Bamboo Flooring

From your description, it seems that bamboo is less forgiving of swells, dips, or uneven subfloors than other woods. Is that true, and why? What wood is most forgiving?

My subfloor has some small to moderate waviness in it that I will have to try to correct with asphalt shingles as you describe. But, my whole floor has a slope to it of around one inch over 20 feet. That is more than 3/16 over ten foot radius that you indicate. Should I avoid using bamboo?

If it is important, the cause of the uneven floors, some excessive, unsupported weight, has been removed.

Andy,
I can't see your floor from my house........ Bamboo is fine, but select red oak is my personal favorite.

You said in the article that the bamboo can be nailed in place. Can you use a standard flooring face nailer? If so, what size nails should be used for 5/8 bamboo?

Ed,
What nails are mentioned in the written instructions that came with the flooring?

We leave on the water and are having problems with our current wood floors buckling and cracking (likely from expansion/contraction due to humidity). I am not sure what kind of wood the floors are, but they are a soft wood.

Is solid bamboo a good option for us? Would it make more sense to nail these floors or glue them down in our case?

Thanks!

Lynn,
If you are a water person, then stay away from all wood products. Think slate or tile.

I just recently had bamboo flooring installed (by a master carpenter) and it makes a cracking sound in various places when we walk on it. Is it too late to do something about that? The floor does look great, but we're concerned. Thanks for any information that can be provided.

Joe,
It sounds like the master did not make sure the existing floor was all in the same plane...... Meaning there are small hollow spots under the bamboo and it is flexing. That is bad jujumagumbo.

From my reading, there should be a 1/2" to 3/4" space between bamboo flooring, and walls and other vertical fixed objects.

Does this same expansion space need to be used between floor tile and bamboo flooring? The bamboo flooring that I will be installing will butt up against tile in two bathrooms. In one bathroom, the bamboo will butt up against the tile at the plank ends; in the other, the bamboo will butt up against the tile along its side. I was planning to install an aluminum finish piece rather than a bamboo or wood "T" joint. The tile and bamboo flooring will be the same height. Will this work without the expansion space?

Also, I will be butting the bamboo flooring up against bamboo stair nosing in the same two orientations as with the tile. Again, do I need to include an expansion space here?

I am in the preparation phase of installing stranded bamboo. I am trying to flatten the floor and I am using .030(#30) felt paper. Also the people that sold us the wood recommend "Dream home quietwalk underlayment" which is normally uses for floating floors. It is almost like a carpet padding but thinner. My question is if I use multiple layers of the .030 asphalt paper to bring up low spots plus this underlayment and then nail down the bamboo with cleats.... I wonder if I will have squeaking issue having compressible layers under the bamboo (5/8in)? I know you recommend roofing shingles, but I just don't understand how to use them as they are fairly thick and would create an uneven edges where the shingle ends. Thanks for your help.
Steve

The comment on April 10th from "Steve" is not from the same "Steve" on the April 8th.

Steve,
These are questions you must have answered by the manufacturer. There are many variables such as grain orientation, ply direction and amount of flooring installed.

Steve,
I think you could have squeaking if the flooring can move. How about a self-leveling pourable compound?

I am currently looking to lay an outdoor deck. The deck has no cover. I have seen Bamboo decking but I do not know anything about bamboo on an outdoor deck.

Please could you let me know if bamboo is a good outdoor decking material as the normal material seems to be Merbau, and does the bamboo come in different grades/qualities.

Thank you

Hello,
We have installed bamboo in our office and we love it. One of our partner needs to install a machine in one of the rooms and we are concern about the floor because he will have to cross through the entire office with this machine that weights 800 pounds.
What we can do to protect the floor?

Thank you,
K

I like bamboo flooring.

Hi,

I am installing a pre-finished white stained bamboo floor in my business. I want to paint some big flowers on the floor before it is being used. Can I prime, paint, and coat with polyutherane (since this is a brand new floor), or do I have to sand down first?
If I have to sand it down - can I get away with just sanding where the flowers go or do I have to sand the whole floor?

Anniken

Hi there,

I want to install bamboo flooring on top of a thirty-year-old concrete slab. The house is above-grade and is located in Sacramento, CA. I want to do this myself, using the glue down method. You mention using a vapor barrier (as do many other sites), but, how do you use the glue down method with a vapor barrier? Wouldn't you be gluing the floor to the plastic in that case?

Thanks,
Brandon

We are in the process ofdoing new floors in our kitchen,dinning,living room and hallways. My choice would be bamboo as I like the look and itis a renewable source but as we were checking into this we were told that bamboo would crack as it is to dry in our Edmonton,alberta Canada area.
Have you heard of anybody who would have had this problem?

Floor contractor missed filling low spots when installing engineered bamboo "Morning Star" over Bostic vapor barrier coated concrete slab. Bostik Best used as mastic - 1/4" trowel used. Have about 10 approx. 12" x 12" spots on a 3000 sq. ft. floor. Know I shouldn't use a water based filler because of the engineered flooring - 3 layers of laminated bamboo. Guessing hollow space gaps to be approx. 1/8" - 1/4.
Looking for something that would have the consistency similar to maple syrup, or thinner, that when injected would have enough time to travel over and thru the trowel notched mastic beneath the flooring to fill up the entire air space before setting up. Have used a Mastic epoxy injection - sets up toooo fast - need something to reallly flow thru those notches and up to the bottom of the wood floor. Afraid to try Gorilla Glue - it might expand too much and push up the flooring. I don't have the squeaks but do have a hollow sound when walking over these spots - they're also small enough not to perceptibly flex. I just want to get rid of that hollow sound. Thanks you for advice,
Robert C.

Contractor came back to repair a floating board - chipped out old board and squeeaed mastic beneath replacement and one of the adjoining boards - weighted down the repair but did a bad job. I now have a very slightly raised board edge ahout 6 feet long alongside another that is fine/flat, material is morning star bamboo, thought possibly easier to plane and sand? Worth the effort? Problems with matching the urethane coating? I have some replacement board if necessary. Any advice appreciated.

since it costs alot to put bamboo on stairs is there any wood that would compliment bamboo that can be put on the stairs without the high price

I am wondering if you know how flexible this stuff is. Our installer obviously thought bamboo is easy to install, but never actually installed it. He had trouble with the psi, the nail guns and-- flatness.

The floor is fully installed. And we are the big losers. He shimmed the floor, but it just created voids and dips everywhere. Level, but not nearly flat. It feels like a cheap floating floor. This is the 1/2" Teragren Synergy. It seems like a great product, and gorgeous. But obviously the installer treated it like 3/4 hardwood.

I have full access to the subfloor from the basement. Do you think I could drill 3/8" holes up through the subfloor and inject PL Premium? Do you think this would fill the voids??

Please help!

I'm laying solid bamboo in my family room and master bedroom. The instructions indicate that it can be directly glued down to the concrete (when using the right glue, which we bought). We have everything level and it checks out good with moisture. Is there any concerns with this? We have not glued anything down yet, but we do live in south florida, could this be a potencial issue with humidity?
Also, we will be butting the bamboo up to a quite difficult Tile radius. I was thinking to use some sort of a T joint to run between, as the bamboo will be higher than the tile. What would be your suggestion on this? And if you think go with a T joint, do you have a recommendation of a rubberized material that would fit our radius and look good? I don't want to have small cut pieces of T joint, I'd like to use one solid piece. I look forward to your suggestions. Thanks!

Help! I had Bamboo floors installed using a glue down appication. We're not sure what happened, but there are ghost like glue prints all over the first layer of the glass surface. We have tried to remove them using an assortment of glue removers but no luck. Can we have the bamboo floors lightly sanded and re-finished?

when it comes to installing bamboo is there a special nail gun to use or just a regular standard gun?

bamboo floor now installed for over 2 years. Many air spaces beneath due to uneven sub concrete floor. Is there a filler that when injected will travel over, up, and past the troweled mastic to fill up and stay to eliminate the squeaking and hollow sounds? This substance can not be of water base which would cause wood swelling.

I see questions on your site about humidity-but no answers. I am installing a bamboo floor in NE Ohio where it is very dry in winter and somewhat humid in the summer. Is this going to be a problem come January?

I had strand bamboo flooring installed in my home. The finish has a 25 year warranty and is promoted by the manufacturer as a commercial grade flooring. It is pictured in airports and restuarants on the manufacturers web site. The finish scratches very easy, to the point that the builder has filed a warranty claim. I am located in the Northeast and in the past week the flooring has also expanded several inches and started buckling near the exterior doors. Moisture measurements of the flooring were all between 20 and 25. The sub flooring was tested where a few pieces were removed in order to open the doors. The sub flooring was in a normal range. The sub flooring was also test underneath from the basement and was in the normal range everywhere tested. The flooring was installed with a vapor barrier and expansion gap. Is a moisture content that high normal for strand bamboo or coult it be part of the reason for so many finish problems?

I'm currently in the middle of a remodel project in a costal city. My contractor installed the bamboo flooring with a 1/16th of an inch space in between the board. He said this is to allow for expansion but I'm not entirely convinced. Is this normal?

I installed Morning star bamboo florring in my 3rd floor condo (build in the 50s) that had concret floor. I used the exsisting carpet padding-(the store clerk said it was ok) The floor looked great for a few months. Then in the middle of the night I started hearing noieses like a hightension wire being snaped. Now a year later I think the floor has finally stopped adjusting but it has cracks along the lentgh of the grain, and the gaps are inconsist at best. I am ready to replace them now but I dont know what to do to prevent this from happening again. Any advice would be great. Thanks

Installing a bamboo floor is not as complicated as it may seem, but there are some basic rules are followed to ensure a trouble-free facility. You can usually separate the process into two stages – pre-installation and the actual application.

In my science class, a couple of friends and I are doing a project based on future city plans. For example, we have to create a model of a city that has just gone through a hurricane disaster and we have to make the city as unexpensive as we can. Our plans is to make half of the city under water and the other half on normal ground, so we are building the city by a lake or beach (we haven't decided yet). Since I'm the one in charge of making the model, my question is if bamboo flooring will come out to be less expensive than other flooring types, since we have to make it unexpensive, and also,what flooring type can we use for the half of the city that's going to be under water?
Please help us out, Daisy

Hi

Can bamboo flooring be used in the shower or bathroom area.

Are bamboo floors good with kids and dogs? I'm scared about getting scratches.

I have moved into a house that has bamboo floors in the bedrooms. They are uneven in several spots(sticking uo 1/16"). is there anything i can do besides sanding or redoing the floor? They were prefinished.
i am betting they are floating as the previous owners were in a hurry to do this job and would have done it the easiest way. Would it be possible to put some heavy furniture on these spots to even them out?
phil

I would like to use solid bamboo tongue and groove flooring for a tub surround and for the plumbing wall of my shower.What product would you recommend to seal the flooring? I understand it is already well sealed.Is more necessary.Is this a foolish idea altogether

What type of nail gun and nails should I use to install my strand bamboo flooring to a plywood subfloor? Second. We had our contractor install bamboo in several rooms and used glue and the flooring bamboo has slight cupping now. We have a crawl space under the house and beginning to think there should have been better pre-work done to provide a better vapor barrier? Or we have read that the flooring was not acclimated to the moisture? Any way to correct this once install?

thanks
jpk

I have a concrete slab. I have been told wood floors are not a good option for that. However while looking at a store I had one of the workers tell that the Rhino Tough Brand handscraped Click it Solid Woven Bamboo is okay to use on the cement slab as long as I use a moisture barrier pad under it. Is this true and a good option for me. I live in the Northwest (Washington state) but the dry side.

I am interested in using bamboo flooring, instead of Ipe, for an uncovered outside deck, in Vermont, and I noticed that you never answered Karen (below) regarding outside bamboo flooring.

Karen 25 Apr 2008, 17:22
I am currently looking to lay an outdoor deck. The deck has no cover. I have seen Bamboo decking but I do not know anything about bamboo on an outdoor deck.

Please could you let me know if bamboo is a good outdoor decking material as the normal material seems to be Merbau, and does the bamboo come in different grades/qualities.

Tim,

It seems that every time we install new bamboo tread stairs in a new construction home we find major gashes in them at the end of the job. So I have two questions?

1. Because we normally don't have a roof on at installation how do I keep them protected properly? The card board is getting pricey between labor and material.

2. How do I repair serious gashes to the treads?

Thanks in advance

I am wanting to replace the carpet in dining area, kitchen and hallway at our lake cottage. with 8 grandchildren it gets too dirty over a weekend stay. I am thinking wood, but will they ruin it if they have wet feet and wet bathing suits and they drip on it?