200 boxes of unfinished natural bamboo flooring……..$14,000
20 pails of Bostik’s Best urethane adhesive…….$2500
5 more pails of Bostik’s Best….$625
3 more pails of Bostik’s Best….$375
10 more boxes of finished natural bamboo flooring be/c I came up just short and they don’t carry the unfinished anymore and it’s all now a different length, width, height, and color……….$950
3 more pails of Bostik’s Best…..$405
Laying the last piece of flooring after three…correction…four….correction…five years…………priceless.
Replies
You left out the sander and the varnish, and the gallons of solvent for getting the adhesive off your hands and the floor and the dog ...
Hope you got frequent flier miles with that.
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
Cloud - Congratulations and kudos on laying the last piece down. I have a couple questions.
I may have missed it on another thread, but what was your opinion of the a) bamboo and b) glue down system?
I'm curious because I've not been impressed with manmade stuff, prefer real wood, full thick. I did one floor in a laminate and it wore badly and quickly under the bed rollers ( forget the jokes, it's not that way...). I wanted to work with some other "new stuff" so I tried a gluedown manmade plywood laminate with thin oak veneer on top. I put down plenty of glue, but in too many areas, that's popped loose and I had to go back and face nail it down. I also noticed a lot of wear marks/tracks from an office chair with plastic wheels.
I'm thinking it's time to go back to 1" oak - maybe prefinished, maybe not...
Don
Don, I love the bamboo. It's not like other laminates. It's been tough as nails. Parts here are unfinished for 4 years now, and I run chairs and traffic over it, and it shows no wear. I'll do the same sanding as for the stuff installed yesterday, and it'll look the same. One difference I have noted is that the newer stuff is a little softer, and much lighter than the original. Company explained that in the beginning, a lot of the material was old growth bamboo. Now the demand is such that it's 3-5 year old stuff instead of 6-8. Similar diff to old studs vs the current crop of lesser-weight material. I loved the old stuff, and only like the new. But the newer is MUCH more consistent from board to board, and that's a plus.Rich, any time. I look forward to it.Pif, at least I knew enough to save the inside stuff for last! <G>Neal, either my wife has the patience of Job, or she believed me when I suggested that the easiest way to have it done according to her timing was for her to do it. <G> She knows that she's allowed to help along the progress of any project, or observe QUIETLY! Ha ha! Ummmm, you don't really need to verify that with her, do you?
nah I'll take your word for it.
I like to believe I wear the pants too....
Congratulations!!!
I can't wait to see it!
(...someday...eventually...I will be in your vicinity and I'm inviting myself over...)
Rich Beckman
Another day, another tool.
5ive years!?!?
No wonder you've got neightbor problems! LOL
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
forget the neighbor, I'm surprised the wife didn't kill him
Outstanding!
You win the prize, my friend. Thirty-one buckets of Bostiks makes my head swim.
One of my favorite "cyber-cringe" moments was several years ago regarding Bostiks Best. Someone posted that in the middle o flaying flooring they looked into a 5-gallon pail and their eyeglasses fell off, right into the adhesive.
Now a little sanding and a little urethane and you be da 100% man.
>Now a little sanding and a little urethane1500 ft done two years ago. That leaves, errr, ummm, yeah I know, to go. But Waterlox, not Urethane.
"...they looked into a 5-gallon pail and their eyeglasses fell off, right into the adhesive."LOL!I have often pondered how amazing it is that glasses stay on as well as they do. Usually when I'm looking into the dosing tank of my septic, or while standing at a rail looking down a cliff while on vacation.Then I put my hand to my glasses to hold them on...but I never think of doing it until they've had a chance....Rich BeckmanAnother day, another tool.
Brother-in-Law told me a good one from many years ago.
The kids (he and bro's ans sis's) were over his aunt's house for wintertime sledding. The aunt couldn't find her glasses.
When lunch (tomato soup and grilled cheese) was served, the glasses showed up in the first ladle of soup.
Is it soup yet?
I can see how that might happen.
I, also, could see how that might happen, but only after I washed the soup off my glasses and put them back on...til then I can't see much of anything.Rich BeckmanAnother day, another tool.
5 yrs for a floor?!
Can I please oh please oh please let my wife read this thread?!
It`ll make me look like Superman!!!!
The cobblers children are barefoot! (Never a truer cliche)
Screw Pete!
Gabe for Governor!
I'd go for the fumes from the adhesives myself.
Hey, I'll be down next weekend....we ain't had no time to drink that beer ( Sandman, America...Don't inquire or ask)
Mebbe Sunday aft? Of course AOL ATE all my contacts info last week or so....don't ask....so I be needing a # again ( no directions, I can still find Everest)
Eddy wants to visit again, he left a toy in yer yard ( he thinks)..ahhh NC..I sometimes miss it.
Lets get Mitch to participate if he is amicable to the proposal...cuz after all,,yer buying right?
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..
Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
Sure. I'll either be welding up a stair railing or moving the furniture in preparation for sanding the whoooooole floor. You can carry a sofa and a beer at the same time, right?
Easy enough to say you've installed the "last" board. We need proof, right everyone? That's right, we need PHOTOS!
And oh yeah, had to come back and say "glasses in the mastic", that's an all timer, there. Yuck.
Edited 6/11/2005 1:43 pm ET by jim blodgett
had a glue down bamboo floor done for a project. glue is the only way. Don't know about Waterlox....but hope it's catalyzed varnish.
Was told by this years national "Floor of the Year" installer that cat-var is the only thing that will stick to bamboo.
fyi...bamboo has a rockwell hardness greater than white oak but less than hickory.
didn't think about old vs. new growth. I fell in love with the stuff the first time I saw it in california about 15 or so years ago. shoulda bought some then i guess.
I don't think "rockwell hardness" tests EVER applied to wood.
RH65 is carbide, rh46 is carbon steel with stellite, and what is bamboo? RH NEGATIVE 43?
Mixing metaphors is fine in jest, but misleading density and hardness factors is just plain wrong.
It is like avoire du pois and troy ounces...pick one. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
Not to contradict an IotY (Installer of the Year), but Waterlox does great with it. Tung oil based. Penetrates. No build-up. Good stuff.
Anything can be tested for hardness using the rockwell scale. I know, I used to do it.
Like I said, I don't know Waterlox. I should ask that installer what his opinion of it is just out of curiosity. I don't know what would make bamboo so different from other woods. Now I am curious about Waterlox. It's always nice to have backup plans. (oh boy...a new surf quest!)