G/F wants bamboo flooring in kitchen so I’ve started putting it down. Came back to it yesterday and noticed some new scratches in 3 pieces . Add That to the little Dents I’ve been seeing in the new pieces , I have to wonder how this is classified as a ‘hardwood ‘ . Also noticed I put a dent in one that I had to replace using the rubber head of the mallet used for the nailer to knock it out of place. Sooo , what can I use to protect the surfaceof this
#160; Polyurethane ??? Thanks in advance.
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Poly will [protect the surface well enough, but it scratches too, and won't keep the wood from getting dents and divots. So treat the floor with care.
I was thinking putting a somewhat thick coat on it would protect it . Such as I've seen on wood tables. ... just minimal enough. It would be easier to fill that scratch. But will that be a problem with floor movement ? It's over a crawlspace , in sub Chicago . We're planning on selling the house within the year and a damaged floor ain't gonna help . :-)
No matter how thick, it won't keep the wood from getting bashed in if it's hit hard enough; you'd have to lay thick plexiglass over it to even have a chance of that kind of protection.Kitchens are high-traffic areas, but some get more wear and tear than others. What I don't like about poly is that when it scratches, it is as unforgiving as plastic, unlike wax finishes. If you want to poly, go for it. Right when you are ready to sell scrub, lightly sand and re-poly the floor.
Those scratches and dings go down in the book as "reminders of living life". Don't worry over it... those will disappear in the myriad of jobs that floor is to perform over its useful life.
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What type do you have? Is it solid/stranded bamboo all the way through? Or is it a veneer over a softer ply substrate? If veneer, how thick is it? What brand?
Sorry to pepper you with questions, but I've been hearing a lot of different feedback on bamboo floors, and am trying to hear all the details...
thanks,
k
It's a solid bamboo , 5/8 " . Got it at Lumber Liquidators. I'm Definitely not happy with it . I'll never use it again . If you drop anything on it , it's gonna dent. I gouged one today from the plastic eyelet on my shoe. It's starting to turn my stomach to go through with this knowing I'm gonna have to tear it up and do it again with something else. I'll give her a year.
I have better things to do than do a job twice !
Drag.
We've got a kitchen's worth of stranded acclimating right now. I hope it performs a little better... The client's cool, but she's detail oriented. She won't demand we replace it if it starts showing dings, but she'll complain. Now you got me nervous.
Of course, I've got 90 year old doug fir for most of my house's flooring- a light breeze will gouge that stuff, but it's still beautiful, if, er, distressed.
k
Edited 5/25/2009 12:32 am by KFC
I just went through the selection process with a client that wanted bamboo. They had priced the stuff through Lumber Liquidators too before we arrived at my source. The rep explained that only the higher priced bamboo products(on their shelves) were much more likely to resist scratches.
She took several samples of the better product home to test with their dog and decided to take the better product, which was still in the same price range with Lumber Liquidator/s best bamboo product. They are very happy with their floor and they are not having any problems with the dog. While I was there picking up the final check, they showed me how they toss the doggie toy and the dog spins his wheels trying to take off. The floor is taking that kind of a beating and showing no scratches.
I wish I knew the brand but I can't remember it at this time. All I remember is that it came from China. It was a very nice product from an installation point of view too.
If you do happen to get the name of it , please let me know. I would definitely buy a few pieces to see the difference. I wonder if it's the bamboo, how it's made or finish on it . We have 4 cats and as I'm not sure they did the scratches , it does look like it. I'm only half way across the room so I'd rather tear it up now than later.
Thanks
I've settled on Teragren.I went through the bamboo selection process years ago. Back then their product was far superior to anything else I saw. I even used it in my own finished attic, which is the kids' game room and my wife's workout room. It's been down for maybe 8 or 9 years, there are still no scratches (no dogs either) and only one dent from a dropped a small dumbbell.It's all bamboo, no softwood plies, and it have a pretty good aluminum oxide finish.
Mongo,
Can the Teragren go down directly on the subfloor or does it require an underlayment? I've got a customer with a floor height issue, and this stuff is 9/16 thick.
Thanks,
Jim x 3
Edited 5/27/2009 9:43 am ET by jimjimjim
Teragren can go right on the subfloor. Available in 72" long sticks too, so it goes down fast.
My shipper only says " strand woven bamboo" with no brand name. I'll look for another shipper.
The product is not a veneer.
FWIW: I installed 800 sq ft of the Lumber Liq supreme bamboo about 10 months ago.
It is holding up surprizingly well to two 70 lb dogs and a 2 yr old. The biggest problem is high heels...(not mine!) I am known as the shoe #### to my wifes friends.
Also, in thinking about it many times...because the finish is so perfect out of the box, I think that little scratches and divots are magnified. It would be the same with any prefinished floor out there.
I'd do it again. And I be more dillegent in not letting women and high heels past the front door.
J
I would agree with the Teragren recommendation. I've used it on a small project a while ago and it is holding up nicely.
Yep , I pretty much agree . Now I just have to sell it to the G/F .
thanks for all the info from everyone !
Hey , just got back to her house and looked at the box . It's called Supreme Bamboo by Eco-World Flooring Co.
I have an engineered bamboo floor in two rooms, it's a floater and while I'm happy with it, I'm a little surprised too at it's relative 'softness'. There's a full 1/4" bamboo veneer over a bonded substrate (very hard, like PB), so it's definitely the bamboo it's self which is showing all the 'character'. No amount of poly finish or other product is going to change this. Unlike a coffee table, floors take a pounding.
Hopefully you can find the 'other' bamboo product mentioned already which sounds considerably more 'durable'.
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Not meaning to sound ignorant with my comment, but it is a wood (grass) floor and is not hard as a diamond. It is classified as a hardwood but most all hardwoods will dent and scratch.
I have installed a dozen or so and they all have shown signs of wear after the years.
I always advise the client to not skimp on the quality of flooring because it has to be down for decades. The aluminum in the finish helps tremendously with the wear factor.
sully
That doesn't sound ignorant to me, you have a good point.
But bamboo has been marketed as very hard and durable, harder than maple, even. So if it's going to show "normal wear and tear" like a pine floor might, that's critical info.
I'm most concerned about client expectaions, and clients can be verrry disappointed even if a material hasn't truly failed, per se. That's the issue I've heard over and over about bamboo floors- maybe just fine, really, but not quite what they're claimed to be.
(Again, I've got doug-fir flooring throughout my house, and it is beautiful in my eyes, scratches and all. But there was never any expectation of any hardness at all- I always knew my dog was going to leave her mark, so to speak.)
k
Bamboo is like most "green" <hack, cough> products these days.It becomes popular, then production ramps up while quality control ramps down. I installed my first bamboo in 1994. I've seen quite a few come and go over the years, and I've seen the importers roll up the sidewalk when their product gets hammered, then roll it back out again under a newer, more catchy, more HGTV-friendly eco-name.There's reason some bamboo is $1.89 a sqft and other bamboo is $5 or $7 a sqft. But then again, it's all bamboo, so it's all the same right?Uh huh!
After all the different jobs I've done , I should have known it wasn't that easy. I've heard many say bamboo is tough so I assumed it was just ' go get it ' ..... The sales guy at Lumber Liquidators even said it was durable. Why is it you just can't get a straight answer anymore . You have to spend a week researching anything you want to buy nowadays .
Wish I had gotten here before I went there !
There are hundreds of different kinds of bamboo, some harder than others. Sounds like you got the softer kind. The other thing you might notice with cheap stuff is the offgassing from the formaldehyde glues - China does not have the same regulations that we do, but we still import from there.
First thing to keep water from collecting on floors. which can cause warping. Clean up spills quickly and thoroughly. Areas such as the floor under an icemaker or sink should have a small rug to absorb water. also bamboo floors should be dry dusted daily. and never wax the floors.
You can protect the bamboo floor from scratches and dents by attaching anti-scratch felt pads to the bottom of furniture.