Experience with wood flooring?

Hey Bill, if you happen to come up to San Jose, check out Commercial St off 101.  I've never been to any of these stores so I can't vouch on their quality, but there seems to be bunch of cabinet and flooring wholesalers on that street.  Good luck on your search.

Will do Won, thanks for the info!

Going to check out Southern Lumber too while I'm up there.  Last I saw, they had a good selection.  Time is running out as I want to do all this before Christmas & hopefully before T-Giving.

~Bill

Sorry, its actually Oakland exit off 101.  Then head east on Commercial.

Stop being torn, there's a world of differrence in feel, appearance, maintenance and repair (if the need be) between a floating floor and a solid T&G wood floor.  Go with the T&G and price out 3/4 also......if its in the ball park go for it.
 

+1

I'm all for T&G.  No issues with that.  Spent most of today at work reading reviews about brands.  Seems that a LOT of people complain about the Lumber Liquidators brand offgassing formaldehyde for extended periods of time.  Doesn't sound like a winner.  Others complain of product quality from H.D. & Lowes.  Good reviews from Cali Bamboo out of San Diego.  Contacted them for more info.

Want to do it right the first time.  We have over 35 years on the carpet in there now!  Time for it to go!  It's held up VERY well though.  Don;t mind spending the money on quality IF it is in fact .... quality product.

~Bill

We used:

We used Teragren strand bamboo flooring. We got it from Tamalpais Hardwood Floors.

http://www.teragren.com/products_flooring_synergy_float.html

http://www.tamalpaishardwoodfloors.com/index.html

Just spent a good amount of time talking with a VERY friendly gal at Cali Bamboo out of San Diego.  Got a half-dozen samples coming from them in the next couple days.  My big wory with the kids is the formaldehide used.  I know it should be low but whose out there actually governing this on a product that comes from overseas?

Acclimation 5-7 days sound correct?

I'll try to check out the other place you mentioned too!

   Thanks all for the info.

Bill

I'm living the install.  Once the flooring comes in, I'll start the aclimation process & rip/tear the old carpet out.  Make necessary sub-floor repairs (if needed), start laying out the install, etc...  Will be a trick since the room is every which way from square or regular.  Looking forward to this install!!!!

Bill

That Strand flooring is very nice stuff. Tough and durable for sure. Floating it is a solid way to go, but if you're laying it on ply there's no reason to not nail it.
 You don't have to glue the grooves if you're nailing, so no worries there. As an underlayment, you can go with like a 15lb felt paper.

I'd actually use a lower pressure when stapling it to keep the wood shattering issues down. somewhere in the 90lb range for the staples. 100lb for the nail gun.

 4 days of acclimation should be fine. Remember to leave at least quarter inch around the walls to allow for any additional expansion.

One thing to think about with pre-finished flooring is the milling. There's always going to be a bit of variation in the product. You may want to think about going with a micro-bevel.  It really hides any funkiness, also keeps you from catching it with socks or barefeet.

Hope that helps.
have fun!

What's the sub floor made of?
We had carpet on a concrete foundation.
Tore out the carpet, cleaned the concrete (and I mean REALLY cleaned it) then stained the concrete. MUCH less expensive than wood or new carpet.
We figured if we didn't like it we'd have the best looking sub floor in the county.
Turns out we love it. Much cleaner than carpet (just a big dirt rag), much quieter than wood or laminate, easier to clean and takes a ton of abuse.
The bottom pic shows the amount of fine dirt that finds its way through the carpet and pad, and we steam cleaned the carpets regularly. The middle pic shows all the paint and crap on the floor from when the house was first built. The last pic is the final finish.
LOVE the concrete.

Update:  2300+ lbs of flooring delivered the morning after Christmas.  Performed my acclimation for the past week & started laying the flooring this past weekend.  About 80% installed in the livingroom.  Now the family wants to paint, lighting, cabinetry & the list goes on.  What a can of worms I've worked myself into.  Lol

Bill

Picture sucks.  Does it no justice.  Each piece is cut in around those rocks.

Looking good Bill!


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This is the first of a number of rooms this year ... assuming this one doesn't kill me first.  Lol

Bamboo is flippin hard!!!!  Nearly burnt up a quality router bit already shaping the board ends to conform to the rocks.

Thanks Matt