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We looked at some bamboo flooring at Lumber Liquidators yesterday and are very impressed. Does anyone have experience with this type of flooring? I would appreciate feedback and opinions regarding wear and tear, ease of installation, maintenance, etc. It's a bit pricey at $2.45/sq ft, Also, when factoring square footage, what is the average 'extra' you purchase for breakage, etc? If the room is 300 sq ft, do I need 350?
I don't have personal experience with bamboo but $2.45/sf is about half the price I've seen it for at home centers, so I think you're getting a pretty good deal there. I've read that it's just as good and durable as most of the hardwood floors you can get, and if you get the snap-together kind then it's pretty easy to install. But most of what I've read was on the websites of the bamboo manufacturers, so they might be a little biased! As far as buying extra, I've always heard 10% more than you need, but if this is a DIY project and you haven't done floors before or if the room is irregular shape then you might want to go higher.
As pretty as bamboo floors are, I'd reccommend to walk away. They scratch like crazy. The manufacturers make big claims that they are as durable as hard wood, but bamboo is basically a grass and it will never be comparable. Unless you have no kids, no pets, and are neat freak whom doesn't wear shoes in the house, you won't be satisfied.
If you liked the natural bamboo, you can get similar colors with very little grain in natural maple. Maple is very hard and durable. If you were looking at the carbonized bamboo, go for a maple or pecan with a darker stain. Pecan (also referred to as Hickory) is also extremely hard and durable but with a little more grain structure. These floors will last a lifetime if cared for properly. :)
I have bamboo in my house - which currently has 5 kids under 7 living in it (before you ask, only 2 are mine). I have not noticed any worse scratches than any other wood floors and the installation is very similar to other wood floors. I really like it. The only real problem I have it that it's so light colored that it's hard to keep it looking clean - though with 5 kids, I'm not sure that it would be possible with ANY kind of flooring.
Only suggestion that I would make, and it goes for ANY wood floor, is that you bring the boxes inside where you're going to lay it down, crack them open, and let them just sit for a week to equalize the moisture content to what it will be later. We couldn't do that effectively for our house (new house & the heat pump wasn't installed yet) and we have a few gaps where the bamboo lost moisture & shrunk just a bit. Not terribly obvious, but glaring to me because WE did the floor ourselves.
Also, check out [HYPERLINK@www.ifloor.com] for some pretty good prices - we got both our bamboo floor & some cork flooring through them.
That's good to hear! I've sold bamboo flooring to clients in the past, and then later my company decided to pull the product completely from our showroom as we had so many failures with it. I've felt so badly for the people that have it in their homes, but hopefully they had a good experience with it like you did.
As for the gapping, you'd have that regardless due to moisture fluctuations through the year. Did you leave an expansion gap at the perimeter? If so, that should help. It should also gap less and less as the floor ages. It tends to be more unstable when it's new but through the years it will harden even more and move less.
Acclimating the product is always a good idea, especially with unfinished wood. If it was factory finished (which yours probably was) it's suggested, but not required if you aren't able. So you did just fine with your installation! :)
BackyardZoo, In what room did you install the cork? I have thought of it for the kitchen because it would be easy to stand on for long periods but am concerned re: about it being too porous.
cnswift: Well, none of the gaps are large & yes, we left the expansion gap, but when you install it yourself, you notice every last little imperfection - like the other spot where our line drifted well off of parallel to the wall :-)
Mary: we put cork in the kitchen & bathrooms. We put on a single top coat of poly to seal the joints, but the cork itself is pretty water-resistant (think of a wine-bottle cork - no leaking there!). The only place we've had a problem with it was our own fault - a slow leak from a toilet that pooled between the cork & the subfloor - we didn't notice it for a good while. The cork swelled, which popped it apart, so now that it's dry, theres a good-sized (1/4" +/-) gap. Eventually we'll get around to snapping it back together or replacing it with some of our left overs. But it impresses me that it looks as good as it does after that.
Also, the floor I think you're looking at (I almost bought it) has to be glued or nailed and needs a vapor barried. It's not a floating floor. If you're on a slab, the only way to get a vapor barrier is to lay vinyl first, which jumps the price to about $3.25. And I don't want something thats gunna be a pain to get up later.
Actually vinyl is not reccommended, your best bet is to sand the subfloor and seal. Vinyl is not reccognized by the wood flooring industry as a suitable underlayment for any wood floor.
buffy21, if you're putting a wood floor on concrete, you need a lot more than a vapor barrier. It needs a subfllor to nail it to. Wood flooring is installed to be permanent. But you're right, it is a pain to get up. Most people put something on top of it if they don't like it anymore.
I'm with BackyardZoo, I've installed and lived on most types of flooring, and bamboo is very tough stuff. I test any flooring with a hammer, burning cigarette, spills, anything I can think of before I put it down, at least in my house. That's what the samples are for!
You can install floating floors overtop of concrete without installing a plywood subfloor--can't use solid wood, that needs to be nailed down, but engineered wood or laminates that snap together with tongue and groove can be installed this way.
2.45 is an allright price I bought my bamboo from [HYPERLINK@www.floormall.com] it was 1.99 and there was a 25 year warrantey. Also it looked like they were giving free shipping on Natural cork or something like that.
We had bamboo flooring installed over a year ago and I love it. It was glued down on the concrete slab. I think the glue was more expensive than the floor itself.
We have been selling bamboo flooring for 2 years and have had EXCELLENT results with strand woven bamboo flooring. It is tough as nails and really inexpensive when compared to hardwood. The floating floor installation is easy, quick and for the do-it-yourselfers out there only a few more pennies for the material plus you get a pad that acts as a sound deadener and thermal break so cold slabs don't mean cold floors in the winter. Visit our website for more info. Hilobamboo.com
Does anyone know if there any companies that sell really dark coffee coloured floating bamboo flooring in Australia?
I am want a dark coffee look for floating hardwood flooring (to lay over concrete).
I can't find anything in Australian shops. They only stock darker hardwood with deep red highlights like Jarrah, merbau and kempas.
So I've turned to bamboo and have seen some websites of companies that 'stain' or colour the bamboo flooring to get different coloured effects. For example this company [HYPERLINK@www.duro-design.com] does it but they are located in France (kinda hard to go over there).
