain Caramelized
1417
Interesting, to a certain extent, how much the heating process drops the hardness of the flat grain vs the hardness of the vertical grain. Either way, it's still pretty hard.
TimberGrass' 3-5/8ths wide strip floooring it top-notch in quality. I will note, however, that I'm not terribly familiar with the ply construction of the 6" wide planks. Those came about after the metamophisis that turned TimberGrass into Terragren. If the ply construction is similar, I'd be willing to try it. If the ply structure has a softwood or other wood inner and/or bottom ply, get a sample and see how well it lays flat during different temp/humidity conditions. Also see how well the tongues/grooves mate duriing thise varying conditions.
Used an 18 gauge finish nailer - worked out great. I'd prefer to work with bamboo over any other pre-fin out there. Have fun!
Dancing & Stossel...did you guys really use 18 ga brad nailers? Seems a bit light. Sure it wasn't 16 ga?
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
18 guage for sure with 1 1/2" stainless nails through the tongue at an angle. Job is about four years old and still great.
Edited 7/4/2004 1:56 pm ET by Dancing Demon