Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Bamboo flooring 2Oct 23, 2009 7:47 am Hi Julie, I have bamboo flooring in my place and I can highly recommend it. I believe that it wears better than hardwood, but it is still prone to dents and scratches so the same amount of care and maintenance needs to be taken. The following is a copy & paste of a maintenance guide: ********************** Proper maintenance is the key to insuring the everlasting beauty of your Bamboo flooring investment. A properly maintained floor significantly increases the likelihood of a satisfied customer and the floors continuing beauty. Regardless of how the floor has been finished, there are certain steps that must be taken to maintain the beauty of all types of floors. The following are some excellent guidelines for protecting and maintaining your investment: General Maintenance Blot up spills and spots on your Bamboo or timber floor and dry it up immediately by using damp mop then dry with a clean soft cloth or towel. Maintain your Bamboo floor as you would any hardwood floor. The key to your floors long life and good looks is periodic cleaning and refinishing when necessary. Every floor must be dust mopped, with a cleaning vacuum brush head or swept with a soft bristle broom, as often as necessary to remove grit and dust from the surface. Walking on sandy or dirty floors is the fastest way to damage the finish and this applies to either hardwood timber or bamboo flooring. Regularly clean the floor with a dust mop, soft bristled broom soft bristled vacuum cleaner, or a wood floor mop kit Restore shine, if required, with an electric buffer and soft, dry pad but do seek professional advice with this type of equipment Protection Maintenance To help guard against scratches and dents, place protective pads under furniture legs and chairs. Make sure the protective pads are large enough to distribute the weight evenly. Use at least 25mm wide soft vinyl or rubber roller when necessary. Floor mats must be placed at the entrance to the outdoors to collect dirt or sand that can damage your floors. Check that the backing is non-abrasive and will not chemically react with the floor’s finish Oil from asphalt driveways or roads will tend to leave a stain, be sure to clean shoes and entry mats well. No hardwood flooring is completely dent or scratch or dent, ideally enact the ‘no-shoes’ policy as much as reasonably possible to maintain the life of your flooring. Keep any pets’ claws closely trimmed to avoid scratching the surface coating Place a drip pan under potted plants, but allow airflow underneath it Prevention Maintenance Do Not use scouring powder or pads, wax, oil soap, common household or abrasive cleaners on Timber or Bamboo flooring. Do Not use a Steam Mop to clean the floor Do Not use a vacuum with a beater bar. Do Not walk on the floor with spiked heels, shoes that need repair or athletic cleats Do Not drop heavy objects on to the floor as all hardwood flooring will dent. Carry, Do Not drag or roll heavy furniture particularly those on small rimmed casters as all hardwood flooring will dent. Ideally casters should sit on a protective furniture cups. Re-arrange rugs and furniture periodically to ensure your floor ages evenly. The suns ultraviolet rays can age and oxidize most flooring causing a darkening effect, or if subjected to strong sunlight the colour could fade. This applies to all floorcoverings, timber, bamboo, carpet and vinyl. Re: Bamboo flooring 4Oct 23, 2009 12:20 pm we are putting in bamboo - I believe that it is the strandwoven type that is the hardiest of the bamboo options. progress viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20401 sculptures viewtopic.php?f=36&t=26607 pole trouble viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25988 Re: Bamboo flooring 5Oct 23, 2009 3:34 pm The flooring in the new Melbourne Recital Centre is bamboo, I believe, and they would have selected, we hope, bearing in mind the high traffic levels they would have expected. Mind you, for an organisation that hasn't managed to complete their public parking area, that has a single, narrow escalator running just before concerts start, that has been described by a visiting German manager as nice people but inept (my interpretation of his German), and that has managed to upset many of the local artists by cancelling concerts due to what appears to be terrible mismanagement I'm not sure how much of a recommendation that really is! Pfiff Finally making progress again, with a clothesline (yippee) and some much needed little things being attended to over the holidays. 40 C on New Year's eve? We love our a/c! Re: Bamboo flooring 6Oct 23, 2009 9:24 pm We are planning on having bamboo in our hallway and living areas. It's a renewable resource which is environmentally friendly. Plus it looks fantastic. There are other threads on H1 about this topic, which are worth a read. Re: Bamboo flooring 8Oct 26, 2009 2:09 pm Hello All, Please know, Bamboo flooring installs for the same price as hardwood flooring and the methods are exactly the same. However, bamboo flooring is actually more durable than most hardwood flooring as well as cheaper. It is available in many finishes and is beautiful. From the environmental side, bamboo flooring is made from bamboo which matures in less than two years making it a very renewable resource, where as hardwood floors are made from trees often hundreds of years old (often rain forest woods) and contributes to deforestation. Re: Bamboo flooring 9Oct 28, 2009 4:51 pm Make sure you shop around, some bamboo is way too expensive (ie. one quote was $130 NOT installed). I know there is some cheap and nasty bamboo out there but shop around ask people to send you samples so you can compare quality and colour. I got 125m2 of strandwoven coffee bamboo for $8100 (not installed) and its very good quality! Re: Bamboo flooring 10Oct 28, 2009 5:39 pm Re. cost - we also investigated bamboo while we were getting some quotes for timber floors. The quote came just a bit under the solid full timber floors (blackbutt, from memory). Re. durability and looks - for us, the bamboo just doesn't do it (but it's just us:). Firstly, the varieties of bamboo floors that one would normally be offered by flooring shops are not even full bamboo. To manufacture the floors, bamboo is mixed with some kind of man-made material (I call them all plastic ) and cooked (believe it or not) and pressed together, so it seems extremely tough when you are holding a piece in your hand. However, its hardness (tip - Google "janka") is just a bit over solid blackbutt (from memory). It dents and scratches like other timbers of similar hardness rating. Another thing is that you apparently can't sand it (being a cookie mixed of plastic and organic), although people who will try to sell it will swear on their lives that you can. Finally, appearance wise, it just can't compare with timber (at least for us). There are 2 advantages, though. 1) Grows quickly, therefore it's eco-friendly - if this is your governing factor when selecting flooring type. 2) IF you are planning to install it on ground floor, on the slab, you don't need to use 19mm timber battens underneath it. Why is this good? Because your finished floor will be less thick (than with solid timber), so you don't need to worry about things like doorways becoming just a bit too low, doors too long, kitchen benchtop suddenly lower, etc. Also, if you have normal ceiling height, a less thick floor would help just that little bit so that the ceilings don't feel too closed down on you. Hope this 2 cents worth helps! I also strongly suggest that you visit a few timber shops, get their story (each will try to sell you what they want at that point), and definitely Goooooooooooogle it 'til you drop Anyway, good luck with whatever your choice may be! My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Bamboo flooring 11Oct 28, 2009 6:12 pm Thank you for this information, every bit certainly helps. Luckily we do not have to make a decision right away and will be researching the timber shops etc. This is a wonderful forum to get helpful hints. Thanks again everyone. Re: Bamboo flooring 12Nov 05, 2009 5:43 pm But there are solid wood floors which are direct stick on the slab, therefore does not require the use of timber battens underneath it. Anyways, I quite like the look of bamboo floors, but its hard to get proper information on which one is better than the other when comparing between different bamboo floors. Perhaps its just me, but I find that unlike solid wood floors which are tried and tested, the quality and lifetime durability of bamboo flooring is abit vague. I've been to a few bamboo flooring shops which have said wonderful things about their product, but then a different shop will say their product is much better and the other types are inferior Personally, with solid wood floors, I know im getting top quality real hardwood if im forking out > $150 per sqm. But with bamboo flooring even in this price range, i might still be paying for mixed and compressed stuff. 12 March 2010 - Land titles received 3 April 2010 - Signed building contract 14 April 2010 - Prestart 28 April 2010 - Loan approved 30 June 2010 - Slab completed 27 August 2010 - Brickwork completed 22 September 2010 - Roofing completed 30 September 2010 - Internal walls plastered 12 October 2010 - Lock Up 19 November 2010 - PCI 26 November 2010 - Handover 29 December 2010 - Moved In https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32584 Re: Bamboo flooring 13Nov 05, 2009 10:24 pm aLLaNNa1 But there are solid wood floors which are direct stick on the slab, therefore does not require the use of timber battens underneath it. Dear aLLaNNa1, they are usually called slimwood (because they are indeed slimmer boards). There is also another well known solid type which is laid using the "direct stick" method - parquetry. According to many timber flooring experts, this is the top of the range flooring type. I have one small "problem" with parquetry though - it can look a "busy" floor ... and I love the "neutral" and calming look of loooooong slender boards, especially in spieces which have prominent variations in colour. BTW, a "direct stick" is apparently and unfortunately not always exactly a "direct stick"; lots depends on exact slab conditions. Like all other types, they also come with their pros and cons. Need to figure out if the pros are stronger than the cons In our special case, we are most likely going with one of these two on the ground floor (due to site conditions). On the top floor we will most likely go with the good old fashioned full timber (because battens are not needed on top floor ). I would ( ie. will ) personally stay away from bamboo, even though it's a bit cheaper and ... fashionable(??!) BTW, you can definitely get solid timber considerably cheaper than the whopping 150! Actually, the price alone will obviously never guarantee a "top quality" So, it may pay off to shop around My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... 1000000% definitely add insulation. I have in my home and it makes a big difference minimising sound transfer. Insulation is pretty cheap and definitely worth it 2 6205 Engineering timber is certainly a less fuss option, times cheaper to supply and install and better withstands humidity. 1 15921 Hi there, I'm a conplete newbie to this, but I'm looking to put a floor down in my 6x9m shed. It's currently sitting on a 100mm thick concrete perimeter (dirt floor… 0 6468 |