I will be doing a bamboo floor for a client in a week. I need to run two directions from a central line, and want feedback on a strategy I am considering.
I’d like to set a first course of strips that have tongues both sides. I can rip splines of bamboo and glue them into the groove with polyurethane glue. Then I can blind nail this line of boards from both sides and proceed outward from there.
Any problems with this approach? I plan to screw temporary battens to the subfloor to back up this line of starter strips so the flooring nailer doesn’t knock it off layout. Thanks in advance.
Bill
Replies
i would get temporary sheets of ply and screw them down. then install flooring with the groove end up against the ply. ply serves as straight edge, and backing so you can nail flooring sections in tight, i would do about 10 rows or so of flooring, then remove plywood and then install splines and go in the opposite direction.
No problem, Bill. Flooring installers call that technique using a "slip tongue". Nothing new or radical about that one. We've been doing it for years with various t&g type products like beadboard waincoting and ceilings, t&g siding, virtaully any t&g application.
Great way to get several people working on one surface all at once in different directions...easy to keep an eyeball on inexperienced help while giving them their head at the same time. Very versitile technique.
Romania wasn't built in a day.
Thank you, Jim, and also to Segundo who responded primero.About the spline: I thought about the question of gluing it in beforehand versus in place on the floor. I'm not sure which is best, although either can work.If I glue spline ahead of time, it seems less likely to split apart when nailed, as the glue will connect it to the larger piece. I just need to keep it aligned and remove any foam-out.If I glue it in place on the floor, it seems easier to get solid registration against my temporary plywood strips, and foamout is less of an issue.Which method is best, and why?Bill
Shameless bump
I don't think you need to glue it in place.
maybe some brads to keep it where you want it.
but you do need to nail it off like you were doing a leading edge.
Peace
I'm not sure of your meaning in saying "like you were doing a leading edge." I plan to blind nail both sides of this piece with the spline in it. Face nails won't do, as it runs down a long hallway. Thanks for your post.Bill
Thats how I meant...Peace
Do some test pcs bill, lower air with the bamboo. I start 75 or so with a stapler. Imagine a t-nailer might need lighter air too.
Why starting in the middle of a hall? You can spline the door ways if running into other rooms.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
Calvin,The hall is t-shaped with stairwell and a bunch of other stuff. I have to line up to aluminum floor tracks on both sides, and decided it would all go better going two ways from a center reference. Regarding the air pressure: I did a bamboo floor in 2003 with staples, and it is softer than oak flooring to fasten, despite what they say.Bill
No need to glue the spline. The ones I have bought have usually been a push-fit, and they stay in place real well. If the board is going to split, a little bit of glue is not going to stop it.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Thanks.I will be making my own out of the bamboo, ripped on the tablesaw. I just have to get dialed in for that good push fit. I had thought the spline more likely to split than a tongue, because it is a smaller piece of bamboo, therefore less supported. Unglued fit is way easier to do, therefore an attractive prospect. I'll be naing with T-cleats, using air-assisted Primatech nailer.Bill
i agree with fast on this, i didn't glue my oak when i did it that way, and it came out fine.
i was more concerned with the temp plywood being a stronger backup and i wanted my floor tight and on layout. after i got 10-12 rows or so i removed ply, inserted premade spline from lumber liquidators without glue and nalied with pneumatic floor nailer just like i did on the first side. worked like a champ.
i did a rectangle section with a border that was about five feet wide in a herringbone pattern untill it was about sixteen inches from the walls and then back to straight runs, the cool part was where it changes direction in a herringbone pattern to go out to the halls. this was in a great room that was 20 feet wide 40 feet long.
had some hard drive probs, lost pics. need to see if i can get some decent scans of prints to show online. one of these days.
Thanks, Segundo. I will gladly skip the glue. The solid backing to preserve my layout is my major first concern, as it was yours. I have not done a ton of strip flooring, and I did not know that this is a standard technique. I just reinvented it myself, with the attendant lack of confidence. But no more!Bill
That is the normal way we start with normal wood floors.
BTW, I think I'll borrow the title of thios thread for a screen name if I ever start hanging out at porn forums
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
Thanks. Do I get a royalty on the screen handle?