Been awhile guys. Finished up a bamboo gluedown on concrete a few weeks back. A few pics for ya. The before pic new construction and 200 pounds of floor patch. The second one should show the pics after the install before any furniture was moved back in. Second set should be of the kitchen area. Third set of an upstairs hallway. 150 square feet but took a full two days to install.
Ken Fisher
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Crazy rounded walls...The hallways were..you guessed it..a real bugger. Lot's of dry fitting on this job. More at the following page link...
http://www.floridawoodfloors.net/greenwood-job-review.htm
Nice work....
Nice, nice......I was not aware that bamboo could be used......
I have that throughout my whole house. The great coincidence is that our supplier used bamboo grown in the same province that Meili was born in. And the bamboo is all farm-grown.
Cloud, it's gorgeous......Is it expensive??
When we were out in Tucson last winter, we saw beautiful pieces of furniture made of mesquite wood......That was another eye opener for me......I was just used to burning mesquite wood in our grill.....<G>
Bamboo should be right about with the hardwoods, no premium or discount.
And since bamboo grows like a grass (because it is a grass), it is a rapidly renewable resource. A very nice option, without sacrificing looks....that's not a mistake, it's rustic
See, I learn something every day! I thought bamboo was a grass and I just couldn't wrap my mind around it on a floor...
have you had any problems with any sort of splintering- from damage or? i have this unshakeable mental image of skating across the floor in my socks (one the true joys of my boyhood home) and burying a splinter up to my kneecap! what's the industry take on this vs. the real world? andy and i are definitely going with some sort of hardwood in the next couple years (business is finally sold and some serious mess-off time is coming!) and we loved the look of your floors but the splinter thing freaks me out.
m
You musta watched too many b-movies where a bamboo shoot under the nail was the weapon of choice. Meili and I regularly run the hallway from the library past the dining room and see how far we can slide on the still-unfinished bamboo, she's in sox and I'm barefoot. Nary a splinter. Also never had a splinter when working with it. I've worked with lots of woods, and the bamboo has been better behaved than the lot of them.
actually my experience with bamboo goes back to my days of ski racing as a kid in the sixties and early seventies before the advent of plastic slalom course poles. i have not-so-fond memories of how they split and frayed into long sharp fibers when they broke and the wicked splinters we would occasionally get handling them- thankfully most of the time we were wearing gloves, of course. i'm sure bamboo comes in many different types (i doubt they use the same kind for floors as for flyrods) and that probably accounts for most of the difference.
m
A big part of the diff is likely the part of the stalk that is used. I think the stalk is 4-6" D at the base when they harvest it, and the bottom is a lot denser than what we usually think of with bamboo that is maybe 1" D.
Costs? There's a flood of bamboo on the market now. Prices are as low as $ 1.99 SF prefinished. Then I saw some in a new maega store called Floor & Decor---$ 1.79 but that was pure junk--extremely soft. Only certain portions of the plant should be used for flooring but it comes in boats by the motherload nowadays. BUYER BEWARE!!
Hey Jim. I'm planning a trip this spring to Dalton, Johnson City TN Knoxville, and Charlotte. Would love to check your place out. Would be a nice piece on radiant heat flooring and gluedowns too.
Ken Fisher
$1.75? Oh my gosh. That's half of what I paid 4 years ago for unfinished. But my stuff is soooooo hard...I love how dent resistant it is.
You're most welcome to stop by for a visit. Not sure my ego can take a pro flooring guy checking out my amateur installation, but with enough beers, any gaps might blur shut. :) Definitely let me know when you'll be in the neighborhood. We'll leave the light on for ya.
Cloud,
Thanks for the bamboo support. We haved used it exclusively in our homes.
What brand did you use or recommend?
We used Timbergrass PF and were pretty happy with it. The only problem was that they did not have all the necessary transitions available, so we had to fabricate our own.
It's very pretty stuff, for sure.
darcy
I used WFI (Wood Flooring International), http://www.wfibamboo.com/company.html , but Mongo has used Timbergrass and been happy, too.
Thanks for the link. I really enjoyed the pictures in the gallery, showing the process.
darcy
Jim:
Sounds like a plan, but you'll have to break out the sweet tea for me. Gave up drinking two years ago...should have done it 20 years ago. Give me a call someday, the number is on the website.
Lesse, what other pics do I have. Decent photo galleries on the site, though I'd like to get more. Would like to see your Rich. There's plenty of room. Got lottsa bandwidth that goes unused during the month.
http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwoodinstaller/
I think this post was meant for you.
Ken, long time....good to see you again. Nice stuff. And of course, bamboo...
I have a couple of bamboo floor samples I got a few years ago at a trade show. They are prefinished with a micro bevel edge.The differance between the two is in how they were glued up. One is in three layers like plywood, the other is more of a stave core style. One thing I noticed with the two samples is the stave core hasnt moved a bit but the ply style warped a little and the tounge n groove dont fit to each other anymore. Just my 2c.
They come prefinished and bare. They come with horizontal and vertical orientations. Of the 4500 sf of bare, horizontal bamboo here, I've seen no cupping, twisting, or checking. Diff mfgs have different quality control, too, just like any other product.
Any idea if they come in long lengths? One thing i hate about so much of today's hardwood flooring is the mish mash of short length boards.
Since we are looking to finish off a mudroom this year, the sustainability of bamboo looks interestinh.
I've seen 3' and 6' lengths.