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| My husband and I are planning on replacing 70 yo strip oak floors with bamboo in our LR/DR/Kit. Subfloor is wood planks over an unfinished basement. We don't want a click and lock floating floor because of the less substantial feel/sound and because the kitchen cabs (including a peninsula) will be going down on top of the finished floor (contiversial, I know).
Our product of choice is Cali Bamboo fossilized wide plank strand. Does anyone have experience nailing down this kind of floor? Their website says nail down is possible with an 18 gauge pneumatic nailer, but when I spoke to an installer, they said it was too hard to nail down. This will be a DIY project, but we will have assistance from an experienced HW installer (not experienced with this particular product). Any comments on quality of the Cali Bamboo and/or reliability of the company would also be appreciated. Thanks. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Hello... I might be able to help you there.. we just did an install of that product. Give me a call if you like: 1-866=-5floors |
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- Posted by UniqueWoodFloor (My Page) on Thu, Aug 9, 12 at 16:32
| This is a great question. I have been checking back on this thread. Hoping to see some comment from experienced contractors. We always have the same concern especially when Cali claims over 5000 in Janka for their SWB while the hardest hardwood is at around 3800 Janka. |
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| Yes, I did my kitchen and dining room in it. I had no experience going into this project with nail-down floors; which was a good thing. You must use 18 ga staples, and even then, I would recommend that you use the "spotnails" WS4840W2 stapler. I used a Porta-Nails 461 gun, but I had to modify (shim) the shoe so that it would fire the staples perfectly into the pocket. I also had to use some kind of heavy duty staple, the first ones I tried to use just bounced off the bamboo. I watched some HGTV show where a contractor was putting what looked like this or some other stranded bamboo down with a 15 ga cleat nailer, and they zoomed in and showed him splitting the tongue and dimpling the board with nearly every nail he drove in.. it made me sad. Having said that, I have one or two dimpled boards from staples gone awry- nobody's perfect! Even then, yes, if your alignment of the gun isn't perfect, the staples are likely to bunch up into a mess of wire spagetti. I'd say 1 in 10 staples scrunches up anyhow; needle nose pliers and staple sets are your friend. I went overboard and used 3x flooring straps with ratchets to secure each of the boards under pressure before I nailed them. My once squeaky subfloor squeaks no more. I did not enjoy the install. Once the floor is down, it is really bulletproof. It is not, however, waterproof, nor can it tolerate really any water for any period of time- the seams wick water fast, and hold it- any prolonged water exposure will result in cupping, and a 'wrinkling' of the surface if water is excessive in that area. I had a fridge leak that snuck up on me , and left my floors a little less pristine than they once were. I am sure the bamboo fared better than most any other wood would have. If I had to do it over again, I would do a click lock wide plank floating floor, over a soundproofing underlayment, and I would seal coat it with the product the manufacturer recommends for kitchen / commercial use. |
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- Posted by UniqueWoodFloor (My Page) on Sat, Sep 15, 12 at 16:18
| Hi bigb33, Thanks for sharing your experience with us. We carry a Standed Woven Bamboo brand called "Dasso". They all in Valinge G 5 lock, even with their solid version. I now know why our supplier is not quite fond of any Tongue and Groove version SWB. |
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| Thanks bigb33! We gave up on bamboo and went with a more traditional hardwood. We weren't willing to risk it when we couldn't find any personal accounts. Hopefully your experience will help someone else decide. |
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