Getting ready to do a kitchen remodel on our home which will take down walls and open the kitchen up to the dining and family rooms, making the ‘public’ side of the house fairly open. Because the space will have a continuous flow, we want to have a unified floor throughout. The living room and dining room have bamboo (already in the house when we bought it). The kitchen has outdated tile. The family room has old, ugly carpet.
While we have loved the look of the bamboo, 6 years of kids and dogs have not been kind to it. Obviously, the kids and dogs are older now but the question at hand is about the advisability of extending the bamboo through the kitchen and family room. My builder has expressed concerned about bamboo in the kitchen, but people put hardwood floors in kitchens all the time. I know from experience that the bamboo is not as tough as oak (or as tough as the salesmen will tell you). But I’m interested in the input of others about bamboo in the kitchen.
If we do go with bamboo, I’d probably go ahead and replace the existing just to have it all new and consistent.
Other possibilities you’d suggest? Cork? Hardwood?
Thanx.
Replies
Hey IanD
I live in the tropics and was leary of bamboo also. My builder friend put a small section in his kit. about 8-9 yrs ago and it has held up beautifully.
I would consider putting some polyurethane on the Backside of it. the manufacturers seem to seal the top well but nothing on the battom and it causes a slight cupping later. On the jobs I do I try to seal the back as well. It is a pain but you can lay it out and slap it on, then install the next day. If the footage isn't to great it is not too time consuming.....sprayer helps. I feel for wet areas and places over moisture areas this really helps.
Tile is hard to beat for kitchens but it is hard on the feet and legs.
Nuvue
You don't mention which bamboo.
I was set to use horizontal non-carbonized 1X4 5/8" T&G until I was shown what happened to it when something heavy was rolled over it...there was a slight impression left by the dolly's wheels.
I decided to go with stranded bamboo, which is quite a bit harder. No problems so far.
BruceM
Hmmm. Please relieve my ignorance. Non-carbonized? Stranded? How do I tell the difference? Thanx.
Bamboo flooring comes in vertical and horizontal, carbonized and uncarbonized (natural and not treated). Vertical flooring is when the bamboo is cut up in narrow strips and glued together on edge so that you see the edge of the bamboo as the board's surface. Horizontal flooring shows the bamboo as cut into wider strips (1" or so) and layed out face-up with the edges glued together. I think the latter is the more popular flooring.
The manufacturer can then heat the surface of the bamboo, slightly burning it to a darker color, which also removes a small amount of the surface strength. This is carbonizing, and is desirable in that the darker color tends to better accentuate the lines and nodes of the bamboo.
With stranded bamboo, the bamboo is 'stranded-out', or the bamboo is split into smaller strands (remember, bamboo is a grass) and then glued back together under high pressure with the strands randomly bound together. Much of the bamboo 'look' is lost when stranding, but a close look will show it is still there. In fact, most comments I get are 'what a nice oak floor', which I then get to correct with a closer look. The value of this is that the floor is about 80% harder, if memory serves, than horizontal non-carbonized bamboo.
BruceM
Whatever wood you use, be sure to get it unfinished and finish in place. That way you have a single sealed surface vs. tons of cracks for the water to penetrate.
We have a tigerwood floor (similar in hardness to ipe etc.) in our kitchen/living/dining and it has held up exceptionally well, and we have 2 70#+ dogs.
Note: The floor is continuous - the cabinets sit on top of the floor. (This question comes up on the forum occasionally and this is the prefered approach).
Thanks for the suggestions on finishing inplace and making it continuous (already in the plan).The tigerwood looks nice. I'm getting ready to build a deck from ipe so I'm familiar with that. How does the tigerwood compare in price to other materials?
For me the price of the tigerwood was "upper middle" of the range. It's been 18 months or so. I don't have the actual price because it's embedded in the overall contract, but I think it was somewhere between $6 and $8 a square for the materials; 50% to 100% more than oak IIRC but half the price of some of the Australian flooring I was looking at (e.g. spotted gum).
I can't help you on the decking; mine is Machiche (about $1 a ft less than Ipe at the time; not currently available from my source in SF Bay Area).