[MrPrena]

Okay. On Labor day weekend, I decide to shop for a hard wood floors, and we made our decision to go with bamboo floors. I guess bamboo floor pricing went down recently, and it is affordable range now.

We just bought 8 boxes of bamboo floor tonight, and we need to buy about 30 more boxes. (approx 4 more trips w/ Avalon).
Sadly,all I can afford was glue/nail, because those click ons are about $3.50-4.50 /sq-ft.

I read about eco brand bamboo floors, and it was rated really good. So, we went with this. Warranty is great. I know warranty doesn't mean anything, but it was Lifetime Structural, and 35yr finish warranty.

My mom's fiance is an contractor, and he is going to do it for free. However, he said he needs to hire 2 guys @$120/day, which I am more than happy to. I will be doing some work after 2pm (market close).

I will keep you guys updated.
Any advice/tricks from member would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

[Nkc]

How's this DIY when you got a contractor and two workers doing the job?

[MrPrena]

Okay. I guess it will be DO IT YOURSELF-SOME.

DIYS

Originally Posted by Nkc

How's this DIY when you got a contractor and two workers doing the job?

Originally Posted by MrPrena

Okay. On Labor day weekend, I decide to shop for a hard wood floors, and we made our decision to go with bamboo floors. I guess bamboo floor pricing went down recently, and it is affordable range now.

We just bought 8 boxes of bamboo floor tonight, and we need to buy about 30 more boxes. (approx 4 more trips w/ Avalon).
Sadly,all I can afford was glue/nail, because those click ons are about $3.50-4.50 /sq-ft.

I read about eco brand bamboo floors, and it was rated really good. So, we went with this. Warranty is great. I know warranty doesn't mean anything, but it was Lifetime Structural, and 35yr finish warranty.

My mom's fiance is an contractor, and he is going to do it for free. However, he said he needs to hire 2 guys @$120/day, which I am more than happy to. I will be doing some work after 2pm (market close).

I will keep you guys updated.
Any advice/tricks from member would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

[KingOfJericho]

I put strand carbonized bamboo floors in our rental condo. They're very durable and stood up to our dog running around on them like crazy for the seven months we were living there. If it's not strand carbonized, make sure the ladies take off their high heeled shoes before coming in or it will look like swiss cheese in a matter of days!

[grimlock]

Originally Posted by MrPrena

he said he needs to hire 2 guys @$120/day[/IMG]

Mexicans?

[P1]

Originally Posted by Nkc

How's this DIY when you got a contractor and two workers doing the job?

Lolzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[jlstyle]

You should have your wood rest in "to be installed" area rather than in your garage.
And $120 per installer isn't so bad, you don't want any cheaper guys.

[KingOfJericho]

Originally Posted by jlstyle

You should have your wood rest in "to be installed" area rather than in your garage.

This. It should be in the installation space for several days.

[Joekerr]

Originally Posted by MrPrena

Okay. On Labor day weekend, I decide to shop for a hard wood floors, and we made our decision to go with bamboo floors. I guess bamboo floor pricing went down recently, and it is affordable range now.

We just bought 8 boxes of bamboo floor tonight, and we need to buy about 30 more boxes. (approx 4 more trips w/ Avalon).
Sadly,all I can afford was glue/nail, because those click ons are about $3.50-4.50 /sq-ft.

I read about eco brand bamboo floors, and it was rated really good. So, we went with this. Warranty is great. I know warranty doesn't mean anything, but it was Lifetime Structural, and 35yr finish warranty.

My mom's fiance is an contractor, and he is going to do it for free. However, he said he needs to hire 2 guys @$120/day, which I am more than happy to. I will be doing some work after 2pm (market close).

I will keep you guys updated.
Any advice/tricks from member would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

How is this titled "hard wood" floors when you've decided to put down hard grass as your floor?

I suggest you incorporate this edit as well as Nkc's valid editorial comments around your assertion that this will be a "DIY" project...

Further comments from the forums to come as we pick apart your attempt at posting.

[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by KingOfJericho

This. It should be in the installation space for several days.

+1. If you don't do that you could have Norm Abrams install the floor personally and it will look like hell in a matter of days.

[UncleWede]

We went with stressed wood instead of bamboo since the wife knew I would blow a gasket the first time I came home and it was marred. Since it's marred out of the box, less worries.

+1 on the resting in place. I'm surprised the installers will even work it if you haven't done this.

[Maestro]

I just finished our Master Bedroom, Walk-in Closet/sitting room ~550 Sqft with solid Bamboo and took me by myself about 4 days to do, okay the wife helped a little laying out the rows as I nailed them.

The hardest and most time consuming part is getting the first row in straight. Once you get in the first 3 or 4 row and you got you pattern set they go in very quickly.

I also did most of my first floor ~1500 sqft in Brazilian Teak, that took much longer since there was lots of cutting. When I did the first floor I bought a $90 nailer off ebay which turned out to be exact name brand model which cost $400, this was obvious a Chinese knockoff, you could tell it was the same company making it for the name brand company they just grinded off the name brand company's name off the casting everything else was exactly the same. It not unusually for these Chinese companies to steal US companies designs and ship the product out the back door while they make the name brand products.

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by KingOfJericho

I put strand carbonized bamboo floors in our rental condo. They're very durable and stood up to our dog running around on them like crazy for the seven months we were living there. If it's not strand carbonized, make sure the ladies take off their high heeled shoes before coming in or it will look like swiss cheese in a matter of days!

This is true, Bamboo come make two ways and Strand is what you want it is almost as hard as Brazilian woods, the standard Bamboo is very soft and does not take much to damage. Also make sure it is finished in Aluminium Oxide finish this finish is tough as steel. I had dogs on my floors almost 8 yrs now and not a single mark on them.

[W Cole]

Just finished 800sf of engineered in my condo. Learned a lot. Ended up firing the flooring guy and doing it myself.

My install was over an osb subfloor which is a pain. Ended up gluing and stapling as staples alone did not hold well enough to the osb to prevent occasional creaking/popping.

Looks like you will be doing it over a concrete slab? If so, make sure you have something made for full glue down and get glue with the proper moisture barrier. Key will be in the preparation of the slab and making sure it is flat per the wood floor manufacturers specifications (and also so the finished floor looks good cosmetically).

Edit: looks like you have sitting in the garage? Make sure you have it acclimate inside conditioned space and open up the ends of the boxes unless you plan on letting it acclimate for a week +.

[Devant]

I am on the fence now for what to use in my remodel. I was going to just go with laminate (real hard wood is going to be too difficult to install over concrete). May look into the bamboo, 35 years finish warranty & lifetime structural is impressive.

[MrPrena]

Originally Posted by W Cole

Just finished 800sf of engineered in my condo. Learned a lot. Ended up firing the flooring guy and doing it myself.

My install was over an osb subfloor which is a pain. Ended up gluing and stapling as staples alone did not hold well enough to the osb to prevent occasional creaking/popping.

Looks like you will be doing it over a concrete slab? If so, make sure you have something made for full glue down and get glue with the proper moisture barrier. Key will be in the preparation of the slab and making sure it is flat per the wood floor manufacturers specifications (and also so the finished floor looks good cosmetically).

Edit: looks like you have sitting in the garage? Make sure you have it acclimate inside conditioned space and open up the ends of the boxes unless you plan on letting it acclimate for a week +.

Thanks for the advice.
I have near zero knowledge on bamboo, and I appreciate all the input people gave me.

Yeah. it is sitting on a garage, and we bought underlayment as well. I think I paid little more than I wanted on underlayment, but that is what people recommended. Colorado is dry as heck, and I am fairly certain it will be okay inside the hot dry garage, but I am planning to move about 10 boxes into our house just to be safe.

[Mr Tonka]

2nd generation flooring store owner here. Lots of experts in this thread.

Acclimation will occur within 72 hrs. Check with the manufacture's instructions. They are all different. Put all of it in space it will be installed in for at least 24 hours before installation. The problem you have, DIYing and all, is that if you don't follow manufacturer's installation requirements, you'r wonderful warranty will be VOID from day one. Google this manufacturer's installation recommendations and follow them. Otherwise you're warranty is worth squat.

Solid, horizontal, vertical, engineered bamboo is all the same with regards to hardness and structural integrity. Stranded bamboo is a different animal as it's basically strands of bamboo fibers laid into a mold and injected with resin impregnated with aluminum oxide, or ceramic, super durable.

Regular bamboo, as other have said, is somewhat soft. It will dent and is also quite easily affected by moisture, it will warp quite easily with low levels of moisture. Most standard Bamboo has a smooth finish, when you're floor has a smooth, uniform finish, any scratch, knick or dent will stand out like a sore thumb. (See Unclewede's post) Floor coverings with lots of variation and texture look new MUCH longer than something smooth and uniform.

If you have underlayment, you're likely floating or nailing this to a wooden subfloor. If that's the case, you won't have much to worry about with moisture except for topical. (spills, leaks, floods, overflows, etc...) If you are gluing this down to a concrete subfloor, i'd like to hear more about this underlayment they sold you.

Hopefully you're contractor isn't hiring day laborers. Most flooring installers are paid by the SF rather than by the hour. Don't forget about the moldings and trim pieces. (1/4 round, thresholds, t-moldings, etc...)

Good luck with it and enjoy the floors. Don't let the scratches and dents get you down, it's part of the experience of owning natural wood floors.

[Devant]

Freakin eh.. Mr. Tonka you wanna come up and do my floors?

[Mr Tonka]

You don't want me installing floors. I cost a lot more than $120/day.

And i'm guaranteed to take twice as long as a slow installer.

[MrPrena]

I am not 100% sure that is his regular rate. I am sure he makes way more than that, because he drives a real nice vehicle (GX470).
It is contractor (licensed and bonded)'s assistant which I need to pay $120/day. He did major Sushi restaurant and Yogurt shop as well. I would not laugh at his 120/day pay. I am glad he even agreed to this.

I will take photos of every opportunities I have. I will be most likely helping out after 2-2:30pm every day.

[MrPrena]

Day 1/2-1

[kevinbahnz]

When I post home reno's on FB , i just limit the title to "just finished" and post up hella pics. My close friends know I didn't lift a single hammer but most will assume I did them.