Experience with wood flooring?

With the time change, my after work activities draw from outdoor projects to indoor.  First on the 'Major' project list is replacement of carpet to wood flooring in the house.

Anyone with experience on wood flooring for types, installation methods, tips & tricks, etc chime in?

Going to install myself.  Have done small'ish "click lock" laminate installs.  Starting with the larger, most complex room first.  ~ 600 sq/ft & will require lots of compount cuts, angles & work around rock features in the living room.  Thinking woven bamboo in hand-scraped for looks, durability & quality.  Have kids & two Lab's so durability is key.  Torn between "click lock" floating vs. nail down.  Just got a flooring nailer to product test for H.D. so would be a good excuse to play with new toys.  Wooden sub-floor.

Been to "big box retail" places to look at samples & Lumber Liquidators as well.  Looked at 1/2" to 9/16" thick stuff.

Suggestions or other places I should check-out before making a purchase?

~Bill

Brother AngeloBassbay has installed over a dozen laminate wood floors for me. Great product great workmanship, everyone loves his floors. Great price too. He just completed a beautiful stranded bamboo floor for one of my friends. Send him a PM.


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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.
   

Now this I can help you with!    :

Been slingin wood for twenty something years. Yikes.

Please feel free to pick my brain.     

Russell

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 to this.

I hate the laminate floor in my lab office.  The lab itself is tile and it is awesome.  The original wood floor in the house/office from the 1920's is T&G is beat  to hell  but it can be refinished.  The laminate we put down in January is trashed.  The secretarial chairs destroyed it. 


Eric Morgan
Trident Ultra 4.7
Not the guy selling the Outback
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Not looking laminate or engineered.  Really looking hard at stranded bamboo.  Its solid & sold as either a floating or nailed application.  The wood is the same, just a difference in installation.  Consider the 3/4" for the room with the pool table & wood stove.

 I need someone to bid on install of a wood floor and refinish the existing.  Must be licensed.  Job is in Scotts Valley

Thanks

I didn't do the install, but we have a woven ( or whatever you call it) commercial grade bamboo floor that is in beautiful shape after 8 years of beating. Serious beating. We're a wet, sandy, muddy, bike infested, dog loving household - they only place we see wear is where the bar stools slide over a seam between two boards. Mind you these are bare metal stainless stools, where I cut the legs down, and only last week noticed that the rubber stoppers in the bare ends were all worn off.

We spent months researching the flooring and laying in test pieces before finally settling, best decision we made ( aside from radiant floors in the master bath that is)
 
You are welcome to come by and look if curious.

Steve,  where did you purchase your flooring from?

Bill

Need to ask the wife/accountant on that one...will post back later today.

Thanks .... in advance

Just want to re-cap what I am learning from the group of you all:

Facts:
a)  I will be, most likely, going with stranded bamboo for the durability
b)  I will be installing myself over the raised, wooden subfloor, in multiple rooms over time.  Maybe even the kitchen eventually.

Learnings:
1)  Thicker is better
2)  Given the same floor material, go nail vs. free floating (again, talking the stranded bamboo; not laminate, engineered, etc...)

   What about barriers/insulation?  Got a few samples of stuff from a few places.  Seems to run from .50 to just under $1.00 sq/ft.  Is this a "thicker is better" area of concern too?  Do I glue joints on a T&G as well as nail?

   Thanks again to all who are chiming in!  I love new projects & not, generally, afraid to ask questions in an effort to learn.

~Bill

We just rebuilt a house, considered bamboo but just couldn't find the right COLOR to satisfy the Mrs LOL.
in the research, discovered that just like with anything, you get what you pay for, and all stranded bamboo is not the same.  sposed to be pretty hard material, but there are some natural woods that are much harder than bamboo..  stuff looks awesome though no doubt

Looked at the hardness rating scale & agree that there are hardwoods that are harder, but most (or all) were quite a bit more expensive & required finishing (most of 'em) after installation.  With kids & pets in the house, I want to go pre-finished.

Hopefully heading to the Bay Area this weekend to look at a few places I haven't looked at.  Trying to get unbiased opinions from my fellow NCKA brothers & sisters before I get the "car salesman" pitch at the store as to why THEIRS is the best.