Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
This builder says there's nothing like an in-person event where you can learn from luminaries, talk with tool and material manufacturers, and network with your peers.
Featured Video
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
I put about 3000 sf in last year, and it took the heating season with no discernable change. No gaps and no cupping. The water in the concrete and gypcrete floors was about 115.
Interesting tidbit there
Yes, intersting. Would be nice to avoid those gaps in the winter (when indoor humidity goes to 20% RH). Jim, do you think that the bamboo itself is more stable or is the bamboo flooring some composite material?
David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
You may be too young to recall, but bamboo was a favored wood for slide rules due to its' stability.
I've let sheets of the plyboo (salvaged from chinese crates) sit outside for an entire winter and there was little dimensional change.
Junkhound: Duh. I knew that some slide rules were bamboo but didn't put it together, regarding its stability. I am too young (41 this month) to have been taught slide rules in school. I had to pick it up on my own. And my first one was bamboo, made in "Occupied Japan". Then I moved on to K&E's.
Jim: So it's kind of like plywood, with perpendicular plys? I'm going to have to find an excuse to work with that stuff some time soon.
David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
The plys are all parallel....just offset so that the edges don't align from one ply to the next. A cross-section would have a running bond pattern.
What I should have added to my answer is that I can keep the humidity between 35 and 50 year round. Monolithic domes are really good at moderating swings in temp and moisture. So to not overstep my bounds, I can't really say if the bamboo would have suffered at 20%. Simply don't know.
But....
I visited the hardwood flooring center an hr away from here to get more glue. Mentioned gluedown to RFH in concrete. He said, "Wait, you aren't gluing wood directly to that, are you?!?!?!" No, bamboo. He said, "Oh, no problem then."
My bamboo is a laminate of real bamboo strips. 3 ply for total of 5/8". The strips in the laminate are 1/2" wide and, of course, the middle layer is staggered. It cuts crisp, takes a beautiful edge from a router, and I've never had a piece crack or split on me. I haven't seen any other installs, so the most I'm comfortable saying is what we did and what we experienced. Others' mileage may vary, etc, etc, etc.
did I hear you say that you're living in a dome?
Yup, a thin-shell concrete dome.
http://www.monolithicdome.com/gallery/homes/kaslik/index.html
http://www.cloudhidden.org
I am floored. Not with bamboo but your dome. Gone are the days of color coded hub and strut pents and hexes. Bucky would be proud.
Mongo,
What's a rough 2' price for the nice 3-ply stuff you speak of?
Thanks,
Stray
Stray,
The last TimberGrass I ordered was the 3-5/8ths by 74" flooring, VG, natural, prefinished. It was $4.15 a foot. The 48" and 36" lengths are less expensive.
FOB out of Cinci or Seattle. Cinci didn't have the 6-footers last time I called (backordered), so they shipped from Seattle. Seattle to Connecticut was about $340 for 800-ish feet of flooring (2100 pounds). Four or five days from order to delivery.
I've never had any problems with them, and they've always replied via email or phone the same day I ring them up.
Thanks. It all did evolve from Bucky's stuff, and then onto earth-formed domes before the air-formed. I just got a call out of the blue from the original holder of one of the airform patents. What a surprise and treat! It's fascinating to learn the history of that part of the building industry, especially be/c it's mostly people I've had the great honor to work with and learn from. Not too many of the early guys are dead yet, but they're hitting their 60's and 70's. <G> One of my personal goals is to get an article on this--building them, their history, or incorporating traditional trades into the process--into FHB, but so far, my friends at Taunton consider them too "esoteric". I'll do photo essays here when a couple of my designs break ground later this year, and maybe that'll lessen their esoteric-nicity!
Hey man.....who'd a thought????/ Your crib so rocks. and I thought I had a project going with my house/spec. Well, I do......like I said..it is meant to be a spec I live in and its on the market now for a pretty penny. Looking to do the real deal next.....tired of conventional but thats where I'll get the financing for my real personal project. Next! At 51 I aint slowin' down but......its time!
PS.....I visited Bucky's grave when I was in Boston a cpl a years ago. Its a teeny tiny stone with a kinda circle on it. That dude was so there!
Be well my friend.....houses dont come any better then yours.....or should I say "homes"
Namaste,
Andy
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COMIt's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Thanks Andy. It's a big world, and there's plenty of room for all styles. I don't think straight, so I'll keep designing these curved ones. As you with yours, I only care about two things: is the owner comfortable in their home, and was it built with quality. If both are a yes, then I'm kinda satisfied with a hard day's work.
Did you actually hands on build that? How long did it take and what did it end uo costing if you dont mind me asking
BE well
Namaste'
AndtIt's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
>Did you actually hands on build that?
Yeah. Every day for 2 years 5 months (except for trip to China to meet my daughter). On some things I just apprenticed or did grunt labor--foam, shotcrete, elec, plumbing, plaster. But the formwork, rebar, all framing, tile, bamboo, doors and windows, PEX for RFH, etc was me and a laborer. And design was mine. Landscaping was the only thing where I pulled up a chair and watched. But they didn't care, be/c we'd play air hockey when the work was done.
Nice work.....I know the feeling. I spent everyday building mine for over three years...Next one though will be my pride and joy so ya got me beat.
Be well
Namaste
AndyIt's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
cloud- I'm looking forward to your photos. Can you give me any data on the 'earth-formed domes' you mentioned? I helped my brother put up a montery stick/hub dome back in '80 and have hobbied with them a bit since then. Made a couple 14ft diameter dome prototypes out of hex/pent panels I made in the shop with predrilled holes and half inch plywood on 2x2s so I could truck them to the dense woods and bolt up a quick cabin. Someday I'm going to try a 19ft with a thicker frame to see if it'll work.
Too esoteric huh. I would think that a unique building style that made the impact it did shouldn't be beneath the tauton attention. Seems like they're being a little shallow in my book. But hey, whadda i know, i'm a DIYer.
>Can you give me any data on the 'earth-formed domes' you mentioned?
One mention is in here: http://www.monolithicdome.com/articles/wilson/ . This guy is my engineer, and I've learned so much on our phone calls. He just did the engineering on an s-curve free-standing concrete stair for my house, and taught me about twisting torsion and all kinds of stuff.
Like most things, recognize that not all bamboo is created equal. Some are laminated with all laminations made from bamboo. Some are laminated, with only the show layer made from bamboo and the other plies made from other woods...sometimes a different wood for each ply. My supplier of late is TimberGrass. A good product, with no problems...and umpteen-thousand feet of it installed, with 90% of it over RFH. Their "flat grain" product is a 3-ply, it sounds similar to what Cloud is describing, with all three plies made of bamboo. It has an excellent aluminium oxide finish. Very, very durable. Despite the several thousand feet that I've seen, I've yet to reject a single plank out of the box. Their packing is superior...foam between each plank in the stack, then the entire stack is shrink-wrapped, then boxed in cardboard. Their vertical grain is "solid" vertical grain, if that makes sense. It's not a ply product...it's simply 5/8th-inch strips laminated, like a laminated hardwood (maple strip) countertop. The worst I've seen is from BambooHardwoods. It's a three-ply product, with the show layer being an approximate 3/16ths-inch veneer of bamboo for both their flat and vertical grain flooring. The middle ply is about 3/8ths of rubberwood, and the bottom ply is about a sixteenth-inch of knotty (and sometimes missing knots) pine. Even the samples that they sent me are cupped. Bamboo works very well over RFH. It's great as a glue-down. Care needs to be taken as it is hard and brittle, and can be split if carelessly stapled/nailed. It's not tough to fasten, it's just that you may need to tweak the air pressure to get the staples to set nicely in the crotch of the tongue. Pre-drilling is required if face-nailing the first/last rows of flooring. I think bamboo, on the whole, is a pretty cool product. It's an interesting look...in some ways not as "warm" as a traditional wood floor...kind of slick and clean in my opinion...maybe contemporary looking? I like it, I recommend it, and anticipate using it quite a bit in the upcoming years. Note: edited to change from "WYSIWYG" to "Source" so the links would work.
Edited 5/7/2002 10:50:44 PM ET by Mongo