Replies

1. 
   calvin | Jul 03, 2010 06:12am | #1

   Here in NW Ohio

   Absolutely no problem.

   If the indoor humidity is in the mid thirties, no problem.

   Use a humidifier or get some plants or a pot of water on the wood stove.

2. 
   willie09 | Jul 03, 2010 09:31am | #2

   bamboo flooring

   I installed a pre finished, engineered bamboo floor over radiant heating five years ago in my home in the Chicago area.   It has been extremely stable.  We rarely use air conditioning in the summer and keep the house at seventy two degrees in the wintertime.   Our humidity level in the winter is not mechanically controlled.  The 5/8 inch flooring is glued and stapled with 1/4 inch crown staples into 3/4 inch plywood laid over a thin slab on wood framing ( this is on the second floor of a remodeled 100 year  old house).   My main complaint about the flooring is that it is extremely soft.  While laying the floor a thick carpenters pencil slid out from behind my ear and dented the floor.  Since then the children have really antiqued it.  Overall it is beautiful and stable, but delicate.

1. 
   Scott | Jul 03, 2010 06:55pm | #3

   >>>While laying the floor a

   >>>While laying the floor a thick carpenters pencil slid out from behind my ear and dented the floor.

   That's darn soft. Is this the stuff made of lots of thin strips of bamboo laminations? I've seen it on lots of counter tops and cabinet doors. It's always seemed pretty tough to me.

2. 
   davidmeiland | Jul 04, 2010 12:01am | #4

   I've installed bamboo once

   and it was a fairly high-end vertical grain product. It is glued together and floating. It was very, very hard to install an entire houseful of it without a few dings in spite of a lot of precautions, and now after a few years it has a slight wear patina to it... not at all bad but certainly not like the day it was new. It has been very stable and just about as good as a prefinished floor can be, but it's better in a shoes-off household.

1. 
   Hokuto | Jul 04, 2010 09:48am | #5

   SFAIK, the Japanese never had a bamboo-floor culture, but did have a shoes-off culture, so in any case, I'd guess that a bamboo floor would be best in a shoes-off household--but that's even true in a household with hardwood (oak) flooring, like our own. In a word: take your shoes off when entering any house. ;)

3. 
   MashedThumbs | Jul 06, 2010 11:19am | #6

   Three years of dog toenails

   I installed a natural color vertical grain bamboo floor in my house in Southwest Montana three years ago. The floor is holding up well to the abuse of three dogs who are in and out all day tracking in dust mud and snow. There are small, but visible grooves where their toe nails have depressed the material, but the finish has not been scratched. Where the floor is exposed to sun, it has changed color slightly, when a floor mat is lifted you can see the difference. The floor is aging gracefully, but like any type of cellulose based flooring it will age. I am very impressed with the ease of care, just vacuum or damp mop. This floor has not been babied in any way. For context, I have lived with carpet in Alaska, tile in Nevada, and brick in New Mexico, Multiple dogs on each floor. The brick was the easist to care for, but harder on the feet than bamboo. I am astonished how comfortable the floor is in the winter.

4. 
   Hokuto | Jul 07, 2010 06:50am | #7

   Hi

   David, the name Hokuto was given to me by an Okinawan friend back in 1971; it's a direct translation of the name Norman (north=hoku, man=hito). I've heard of Hokuto apples, but they're written with a different character that makes the combination mean "north star".

     I'm not building a house--I did that 16 years ago; the guy you're referring to goes by the handle "talkingdog" here on FHB; I've never met him, but we're on the same foreigners' DIY forum here in Japan.

    --and while I'm not building a house, I'm doing a large-scale reform job this year, including residing the house and laying two rooms of oak flooring.