Laminate Floors - Ridging

[kurt]

Thread drift, sort of.....

I've seen fair amounts of solid & laminated bamboo, both natural & carbonized, over the last 3 years. It's a very pleasing Zen-like vibe. Incredibly hard.

I have a giant bamboo kitchen cutting board; it's amazingly resistant to moisture damage & hacking from cleavers.

Bamboo is spectacular flooring; I am not a fan of laminate flooring, but I might consider laminate bamboo. Very nicely renewable resource; stuff grows fast.

[Richard Moore]

So it turns out the rep's undisclosed installation error was choosing his product!

I've just put down about 600 sf of prefinished Brazilian cherry. I went with an engineered product from SunFloors. It's about 5/8" overall with 3/16 inch of actual wood. I went back and forth over solid, prefinished, etc, etc but ended up with this because it came in 5½" width, "solid plank" (I didn't want it to end up looking like Pergo), all pieces 82" long, and has no bevel (which I don't like the look of). Brazilian cherry (actually Jatoba) has the hardest index of any wood flooring out there, which helps if you have a large dog. It also happens to be drop dead gorgeous with a lot of "character" although, as it darkens quite a bit with UV, you need to hold off on the rugs for a while. This product came with a choice of glue-down or glue together (and float). I chose the latter over 1/8" cork as I had to do a lot of leveling on the second floor (ex attic) of my old house. I actually leveled with roofing felt and even some shingles. Made my own transitions. It wasn't cheap, but I guess you get what you pay for. Even without any bevel, I have zero ridges and very smooth joints. At least...so far! Gotta tell the maid to go easy with the mop.

[Scottpat]

I inspected a new home a couple of weeks ago that had just had solid bamboo flooring installed. It is a great looking product, that I would have. The builder said that he can get it as cheap or cheaper than comparable quality wood flooring.