Bamboo floors, what goes under em’?
TheCaptain
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
I am a carpenter in NorCal and just finished a job where the flooring fellahs were laying bamboo t&g with 15 lb paper underneath. Being a common nailbender with two bad elbows and gimp knees, I hate to admit I know almost nothing about installing wood (grass) flooring. I searched the archives and couldn’t find out if I can gain some R value out of putting some other product under the bamboo. Foam, heavier paper, a combonation? The job I just finished saw the flooring layed on the 2nd story, my humble shack is a 1 story wretched ranch home. Where is Mongo when one needs him?
Replies
I use a product I mentioned in another recent post we refer to locally as "tri-ply."
It's a vapor barrier consisting of an asphalt layer sandwiched between layers of craft paper. It's thinner than a true felt, but I've never had any problems with it....
You can do anything with bamboo that you can do with t&g wood. I've seen underlayment with R of .5 that would work. In this context, there's nothing unique about the bamboo.
"Bamboo floors, what goes under em"?
Weapons caches
Grub
Tons of rice
Momason
Bamboo flooring can also be floated (http://www.timbergrass.com/tghtml/install/floating.html). Our flooring guys don't float the PF bamboo that we are using.
darcey
How much R-value do you want? How much floor thickness can you add?
You can use Homasote under TimberGrass. Half-inch Homasote has an R-value of 1.2 (could be off on that a bit). Side benefit...it has sound insulating qualities as well.
TimberGrass has 6' long strips, they go down quick and easy. Nicely milled for a good T&G fit, and a very nice aluminum oxide finish. The longer strips also minimize waste.
I am looking to add R-Value as a secondary consideration in the install. I can add up to about a half inch of floor thickness without throwing off the rest of the house, so i'll look into the product you mentioned. Because it is my house I can take the luxury of time to research and decide. Except I have 1,300 sqft of flooring acclimating, and a wife who has been living on subfloor for 6 months, oy vey!
whatever happened to "Big Bambu' " ?