Wood floor suggestions?

[Sigarms]

The wife was looking at bamboo for the upstairs floor (5 years of an ugly carpet in the bedroom and hallway is coming to an end).

Currently, three cats upstairs (2 being inside/outside) and every once in a while when the wifes gone away for work, I'll bring a dog upstairs.

The more we read up on bamboo, the more were wondering (reading about that is can scratch up easy). Wife wants to go with a darker color wood.

Any experiences with Bamboo floor or any suggestions on another type of wood?

What we were looking at for the bamboo was $3.19 per square.

Since were planning on being here at least another 20 years, don't want to second guess myself.

Buddy who actually can make a fine cut will be helping me because I'm afraid of what I can do

[Youare]

Sorry no experience with bamboo, but three years ago I put down an oak floor in a family room and this spring a white pine floor in the bedroom. We have a couple of dogs and two cats.

The oak floor in the family room is made from antique oak wood from an old barn and is classified as country grade complete with knots and other small defects giving it character. I was a little concerned that the dogs would scratch the finish. I finished the floor with 6 coats of tongue oil. The dogs have not bothered the floor from what I can see, the wife on the other hand decided to drag the furniture around and made a couple of scratches. The beauty of the tongue oil finish is the scratches disappeared with a wipe of a rag damp with a little tongue oil.

The white pine floor in the bedroom is a little slippery for the dogs to feel comfortable walking on so they avoid the room. I am sure that over time the floor will develop a distressed character although I am not looking forward to that right now.

Whatever floor you put down will with time show signs of use. Area rugs will help in the traffic areas. My son works for a company that makes wood floring, Carlisle Wide Plank Flooring and they sell a prefinished flooring that has a very hard durable finish, they also sell unfinished flooring. However, you have to remember the wood under the finish is not as hard and will over time and with use wear is inevitable.

The one question I would ask about bamboo is can it be sanded and refinished? All floors will need that at some point.

Randy

[2manyrocks]

I hope someone gives some good suggestions to your question because we probably need to get rid of our carpet for allergy reasons.

A friend of mine told me this summer that manufacturers are switching to bamboo because it is environmentally friendly. We had been discussing this in relation to the local sawmill which had shut down, but had previously sawn a whole lot of red oak. My question is whether bamboo is that great a product or it's cheaper or whether something else is going on.

I grew up in a house with 3/4 oak floors. I'm not sure that there is a better long term flooring solution than solid oak, but I'm open to suggestions, too.

[JJT]

I have no experience with bamboo, but went the hard maple route many years ago due to the dogs. There's a reason they use hard maple in bowling alleys and for gym floor. It's held up well.

[Egon]

There is a pretty varied assortment of wood to choose from for a floor.

The floors in our current Digs are of Red Oak and Maple placed in 1934 when the house was built.

[Sigarms]

Originally Posted by 2manyrocks

A friend of mine told me this summer that manufacturers are switching to bamboo because it is environmentally friendly.

We're actually now looking at the strand woven Bamboo.

Personally, don't know it's enviromentally friendly, but found out a long time ago that the wood is remarkably tough. Not sure about floors, but this is the way we're leaning.

Luckily we're only doing our master bedroom and the hallway to the stairs, so the square footage won't be huge.

Area rugs will help in the traffic areas.

We're planning on that. The carpet is just at the point where it needs to go.

[chh]

We installed 3/4" oak floors in out whole house(baths, kitchen, everywhere) when we built it 3+ years ago. So far other than a couple of very minor scuffs in the finish it is holding up great. Oak ought to be about as "enviromentally freindly" as you could get if you look at the long term. Renewable product that should last for as many years as the average house. We wanted a rustic look so we used a "B" grade(scraps off of good flooring) from Lumber Liquidators. There was some extra cutting and trimming to use that grade, but at a purchase price of $.99 a square foot it was worth it. My wife and I did it ourselves(we are not carpenters) and it is not nearly as hard to do as one would think, if you have a bit of patience.

[Egon]

There was some extra cutting and trimming to use that grade, but at a purchase price of $.99 a square foot it was worth it

If one is doing the work themselves there are lots of deals to be found with cutoffs/discards from jobs where labour is not free.

[NSBound]

My neighbour is a builder and used bamboo in his own new home, and already is sorry he did. He says it tends to chip and for some reason it looks dirty, in the grain, all the time.

I used engineered hardwood over my radiant floor heat, and selected hickory. It's got a great coloration and is very hard, and my builder neighbour always comments how much he admires it and he is using that from now on in his project houses.

[thatguy]

We had some friends that were 1/2 way thru putting down bamboo engineered or laminate flooring and took it all back up.. They didnt like the look of it at all - it has too consistant look to it for them. Looks are very subjective - but just incase you really havent seen an entire room of it down..

We went with hickory solid hardwood flooring and have never regretted it.. Ours has a poly finish to it and if you look really close you can see some scratches due to either the dog OR the metal dog pen we had down at one time..

brian