Bamboo Flooring...Experiences?

[mirlee]

We are finally ready to get rid of the carpeting that the previous owners put in the kitchen. Bamboo flooring has become our preference because the ceramic tiles we have found are just, well, boring, and the cork and slate we were originally considering require a little too much maintenance.

Who has bamboo floors? Which manufacturer did you go with? Did you install yourself or have someone else do it?

Just looking for experiences and suggestions.

Thanks.

Mir

[Marsupialmom]

Like any other flooring it has its pros and cons

Pros it is green but most of it comes from China. I am skeptical of any product coming from China between quality and human rights. If you go ahead and purchase Bamboo make sure it is of E quailty....that means the bamboo is at least 6 years old. That makes it as hard as oak. There are complaints about bamboo being brittle/breaking.

Even though it can be as hard as oak it can still scratch. You do have issues with limited colors. There is something about different colors that is relevant that I can't remember at the moment.

You need to look at what type of installations you need. Most Bamboo needs to be glue down or nailed down. It can't be "floated" which in some aplications is a major draw back. Plus some of the glues have formaldehyde (this can be the glue to hold it down and in the process it takes to make the bamboo planks).

It is easy to care for and moisture resistant. So there is less worries about putting it in bathrooms and kitchens.

***********I sell flooring. I have to add a disclaimer. Bamboo flooring is newer and they are changing technologies and improving it by the day. I sell very little of it in my area so if something new or a manufacture has come up with something I don't know, sorry. This is something I could be behind on because of not knowing a specific company or technology.

[queencarr]

subbing cause I keep looking at bamboo flooring at lumber liquidators and I want to know, too . If we could install it ourselves, I think we could afford to do it after taxes next year.

[staceychev]

I have a friend who's very unhappy with her pre-finished bamboo flooring because it hasn't held up well and it scratched really bad. She's an interior designer but also one of the most environmentally conscious people I know, so she was really holding out hope for the bamboo, but really regrets it. This was a couple of years ago, so maybe the technology has gotten better. Sorry I couldn't offer more info!

[Living Slowly]

We finally got rid of all our carpet about two months ago and installed Teragren. http://teragren.com/. You can check out their site for more info.

We had someone install it for us. It is glued down. I did a bunch of research and found that not all bamboo is created equal. Alot of the cheaper bamboo is harvested too early so it isn't as strong. We went with Teragren's Synergy. It is the commercial grade wood. We have two 100 lb Akita dogs in our house so I was worried about them scratching it. But, we haven't had a single scratch in the floor yet. I absolutely love our floors.

[MCsMom]

As in many things - you get what you pay for. We went with the amost top of the line bamboo and installed it ourselves with a nail gun. Ours is holding up great and I can confidently say it is just as hard, if not harder then the oak that we also have in the house. Yes, you can still scratch it, any wood floor is going to get scratched, just like any carpeted floor is going to harbor dirt, it is a fact of life.

We found it very easy to nail down. We already had an air compressor so we had to buy the nail gun, but for us it was much better then renting one because we were not in a hurry. Why am I saying we? My DH did everything, lol.

[bigeyes]

Ours is over a year old, floating, light in color.

I love it. So far no scratches. Easy to care for. WE have heavy duty shades and film on our windows because our Realtor warned us that the sun can fade floors and furniture here, so I don't know how much we have helped??? But they look just like they did when we first viewed the house.

We sweep, I use a broom, dh likes a vacuum :

I use a swiffer and a scrub brush or a damp mop for cleaning, depending on whether I'm cleaning a spot or actually mopping the entire floor.

If you click on the Teragren link in an earlier post, ours is the flat grain natural.

[mirlee]

Thank you all for the responses! We have been investigating the various manufacturers and looking at tons of show room samples. Most of the samples have looked better to us than the hardwood samples. If we hadn't just redone the floors in the rest of the house, I would have said, don't bother, put this stuff down! We do know that our floor will be of the nailed down variety. We have all the tools, so we just have to get the flooring. Of course, I want a different shade and cut than dh does, so we will have to arm wrestle for it.

[straighthaircurly]

We had ours installed 5 years ago and we love the look. It is throughout the entir main floor includung the kitchen. I don't know the manufacturer because we had it installed professionally. However, I do know that the quality can vary even with specific manufacturers. The people who installed ours install a LOT of bamboo (their specialty is eco-friendly floors) and the rejected the batch sent by their normal manufacturer because the quality was below expectation.

We abuse our floors pretty badly because I stink at housekeeping. Therefore we definitely have scratches that likely wouldn't be there if I swept more regularly. But it still looks great when I clean it. It has held up just as well in the high traffic kitchen as it has in the low traffic livingroom. Ours was nailed down, but I saw a floating floor version at a green products show recently. The thing that drew us to it is the look. I just find it very soothing and peaceful, with a warm and subtle exotic look compared to wood flooring.

[Alcyone]

Have you considered Marmoleum? We were going to go with bamboo but now I'm pretty sure we're going to do Marmoleum Click instead. Definitely not boring like ceramic tile.

[calla lily]

We have had our bamboo floors for about 4 months now. Love them. We got them from simplefloors.com. I was kinda sceptical of their product because of their prices (we ordered a full pallet so got the full pallet discount). But their prices were the only way we could afford to replace all the carpet in our house (about 1000 sq ft). We put the vertical natural in the living room and the vertical carbonized in the 3 bedrooms. After looking all over, we kept going back to the bamboo for the look (and the price).

Ours is glued down. My brother installs hardwood floors for a living, so he helped us (read did most of it). It has held up well so far. Yes it has scratches and dents but I would expect the same from all but the hardest hardwood. And we can refinish it down the road. We have no pets or it might look worse, but my kids can do some damage with their cars, dropping stuff. The biggest scratch is from the guys moving our bigscreen tv right after install. I doubt we got the highest quality bamboo floor out there, but for the price, we are very happy.

For cleaning, I sweep every few days, spot sweep as needed. I will dust mop, sometimes wet (damp microfiber or handknit mop cover with vinegar/water) sometimes dry. Spot wipe where needed with soft rag and vinegar/water. I love how much cleaner the house is with the carpet gone. I didn't realize all the dirt our carpet was holding until I saw what I could sweep up every couple days (I used to vacumn once a week). I would definetly install bamboo again if we were to move.

Oh, I had posted pictures of our floor a while back here too.

[Adasmommy]

We love our bamboo that we put in our new addition in December. We put felt pads under ALL the furniture (including, and especially, my 3 year old's little chair which is more likely to be dragged around than the couch). I love how easy it is to slide my coffee table around on the floor to sweep under it, or even to slide big heavy chairs (or one of the couches) closer when guests are over.

We got the carbonized bamboo and it was not expensive. Ours came from Costco (didn't even think to look at where it was manufactured, and I don't remember the manufacturer) and my husband installed it (nailed down). It took a while, but it didn't look hard (easy for me to say, huh?).

I love it and am soo glad we went with it, and wish we'd had the cash to put it in our music room too which ended up with cheap (but pretty good looking) laminate.

There are no scratches on this floor yet that I know of. Dustmopping is easy but I have to do it constantly (there's a yard full of dirt and grass between our car and our front door). I don't keep up well with washing, and we get raisens, oatmeal, and various other substances smeared on it all the time. It washes easily with water or vinegar, but there's usually a few grimey spots that I haven't gotten to yet. I still feel like it generally looks great at any given time. It is soo beautiful. Let me see if I can figure out how to attach some pictures . . .

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a91...scan0012-1.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a91...rmommatree.jpg

Have fun picking something!

[gr8tfulmom]

Originally Posted by VeganLove

We finally got rid of all our carpet about two months ago and installed Teragren. http://teragren.com/. You can check out their site for more info.

We had someone install it for us. It is glued down. I did a bunch of research and found that not all bamboo is created equal. Alot of the cheaper bamboo is harvested too early so it isn't as strong. We went with Teragren's Synergy. It is the commercial grade wood. We have two 100 lb Akita dogs in our house so I was worried about them scratching it. But, we haven't had a single scratch in the floor yet. I absolutely love our floors.

Us too, only vertical grain natural, nailed down. Its held up well during the end of construction, moving and 5 almost 2 y/olds last week