DIY Bamboo Floors for a first timer
imgur.com/HnGtU,quYzT,fvDFz,mSpqn,bBvIL,CJ0HB...
imgur.comPosted Aug 28, 2012, 3:07 PM UTC
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imgur.comHow come you did not keep the grain going the same way? With a little bit of planning you could have avoided the transition strips.
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Came here to say the same thing. That's the bonus when using the same flooring throughout, a clean look with seamless transitions.
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I agree, though I've always been taught that the best rule of thumb is to run the boards parallel to the longest walls in order to avoid cutting and to make the room look bigger.
I think it creates a ton more work to get all the wood to run the same direction, but absolutely IMO it's worth the extra work - really adds a classy touch to the look and feel.
That said, the end result here looks good and worlds better than what was there previously. (:
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"I think it creates a ton more work to get all the wood to run the same direction, but absolutely IMO it's worth the extra work - really adds a classy touch to the look and feel."
It is more work for sure. More measuring, more cutting, etc. Very good tip though and had I considered it I probably would have done it your way.
Edit: After thinking about it some more, the instructions are pretty clear that any floor that is more than 27 feet in length or width requires an expansion gap that needs to be covered with a transition strip. Perhaps that is more cautionary and intended for people who live in environments with large humidity swings, but that's what it said.
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Looks like you did a good job! But I have to ask, why rip up the old wood flooring? I think the colors goes much better than the lighter bamboo. Pulling up the carpet was definitely a good call though.
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I thought it would look really weird to have two different types/colors/ages of wood in transition like that. I prefer the floor color to the current wall color, and the latter can be changed pretty easily in a weekend.
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Did you salvage any of the old wood or did it all go to the dump?
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Unfortunately it all went to the dump. It was nail-down tongue in groove which is a floor technology I have no interest in working with. Floating floors seem better in every respect. Easier to install correctly. Easier to repair if necessary. And without all those creaky nails - MUCH QUIETER.
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No worries. Just looked like decent wood despite the dark tone. I live in a rural area and always get depressed when I see old homes gutted and the old hardwoods and stuff thrown out. Same with old barns when they get torn down. At least some of the Amish/Mennonite barn raisers do a pretty good job of saving the old wood. Been debating about using salvaged wood to do the exterior of the garage at my parents house when they finally decide to redo their garage.
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Is it the picture, or is the room at a 10deg incline?
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And the blinds in the background. This whole photo makes me anxious.
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yet that framed picture seems level to the photo.
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I have a feeling that the OP is brilliantly trolling anyone with OCD
OP, troll on you magnificent bastard.
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Haha. I'm into carpentry, not photography!
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Looks awesome! Just curious if there were any hiccups along the way or anything you wish you would have done differently? Again- great work!
*ETA Only asking bc we have a back den that is different flooring than the rest of the house and thinking about redoing it to match the hardwood elsewhere. Would love any advice or things to look out for.
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anything you wish you would have done differently?
As someone pointed out to me earlier I wish I had kept the wood going the same direction as before to avoid the transition strips. I also wish I had used the noise-dampening premium underlayment. I wish I had used solid hardwood baseboards instead of MDF. I wish I had a routing tool for precision cuts and a tablesaw for longer cuts instead of a jigsaw for both.
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Thinking about doing this in my home. It's small square footage so I'm thinking it won't be too costly. I hear bamboo is pretty reasonable and was going to go that route. Was your project pretty affordable?
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Mine came out to about $5/square foot, but I used pretty high quality materials for everything. I wanted a really dense hard wood that my dog could not easily scratch so I went with the solid strand bamboo.
If I wanted the same look for less money, I would look into engineered hardwood floors. It basically plywood with a 2mm-4mm solid hardwood surface. Much cheaper and lighter, but you get the same exact look as a solid wood board. The disadvantage is you can only sand and resurface them once if at all, but who does that anyway?
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Wow, that looks awesome. Do you mind giving a total price of this project?
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About $2500 materials, $600 tools if I had to guess.
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How much total square feet?
Edit: ignore me, saw your answer
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About 550.
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Is there a purpose to the transition strips between the corridor and the room?
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According to the instructions, you can't have a length of floor more than 27 feet long without a break and a transition strip, otherwise you'll be subject to buckling as the floor expands and contracts with natural moisture variations. That transition strip is actually covering a 1/2" gap that is allowing the floor to move a bit as needed.
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27 feet = 8.23 meters
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Thank you, conversionbot
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My pleasure, brah!
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That's what I assumed, but needed the confirmation since you've actually researched how to use the material.
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Bamboo hates water. It buckles easy. You have to be crazy vigilant with water....
It is a bit soft, but it does look great.
I ended up ripping out my bamboo and installed Brazilian Ipe (nightmare install and extremely painful slivers), but child and water proof.
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I think it depends on the brand. The two highest rated floorings by Consumer Reports for the last couple years have both been bamboo. They test them for durability, stain resistance, uv fade resistance, etc. so it shouldn't have problems if you get the right one.
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I can't remember the brand, but it cost quite a fortune. It would have been great for adults...
Only the Ipe could stand up to my twins and their spilled drinks.
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Strand Natural Bamboo is twice as hard as typical bamboo. This stuff is really hard. But don't take my word for it! Get a sample at the store sometime and try scratching it with your keys. Not easy!
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Thanks for saying that. I'm concerned about my black lab scratching the heck out of it.
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The best test really is to just scratch the samples. If you have one of your dog's nail clippings you can try to see if it is even possible to scratch the floor with them. My little 40lb retriever you see in the living room shot doesn't scratch it at all though.
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WHERE WILL YOU POOP!?
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Related note, why do people put wood in bathrooms? Seems like a recipe for disaster.
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This bathroom had hardwood floors in it since the early 70's. No disaster yet. Plus, what would the worst case really be? 20 square feet of hardwood that I would have to replace with tile?
Tile sounds great until you look at the cost of the tools, the difficulty working with it, and the weight. I hauled this shit into my house myself and wood was heavy enough!
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Don't say these things! I want to retile my shower and I'm dreading it since I've never done any tile work.
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Well, they only hard part is cutting the tiles. You'll need a wet saw if you want a professional look. They are expensive as hell.
You could always go for one of the $40 score-and-break tile cutters from home depot, but you'll need baseboards to hide your jagged edges.
Everything else is actually really easy. I haven't tiled a bathroom but I did tile my fireplace with 3/4"x3" glass tiles with 20"x20" stone tiles in front of it as a hearth. You'll need an even surface to work with which means either leveling the floor or putting down a thin layer of backerboard. If possible, I recommend the backerboard for any application where you need a flat surface to apply mortar and tile. It makes a HUGE difference in how flat you can make things, and it is just so much easier than trying to level a surface by sanding it down or building it up with compound.
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I have two other bathrooms.
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Cali Bamboo? Your flooring looks a lot like the strand bamboo I got from them. The grain and color is beautiful.
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Morning Star. I linked to it in another comment.
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Good work, but I really liked the dark hard woods.
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Ha. Well, they were older than me and had to go. That carpet was a war crime, too.
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shoes all over the place
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Price of bamboo flooring per square foot?
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Linked in another comment.
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How's it holding up with your dog? The sample pieces that I see at stores are always gouged to hell so I was under the impression that it was fairly soft.
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I looked at a ton of condos last winter and bamboo was always the best looking. Maybe the people just treated it better, but it showed far fewer scratches/dents than other hardwoods.
I'll probably go with bamboo when I replace my hardwood floor/carpet in a few years (too much water damage to sand/save).
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Hard floors that are lighter in color are the way to go, IMO. It lasts long and makes the room look bigger and brighter. Dark woods show their scratches very prominently, and they make a room look darker and smaller.
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Strand Natural Bamboo is some of the hardest bamboo you can get. It ranks around 2500-3000 on the Janka hardness scale which makes it harder than maple and twice as hard as other bamboo varieties. It's an extremely dense and hard wood.
When I get samples from the store, I just try to scratch them with my keys. I call it the Maleman hardness scale.
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Looks good
Did you inspect the water damage around the front door and make sure everything was sealed up before closing the subfloor back in?
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It was just some minor water stains caused by a poor seal with the front door. No biggie.
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I'm just wondering how did you tuck the wood under the toilet?
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I'm not sure what you mean. You don't tuck it under the toilet - you jig a hole around the sewer pipe and the toilet gets installed on top of the hardwood floors.
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[deleted]
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Is this comment why I only see one picture?
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I thought the same thing...when did imgur change?
Look at the links at the top (prev/next/1/2/3....etc)
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There's different album styles on imgur, which is really dumb.
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Are you on a mobile device? I had to request the desktop version of imgur in my Android browser to see more than the first photo.
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I am indeed.
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This took me about 50 hours of work and I did it myself with my girlfriend's assistance. Pulled all the old floors and carpets, hauled it out to the U-Haul and then the dump. Brought new floors with a handtruck 3 boxes at a time, 23 total boxes, each box about 100 pounds and 6 feet long. No joke.
Put new underlayment and floors then new baseboards and shoe mouldings.
Major tools used: Miter Saw, 18 Gauge Nail Gun, Jig Saw, Air Compressor.
Minor Tools: MANY. Rubber Mallot. Level. Measuring tape. Needlenose pliers. Duct and Masking tape. Doorjamb saw, sanding block, etc.
Ask me questions or give me advice. There is still a few finishing touches waiting like putting on the door transition strip and caulking between the baseboards and the walls, but I'm almost there.
Why caulk between baseboards and walls?
Caulking along the top of the baseboards IMO gives it a nice smooth transition to the wall that looks more "finished" when painted
bingo
Good job. How many square feet?
About 550 if I recall correctly
I did a small room about 200 square feet, it made me glad to have knee pads.
Haha. Had needpads, didn't use 'em. Guess they're like condoms in that respect....
Total cost?
Really hard to estimate. I bought almost all of the major power tools, and minor little tools. I'd say tools, $600. Materials, $2500ish.
Not bad considering the quote I got of $5500 for the floors and $1000 for the fireplace (which I also tiled myself and can be seen in the living room shot).
Where'd you source your material? How many SFT and how much did you end up paying for for the underlayment + flooring per sft?
Underlayment was $.80/sqft, flooring was $3.59/square foot. Bought it at lumber liquidators no-tax sale.
Here's the links to them:
Wood
Underlayment
If I had to do it over, I would use this underlayment though. VERY QUIET. I mean absurdly quiet compared to any other product I've seen. They have a demo set up where you bounce a golf ball off of floors built on it and its competitors. Pretty incredible how quiet it is. When I do my stairs in a few weeks I'll use this instead.