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]

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

 

[om21braz]

We have 2 full grown Labradors here and went with Kahrs oak recently in our living room. It is impressive so far - approx. 6 months in. Almost too many options out there nowdays. The Kahrs is engineered although feels like 3/4" tongue/groove hardwood - they are laid side-by-side against one hallway.

 

[PILOON]

I have laid more than my share of floorings, lots of hard woods both pre finished and raw unsanded un finished.
Also many of the engineered laminates.
Did my first bamboo just a short while ago.

Bamboo is very consistant looking, to the point as looking printed in that it is totally free of knots or variences and can look man made.

It splinters VERY easily, is VERY hard.
Can't attest to wear caracteristics, but should be good.
You can't use flooring staples but need a flooring nailer as the staples tend to split the bamboo.(due to staple legs being 1/2" apart causes a split to occur)
Using my 16g finish nailer to do the edges destroyed my gun as the bamboo is so tough that the driver pin buckled and broke off. We had to resort to drilling and driving finish nails bu hand.
Another thing that I did not like was that every board in the package was exactly the same length so we needed to do a lot of cuts to avoid repetitive seams as that was just too artificial looking.

 

[EddieWalker]

Bamboo is a type of grass. It's fast growing and after cut down, grows right back. In fact, it's almost impossible to get rid of it, so in that regard, it causes no damage to the environment by harvesting it. Kind of like cutting your front yard lawn. It just grows back again.

Bamboo is also very soft. In it's natural, round form, it's very strong, but when cut into strips for floors, it's extremely soft compared to wood. It wears something terrible and ages very quickly. I've managed to talk every one of my clients out of it by first telling them about it, then challenging them to find a home where they have it and would install it again. Nobody wants to use it after having it already.

If you go solid, then it's a matter of prep and finish. The wood is pretty much the same with who you buy it from, but getting a good sanding and finish of it is what you are really paying for. It's allot more then $3 a ft, so that's probaby not what you are looking at.

Of the two main types of snap together flooring, there is the laminats and the engineered floorings. The laminates are the less expensive of the two. If you go this route, there are two really important things to remember. The paddind crucial. Never buy the cheap padding. If it's a high traffice area, you really need to buy the premium padding, otherwise, the middle grade stuff works well. Right now, Home Depot does not sell a padding that I'd use on a job. Lowes has a very good padding that's worth the extra money. The other thing to remember is that the cheapy brands and copycat brands are pure junk. Pay at least $2 a ft on up from a name brand. If you don't recognize the brand, check them out. There are allot of Chinese and East European makers of some really bad laminate flooring.

Engineered flooring has the same two rules. Buy the good padding and buy a name brand. Price for engineered is about twice what laminate is, but you get a real wood finish that just looks and feels allot better then the laminates.

When bidding a floor, I give my clients a budget of $7 a ft for materials and then we go from there on what they can afford and want. When they start downgrading to the cheap stuff, I start telling them about not offering a warrentee on it, and to expect it to fail on them in a few years. $5 a foot seems to be about the bottom end of a decent engineered floor that I'll gurantee. I've been installing and refinishing floors for a dozen years or so, and with the name brand products, I've never had a claim. When I've installed the cheap stuff, I've been called back to replace sections that have failed. What's sad is they could have bought the good stuff the first time around for what it ends up costing them for the cheap stuff and my time to come back and replace the pieces that chip, crack and curl up on them.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[rtdiggr]

My sister put down IPE. it is not the cheapest but it is one of the hardest woods you will find in this part of the world. It comes from South America.

if you do a Google search on which type of wood and there hardness you will learn alot.
Shane

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

we put bamboo in our house when we built it. Our dogs are 65 & 85 pounds and it doesn't matter what kind of wood you use, it'll show marks.
The bamboo was pretty easy to put in, I staggered my seams about 9" and it so far everyone who has seen it likes it.
We ordered it from Lumber Liquidators and picked it up at a showroom so did not have to pay any shipping.

 

[kenstrac]

Last week I just caught the end of a news report about bamboo ,people getting sick from the formaldehyde in the flooring.
Might turn out to be like the Chinese sheetrock after it's in for awhile surprise.

 

[nhkabotab7800]

be very careful with engineered wood floors...Eddie is right buy the high quality stuff, and most important follow the instalation directions to the t. i have been back to many installations when i was a warranty manager, every problem with the flooring buckeling or pillowing ( you will know what i mean if it happens to you ) has been due to poor instalation. the proper gap around the entire edge is criticall. personally i would not use engineered wood flooring i prefer the old 3/4" nailed down flooring.

 

[Western]

Bamboo is a type of grass. It's fast growing and after cut down, grows right back. In fact, it's almost impossible to get rid of it, so in that regard, it causes no damage to the environment by harvesting it. Kind of like cutting your front yard lawn. It just grows back again.

Bamboo is also very soft. In it's natural, round form, it's very strong, but when cut into strips for floors, it's extremely soft compared to wood. It wears something terrible and ages very quickly. I've managed to talk every one of my clients out of it by first telling them about it, then challenging them to find a home where they have it and would install it again. Nobody wants to use it after having it already.

If you go solid, then it's a matter of prep and finish. The wood is pretty much the same with who you buy it from, but getting a good sanding and finish of it is what you are really paying for. It's allot more then $3 a ft, so that's probaby not what you are looking at.

Of the two main types of snap together flooring, there is the laminats and the engineered floorings. The laminates are the less expensive of the two. If you go this route, there are two really important things to remember. The paddind crucial. Never buy the cheap padding. If it's a high traffice area, you really need to buy the premium padding, otherwise, the middle grade stuff works well. Right now, Home Depot does not sell a padding that I'd use on a job. Lowes has a very good padding that's worth the extra money. The other thing to remember is that the cheapy brands and copycat brands are pure junk. Pay at least $2 a ft on up from a name brand. If you don't recognize the brand, check them out. There are allot of Chinese and East European makers of some really bad laminate flooring.

Engineered flooring has the same two rules. Buy the good padding and buy a name brand. Price for engineered is about twice what laminate is, but you get a real wood finish that just looks and feels allot better then the laminates.

When bidding a floor, I give my clients a budget of $7 a ft for materials and then we go from there on what they can afford and want. When they start downgrading to the cheap stuff, I start telling them about not offering a warrentee on it, and to expect it to fail on them in a few years. $5 a foot seems to be about the bottom end of a decent engineered floor that I'll gurantee. I've been installing and refinishing floors for a dozen years or so, and with the name brand products, I've never had a claim. When I've installed the cheap stuff, I've been called back to replace sections that have failed. What's sad is they could have bought the good stuff the first time around for what it ends up costing them for the cheap stuff and my time to come back and replace the pieces that chip, crack and curl up on them.

Good luck,
Eddie

Good info Eddie, Thanks.
I didn't even know you put down a padding 1st.. Is/ it possible to put a wood floor in a triple wide? I know the florrs are junk but was wondering if its possible or even practical?

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

We have 3/4" x 3.5" gun stock stain oak plank floors & tile throughout the whole house. Both are slippery for two dogs - one 90 #'s other 125 #'s. So far after 6 years there are only a few minor scratches in the hardwood - nothing serious. The scratches are more like indentations - the surface is not broken. Worst mark on the hardwood came when I reached out to one of the dogs, overbalanced my office chair and the metal foot made a couple of actual gouges.

Another family member has natural maple plank floor with dogs / kids. Seems to be holding up very well.

Local Home Depot has dark bamboo on sale. As others have said, grain is too consistent. Put a few boards together and to me it doesn't look any better than cheap printed laminate.

 

[EddieWalker]

Good info Eddie, Thanks.
I didn't even know you put down a padding 1st.. Is/ it possible to put a wood floor in a triple wide? I know the florrs are junk but was wondering if its possible or even practical?

The snap together floorings, like laminate and engineered, are ideal for moble homes if it's dry. Moisture is a big enemy of them. On new homes, it's importat to make sure the concrete under them is cured and dry, on moble homes, it's all about the outside elements getting in.

Since the floors float on the surface under them, it works great on something like a mobile home that might have more movement on the floor then a conventional home. It also goes right over vinyl without any modifications to the vinyl. Just make sure everything is flat and smooth. Depending on what's there, Bondo works great at leveling out those spots that need something added to smooth them out.

Since the floor is held in place by gravity and it's enourmous weight, it does move around to a small degree, when you walk on it. Because of this, it's very important that it does not touch the walls. A quarter inch is plenty, but more is ok too, as long as you can cover the gap. On most homes, 3/4 inch quarter round is added to the baseboards to cover the gap. I prefer to remove the baseboards and either reinstall them, or put in new baseboards. To me, this gives a cleaner finish.

At doorways, it's ok to have the flooring touch for small areas.

When insallling it, make sure to start in the proper corner. If you start in the wrong corner, they won't snap together very well. Practice first and find the right place to start. As a basic rule of thumb, the grain goes in the same direction of the light, or the length of the room. Of course, whatever looks best is what usualy decides this anyway.

They sell tools that you can buy for tapping them together, but I always just use the end of a piece that I've cut off. You really dont' get allot of waste with these floors, but you will have to cut them to get it right. I found that cutting the end off of one of the pieces gives me a perfect tapping tool. Be sure to cut off the proper end. Just put you pieces down at the corner that it all fits together an see what the end is. Then cut off a piece that fits in there and you have a tapping too. that is perfect for that model and type of flooring. Since there are so many variations, I always do it this way.

Buy the better padding, tape it together with 3 inch masking tape, or you can use a special tape that they sell for this. The last floor that I did had a clear plastic over it with a tape already part of it. That was from Lowes, and it was a really good pad. This was the first time that I saw this, so I don't know if anybody else sells this type of padding or not. If not, buy tape. The padding just lays on the floor undernieth and is not attached to anything. It can touch the walls, or come up short by a bit. It's not crucial there, but it is crucial in all the walk areas and anywhere somebody might walk.

This is an easy do it yourselfer, but you do have to make sure the floor under is flat and level. You will also find that allot of getting up and down, bending over and working on your hands and knees. To get around corners, doorways and fireplaces, the cuts have to be precises. If unsure, cut it twice. Once to get close the second time to make it perfect. I've been known to cut a board three and four times to get it just right. For those areas that you will see it, only perfect will work.

Eddie