Please share with me your experiences with bamboo flooring.
If you have used the non-prefinished stuff, what was done to sand and coat the floor?
In the universe of prefinished products, what colors are available? What looks best to you? Is a real dark finish, a.k.a. “ebonized,” available?
Which works and looks best for you, the “face sawn” showing nodes, or the quartered, showing none?
What about after installation? Seasonal movement? Resistance to denting?
If you have used products from various makers, which brand do you recommend as best?
Replies
I've used unfinished and pre-finished, natural and carbonized (never heard it as "ebonized"). Each works fine. Sanding the unfinished is like any other floor. Staining is like any other floor. Finishing is like any other floor (I used Waterlox).
The colors for the pre-finished are a function of the manufacturer.
The expansion/contraction is a function of the house's moisture content and temperature fluctuations. My house doesn't have much fluctuation in either, so the bamboo is completely stable.
There's vertical and horizontal orientation. I'm partial to the horizontal, but it's just personal taste.
Mine is tough as nails and doesn't dent at all easily. Other floors in other houses all dented more easily.
Gene,
We have started our first bamboo install. 2800 ft.
The product I was most interested in using was manufactured by TERAGEN. They have an unfinished with multiple lengths. They have also developed an additional texture that uses smaller pieces-almost like PSL type look.
I do not recall which manufacturer we ended up with but the only complaint I have so far is all the flooring is 3 feet long. It makes layout a little more challenging.
As far as installation is concerned, the milling has been impeccable so far and I was suprised at how hard the material is.
There is also plywood available with the same looks-vertical, horizontal with natural or carbonized finish. I believe it was around $280 a sheet. I will find out next week how well the material is to mill as we need to laminate a stair nosing in the shape of a nautilus.
Bruce
Gene, I've installed prefinished bamboo, both vertical and horizontal orientations. I forget the brand names. Like the other posters said, it's an extremely hard material, so hard that it can be brittle so be careful on thin rips.
I like both orientations, but for my house would probably go for the vertical grain look.
As far as I know only two colors, blond and caramelized, are available. They litterally caramelize the bamboo, cooking it to change the color. I've heard that caramelizing reduces the hardness a bit, but I doubt it's enough to have much of an effect. I think the idea with caramelizing is that the bamboo does not stain well with conventional stains? I might be wrong about that.
I've used it in my bedroom, the prefinished carbonized look. Plan to use the natural in the dining room to lighten it up a bit. One of the sources around here had a very dark stained prefinished type. Almost looked like a dark rosewood color.
The mistake I made, and I hereby open myself up to flogging, is that I took for granted that bamboo is bamboo. Boy was I wrong. I went on price and bought from a supplier without getting a sample from them. It was much softer than other samples I saw.
The bellawood stuff from Lumber Liquidators, I could take a housekey to it and barely scratch it. The stuff I got dimples from looking at it funny. Whomever you go with, get a sample first. Even if they say its the same as, dont take their word for it. I regret the quality in my bedroom. I can live with it, but every dimple reminds me of the cardinal rule. You get what you pay for.
Good luck!
P.S. I've installed it over radiant heating, and have seen no ill effects from it.
Since my original post, I have gone Googling for bamboo, and this outfit is impressive with their offerings. Tell me what you think.
http://www.duro-design.com/index.html
Considerably many more colors than the standard "natural" and "carbonized" that my local suppliers have, and they are selling both unfinished and prefinished.
They offer samples. I cannot comment on pricing, but in this competitive world, you probably get what you pay for.
can finish it w oil or water poly, but the prefinish looks good as is and cuts out a lot of work there's no price break that i've found using the unfinished vs. finished heard it doesn't stain well but haven't tried it myself
someone mentioned brittle, it's tru, face nailing should be done only w an air nailer, and back off 2" to 2 1/2" in from the end sometimes it still splinters in a fine crack inboard from ends, just fill it white oak filler works well w some of them, there are bamboo fillers avail., harder to find the one drawback to the stuff is that some of it is made w urea formaldehyde glue which raises environmental issues like with laminates if u need stair treads, check w lumber liquidators don't care for their flooring, but the bamboo and other treads are pretty nice, fairly priced