I am an 8- year- vet solo- home remodeller who went on temporary hiatus from my ‘earning jobs’ to tackle an ever- expanding home renovation for the wife and myself. We are finally at the flooring stage and are considering solid pre- finished bamboo that measures 9/16″ thick put down on our 3/4″ advantek subfloor. Crawlspace construction. Old subfloor was removed and replaced. Bamboo has an awesome look and is very hard in comparison to many other woods. It has a factory- applied aluminum oxide finish. It’s t & g all 4 sides.
The manufacturer’s installation instructions are a confounding mix of ‘CYA’ cover your assets / ‘you’ll never prove it was our fault’, and broken english/ typo- filled ‘pretty much put the floorink into just like other factory- finished hardpoop floors.’
Questions:
1. Is a 1/2″ crown 2″ long stapler really good enough holding power as the manufacturer claims? Or do I dare shoot a mack- daddy flooring nail thru that 9/16″ stuff?
2. What sort of ‘real world’ durability can I expect? 25 years, as they claim? Yeah rite! And how the heck do you repair a pre- finished floor?
Replies
If they say to use staples, use staples. Holding power is fine. They have glue on them usually. The factory finish is usually pretty durable. Repairs are iffy. Factory finish is catalyzed. You can sand and refinish the whole thing. Spot repairs may or may not be invisible. Depends on materials and skill. You probably can't buy the same finish they used. It will last 25 years if you don't walk on it. 25 minutes if you have dogs. Somewhere in between is normal. That's the real world.
Bamboo is nice, the product we used had a finish that is minutely pebbled (?).......spattered. The finish is not like glass. The random colors (sort out the cartons) need to be mixed b/4 you start to lay it. Staple down is a good method. Tone down the pressure till you get the right penetration, seems it was in the 80# range. As usual, hold the last staple short of the end of the board a few inches. Bamboo is not "that" hard. Refrig wheels will crush it a bit.Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Calvin,
Bamboo's hardness depends upon the species used, just like wood's hardness depends upon the species used. Moso bamboo, commonly used in flooring, is pretty hard, around the same as (slightly higher) oak. Maple is harder than Moso. Other bamboos are even harder, and many are softer. I think, just as with hardwood, the supplier makes a big difference in finish, color and overall quality. I probably wouldn't run a fridge over any wood floor without some protection to spread the weight out.
Just a homeowner, but I did a lot of research before putting a bamboo floor in my daughter's room. We've been really happy with our choice so far. And for the original poster - we stapled and it seems fine. We also chose the 9/16" prefinished, since we didn't want to introduce a lot of sanding dust into the environment. I'm a little more insecure about sanding bamboo since there is a lot of glue used to create it. We'll see in 10 (20, 50?) years whether that we made the right decisions.
I've heard both that bamboo flooring is a laminate with a lot of glues to hold it together, and that it is a laminate with *no* glue holding it together (instead, the natural binding agents of the bamboo are 'steamed/pressured' together. While I've heard the latter more than once, I haven't seen anything to legitimize the claim.
Well, there may be brands of bamboo flooring that don't use glue, but I hadn't seen that in my research. While I did a lot of research, it was by no means exhaustive. What I saw was that some brands offgas more formaldehyde (from the glue, I assume) than others and one has to be careful in selection not to get something that could be a health hazard. Some brands, I think Eco-Wood is one, meet European E-1 standards, but some don't. We ended up going with a company that is formaldehyde free - the only one I could find. My daughter was having respiratory problems at the time, so air quality was a major factor in our decsion making.
Hey Aimless,
I wonder if you could pass on some info as to which flooring brand you found that is low in formaldehyde. Perhaps some links?
Thanks in advance,
AlanAlan Jones
Alan,
It's been long enough that I don't have the bookmarks anymore, but what didn't fall into the holes of my swiss cheese memory was:
<a href="http://www.bamboohardwoods.com/flooring.html">
http://www.bamboohardwoods.com/flooring.html
</a>
which is the one I used, and doesn't use formaldehyde at all.
There's also:
<a href="http://www.ecotimber.com/flooring/default.asp?id=5">
http://www.ecotimber.com/flooring/default.asp?id=5
</a>
Which uses formaldehyde but has low offgasing. The main reason I went with Bamboo Hardwoods over EcoTimber was because they got back to me and EcoTimber ignored my email. Also, I was looking for square edge rather than beveled, which was another reason to go with Bamboo Hardwoods for us. However, EcoTimber was rated pretty highly over at hardwoodinstaller.com (though I see that URL is no longer valid, don't know where it moved to.), so you should consider them - they might meet your needs.
Aimless,
Thanks for that info and links.
Alan
Alan Jones
The key to preserving any finish is proper maintenance.
Factory finished floors can be preserved indefinitely by re-coating the floor every 3- 5 years. Bona-Kemi makes a product called 'prep' which will condition the factory finish during buffing and provide adhesion for re-coats. Done properly, a recoat is dustless and odorless and will be safe to walk on in 4 hours.
Ditch
Wow, thanks for info 'ditch. I didn't know any of that.
I just have to find a decent floor guy around here and I'll be good to go. While installing bamboo is something I can do OK (the lengths and grain are pretty uniform), we have another room that's 384sq that needs a floor, and bamboo is too light for it. We went to a couple of hardwood places and asked about installers they would recommend for what they were selling and were somewhat disappointed. One guy said - "oh, you can do it, we teach a class on it." The others seemed to have no idea WHO does the installation, just some anonymous guy.
Know anybody in Utah, or do you like to ski?
Sure do appreciate the advice you gave me on floor maintenance. All the salty-dog oak flooring guys have told me "prefinished wood floor is the same as rolled vinyl flooring: great for a few years then no choice but rip them out and replace b/c you can't maintain them like you can solid oak." I suspected their comments as either biased or mistaken.
Glad you let me in on the Bona- Kemi 'prep' product. So that stuff conditions the surface as I prepare to recoat with polyurathane? Will polyurathane recoat on top of these factory- applied 'aluminum oxide' finishes?
Thanks for the lesson-
Alan in the Ozarks
Glad you let me in on the Bona- Kemi 'prep' product. So that stuff conditions the surface as I prepare to recoat with polyurathane? Will polyurathane recoat on top of these factory- applied 'aluminum oxide' finishes?
"Prep" is designed specifically for re-coating Alum.Ox. and the newer ceramic factory finishes. It's sprayed on and buffed off. It must be used in conjunction with one of Bona's water-borne finishes (Mega or Traffic).
The finisher must be conscientious, as every square inch of the floor must be conditioned. Areas that don't receive prep and are not properly abraded will reject the new finish and pealing will begin within a few weeks or months (or days). This often occurs around corners and door trim. If the floor is v grooved, the grooves have to be abraded by hand.
Prep is a new product and hasn't been tested by time. BTW, not many finishers will stand behind re-coats, especially over factory finish, myself included.Ditch
Everything Bob said is right imho. We use a special glue plus stapling. It is called SIKABond T54. Best there is...Over here. It gets you a very solid, but moisture-movable floor, subfloor sandwich, which of course cannot be changed in the future.
http://www.sikaconstruction.com/tds-cpd-SikaBondConstructionAdhesive-us.pdf
Edited 10/28/2003 5:22:37 AM ET by Matt
aloha
I personally like the bamboo look too, it has wild grain patterns ,
and lots of swirls . It looks very tropical. Anyway because its a remodel
and you probably live in the house it was a good idea to go with
the prefinished material. I did a remodel that had existing prefinished
bamboo flooring , luckily the owners had some leftovers for patching.
When I had to replace a peice of flooring I made a series of cuts
along the old peice with my skill saw set at the thickness of the
flooring. I made enough cuts so I could easily remove the old peice of
floor with my chisel. then I cleaned the blank space of debris.
with the new peice cut off the bottom groove so the peice can fit snug
install with glue and nails. puuty nail holes to match
p.s. Im just learning how to type. pardon the grammar. too much pidgeon