Need bamboo flooring recommendations!!!

[PintoBean]

We are close to close on our next home! Woot!

I would like to replace the existing carpeting in the new place with bamboo wood floors. Why bamboo? I read that it's more eco friendly and can be more durable since we have scampering kitties.

One contractor we spoke to told us to go to a lumber liquidators and check out their samples. I saw that one of the brands they carry is Morning Star, and proceeded to google reviews. One real estate site had a lot of complaints about the flooring and some complaints pointed out formaldehyde being a concern.

My main requirements for the bamboo flooring are low/no VOC flooring and low/no VOC adhesive. I don't want the fur babies nor the human-parents getting any nervous system damage because of some "pretty new flooring". HELP! Please make some recommendations!

 

[momhappy]

Not all bamboo flooring is created equal, so you really want to do your research before making a purchase. The old saying, "you get what you pay for" applies - invest in a good quality product and you should be fine. The durability of bamboo floors can be affected by any number of factors (things like when/where the bamboo was harvested, stalk placement, additives, thickness, etc.), so again, research, research, research. Hopefully, someone here will have some specific recommendations for you - best of luck on your search

 

[Gypsy]

I wouldn't buy bamboo flooring. Even the good stuff scratches and dents to all heck.
There are a large number of problems with most of the brands out there. Maybe someone else will have found a good brand.

But personally, I'd go for Eucalyptus instead.
Read here:
http://www.houzz.com/discussions/873712/eucalyptus-vs-bamboo-flooring

 

[Tacori E-ring]

We have bamboo flooring. It is beautiful. Looks good even with two cats and a dog. I thought it was harder than regular wood but I could be wrong. We got it from Lumber Liquidators.

 

[momhappy]

^The hardness of bamboo varies - some of it actually is harder than certain types of hardwood (it depends on the additives, quality of bamboo, etc.)

 

[PintoBean]

One flooring guy we talked to today said that he's had a lot of issues with bamboo because of the nature of the NY climate. He also does not recommend it because we have the added bonus or detriment of the new home being by the water.

We are now exploring oak as well.

Any opinions oak versus bamboo?

 

[PintoBean]

Not all bamboo flooring is created equal, so you really want to do your research before making a purchase. The old saying, "you get what you pay for" applies - invest in a good quality product and you should be fine. The durability of bamboo floors can be affected by any number of factors (things like when/where the bamboo was harvested, stalk placement, additives, thickness, etc.), so again, research, research, research. Hopefully, someone here will have some specific recommendations for you - best of luck on your search

Since my mom gives me anxiety, I appreciate the advice you gave, from the fittingly named "mom happy". I am of the same mindset that you absolutely get what you pay for. The main entry leads directly to the dining room, so the plan is to get the highest quality flooring ... For looks and durability. For the bedrooms, I am willing to go down a few notches to a mid grade. So exciting and stressful at the same time! But good stress

I wouldn't buy bamboo flooring. Even the good stuff scratches and dents to all heck.
There are a large number of problems with most of the brands out there. Maybe someone else will have found a good brand.

But personally, I'd go for Eucalyptus instead.
Read here:
http://www.houzz.com/discussions/873712/eucalyptus-vs-bamboo-flooring

Thanks Gypsy! I am thinking of prefinished oak flooring, which should eliminate the VOC issue we'd be dealing with if they finished the flooring in house. Between the reviews I read online and the feedback from the flooring installer, I am definitely more gun shy with the bamboo now.

We have bamboo flooring. It is beautiful. Looks good even with two cats and a dog. I thought it was harder than regular wood but I could be wrong. We got it from Lumber Liquidators.

Hi Tacori E-ring! I thought bamboo was harder too! It truly is beautiful. I'm curious, what kind of weather extremes and climate do you put your floors through? I think I phrased that kinda funny, but I'm a wee bit tired now. How long have you had your floors?

 

[momhappy]

One flooring guy we talked to today said that he's had a lot of issues with bamboo because of the nature of the NY climate. He also does not recommend it because we have the added bonus or detriment of the new home being by the water.

We are now exploring oak as well.

Any opinions oak versus bamboo?

I have oak and while it's fine, I feel it's rather boring. I wish that I would have been more creative with my flooring (I may have still chosen hardwood floors, but I would have gotten a more unique color/stain).

 

[Tacori E-ring]

It's been three years. We are in WI so we get heat (humid) and cold.

 

[missy]

Congratulations Pinto Bean! How exciting for you guys!

One flooring guy we talked to today said that he's had a lot of issues with bamboo because of the nature of the NY climate. He also does not recommend it because we have the added bonus or detriment of the new home being by the water.

We are now exploring oak as well.

Any opinions oak versus bamboo?

I have oak and while it's fine, I feel it's rather boring. I wish that I would have been more creative with my flooring (I may have still chosen hardwood floors, but I would have gotten a more unique color/stain).

momhappy, I am sure you already thought of this but have you considered restaining to get the color you want? That would be an option to make it just how you would love it to be...

Love bamboo flooring but don't know enough about its durability issues. We have oak floors at our beach house. It's very durable and looks great. My only complaint is that the dark stain we have shows every single bit of cat hair and dust! We have lighter floors in our NY home and they are way more forgiving than the dark oak at the beach. So while I love the dramatic look of the darker floors they are not as practical IMO.

 

[TooPatient]

I saw bamboo being used on lots of home remodel shows and thought it was pretty. Wanted it for our kitchen (we only did the kitchen flooring as it was seriously damaged) but DH looked into it and found that it really depends on the quality of the specific stuff you get and we weren't willing to risk getting something that would be easily damaged (unless it was inexpensive enough to just replace again if we had to). Just seems to be too much that can cause a low quality product.

(Our solution was great for us but probably not for you -- we got a really thick wood laminate that was a great price but supposedly pretty good quality just to have something to replace the damaged floor (it was so bad it was cutting my feet to walk on!) until we do a full out remodel of the house in the next 5-10 years.)

DH thinks teak is a good option as it is durable and not prone to water damage. (I guess it is used on boats)

 

[momhappy]

Congratulations Pinto Bean! How exciting for you guys!

One flooring guy we talked to today said that he's had a lot of issues with bamboo because of the nature of the NY climate. He also does not recommend it because we have the added bonus or detriment of the new home being by the water.

We are now exploring oak as well.

Any opinions oak versus bamboo?

I have oak and while it's fine, I feel it's rather boring. I wish that I would have been more creative with my flooring (I may have still chosen hardwood floors, but I would have gotten a more unique color/stain).

momhappy, I am sure you already thought of this but have you considered restaining to get the color you want? That would be an option to make it just how you would love it to be...

Love bamboo flooring but don't know enough about its durability issues. We have oak floors at our beach house. It's very durable and looks great. My only complaint is that the dark stain we have shows every single bit of cat hair and dust! We have lighter floors in our NY home and they are way more forgiving than the dark oak at the beach. So while I love the dramatic look of the darker floors they are not as practical IMO.

Oh, yes, I've thought about staining. The problem is that it is a massive project. Our home is all hardwood floors except for a carpeted play room and ceramic tile in the kitchen & bathrooms. Moving all of the furniture, sanding, staining, and moving all of the furniture back sounds like a complicated mess and not something that I'm willing to deal with at this point - maybe someday though

 

[Dee*Jay]

I had bamboo in the family room of my townhouse. It didn't really scratch (maybe that was due to the finish on it?) but it dented LIKE CRAZY. We also had issues with fading; when we first went upstairs after the old people had moved out there was a very noticeable difference between the floor color where their area rug was and where it wasn't. Fortunately the rug I put in that area was bigger than theirs so it covered the difference up completely, but I kept checking it just out of curiosity and in a very short period of time when I would life up the rug that I put down I could see a difference in color from where the exposed rug was. At that point I just made the commitment to leave that rug down for the duration but when I moved out there were then two areas of different colored flooring, one due to my bigger area rug and another area "inside" that from the last smaller area rug. Even an area where I just had a chair (up on legs) had a difference in color over time. So if that matters to you you might want to look into the fading factor.

Last summer when I had the flood in my condo and had to replace 2,800 square feet of solid oak hardwood floors I looked into a range of options, including bamboo, and the reviews were all over the place, with the once consistency being that "cheap" bamboo is universally "bad." I'm not implying you were going to put in "cheap" flooring of course, but if you do decide to go the bamboo route just do a TON of reseach on the specific brands, especially if you find a deal that seems too good to be true.

 

[Gypsy]

White Oak. Absolutely. One of my friends has some gorgeous prefinished handscraped white oak floors (actually from Lumber Liquidators) and she has kids and big dogs and put the sample they gave her through every imaginable torture she could think of, and the flooring has been perfect.

I personally, if I were to do hardwood, would do either white oak or hickory. I don't think they are boring at all.

 

[momhappy]

I had bamboo in the family room of my townhouse. It didn't really scratch (maybe that was due to the finish on it?) but it dented LIKE CRAZY. We also had issues with fading; when we first went upstairs after the old people had moved out there was a very noticeable difference between the floor color where their area rug was and where it wasn't. Fortunately the rug I put in that area was bigger than theirs so it covered the difference up completely, but I kept checking it just out of curiosity and in a very short period of time when I would life up the rug that I put down I could see a difference in color from where the exposed rug was. At that point I just made the commitment to leave that rug down for the duration but when I moved out there were then two areas of different colored flooring, one due to my bigger area rug and another area "inside" that from the last smaller area rug. Even an area where I just had a chair (up on legs) had a difference in color over time. So if that matters to you you might want to look into the fading factor.

Last summer when I had the flood in my condo and had to replace 2,800 square feet of solid oak hardwood floors I looked into a range of options, including bamboo, and the reviews were all over the place, with the once consistency being that "cheap" bamboo is universally "bad." I'm not implying you were going to put in "cheap" flooring of course, but if you do decide to go the bamboo route just do a TON of reseach on the specific brands, especially if you find a deal that seems too good to be true.

Harwood floors can have fading issues too. I have replaced area rugs in some of our rooms and every time, there has been vast color differences on the floors between the areas that were (and were not) exposed to sun.

 

[momhappy]

White Oak. Absolutely. One of my friends has some gorgeous prefinished handscraped white oak floors (actually from Lumber Liquidators) and she has kids and big dogs and put the sample they gave her through every imaginable torture she could think of, and the flooring has been perfect.

I personally, if I were to do hardwood, would do either white oak or hickory. I don't think they are boring at all.

I looked up some images of white oak and hickory. The white oak looks like exactly what I have. I love some of the hickory floors - the light/dark mix is really cool. I wish that I would have looked more at plank size too - some of the wider planks look a bit more unique.

 

[Dee*Jay]

I had bamboo in the family room of my townhouse. It didn't really scratch (maybe that was due to the finish on it?) but it dented LIKE CRAZY. We also had issues with fading; when we first went upstairs after the old people had moved out there was a very noticeable difference between the floor color where their area rug was and where it wasn't. Fortunately the rug I put in that area was bigger than theirs so it covered the difference up completely, but I kept checking it just out of curiosity and in a very short period of time when I would life up the rug that I put down I could see a difference in color from where the exposed rug was. At that point I just made the commitment to leave that rug down for the duration but when I moved out there were then two areas of different colored flooring, one due to my bigger area rug and another area "inside" that from the last smaller area rug. Even an area where I just had a chair (up on legs) had a difference in color over time. So if that matters to you you might want to look into the fading factor.

Last summer when I had the flood in my condo and had to replace 2,800 square feet of solid oak hardwood floors I looked into a range of options, including bamboo, and the reviews were all over the place, with the once consistency being that "cheap" bamboo is universally "bad." I'm not implying you were going to put in "cheap" flooring of course, but if you do decide to go the bamboo route just do a TON of reseach on the specific brands, especially if you find a deal that seems too good to be true.

Harwood floors can have fading issues too. I have replaced area rugs in some of our rooms and every time, there has been vast color differences on the floors between the areas that were (and were not) exposed to sun.

Good point that hardwood floors other than bamboo can also have fading issues. I only mentioned it with ours becuase I noticed such a vast difference with the bamboo and never really noticed it with the different wood flooring on the other levels of the house. We did have light wood floors in the condo before that (can't remember if they were oak or maple, but I'm thinking maple because of the long smooth grain pattern) and did notice some differences when we took up the rugs from there upon moving out.

 

[Calliecake]

Congratulations Pinto Bean! How exciting for you guys!

One flooring guy we talked to today said that he's had a lot of issues with bamboo because of the nature of the NY climate. He also does not recommend it because we have the added bonus or detriment of the new home being by the water.

We are now exploring oak as well.

Any opinions oak versus bamboo?

I have oak and while it's fine, I feel it's rather boring. I wish that I would have been more creative with my flooring (I may have still chosen hardwood floors, but I would have gotten a more unique color/stain).

momhappy, I am sure you already thought of this but have you considered restaining to get the color you want? That would be an option to make it just how you would love it to be...

Love bamboo flooring but don't know enough about its durability issues. We have oak floors at our beach house. It's very durable and looks great. My only complaint is that the dark stain we have shows every single bit of cat hair and dust! We have lighter floors in our NY home and they are way more forgiving than the dark oak at the beach. So while I love the dramatic look of the darker floors they are not as practical IMO.

Oh, yes, I've thought about staining. The problem is that it is a massive project. Our home is all hardwood floors except for a carpeted play room and ceramic tile in the kitchen & bathrooms. Moving all of the furniture, sanding, staining, and moving all of the furniture back sounds like a complicated mess and not something that I'm willing to deal with at this point - maybe someday though

Momhappy, You are correct, it is a huge mess. We had our floors redone a few years back and it was a major undertaking. We had everything cleaned afterward and had dust for a long time afterward. The dust ends up in every nook and cranny of the house. Our whole house is hardwood with the exception of the bathrooms and laundry room.

 

[PintoBean]

It's been three years. We are in WI so we get heat (humid) and cold.

Thank you! Good to know

Congratulations Pinto Bean! How exciting for you guys!

I have oak and while it's fine, I feel it's rather boring. I wish that I would have been more creative with my flooring (I may have still chosen hardwood floors, but I would have gotten a more unique color/stain).

momhappy, I am sure you already thought of this but have you considered restaining to get the color you want? That would be an option to make it just how you would love it to be...

Love bamboo flooring but don't know enough about its durability issues. We have oak floors at our beach house. It's very durable and looks great. My only complaint is that the dark stain we have shows every single bit of cat hair and dust! We have lighter floors in our NY home and they are way more forgiving than the dark oak at the beach. So while I love the dramatic look of the darker floors they are not as practical IMO.[/quote]

Thank you Missy
Good point about dark stains!

Another good point is that you can refinish the oak floors with a new stain. I am pretty much on board with oak now.

I saw bamboo being used on lots of home remodel shows and thought it was pretty. Wanted it for our kitchen (we only did the kitchen flooring as it was seriously damaged) but DH looked into it and found that it really depends on the quality of the specific stuff you get and we weren't willing to risk getting something that would be easily damaged (unless it was inexpensive enough to just replace again if we had to). Just seems to be too much that can cause a low quality product.

(Our solution was great for us but probably not for you -- we got a really thick wood laminate that was a great price but supposedly pretty good quality just to have something to replace the damaged floor (it was so bad it was cutting my feet to walk on!) until we do a full out remodel of the house in the next 5-10 years.)

DH thinks teak is a good option as it is durable and not prone to water damage. (I guess it is used on boats)

Thank you for your experience, TooPatient. I'm intrigued by teak. Off to google!

I had bamboo in the family room of my townhouse. It didn't really scratch (maybe that was due to the finish on it?) but it dented LIKE CRAZY. We also had issues with fading; when we first went upstairs after the old people had moved out there was a very noticeable difference between the floor color where their area rug was and where it wasn't. Fortunately the rug I put in that area was bigger than theirs so it covered the difference up completely, but I kept checking it just out of curiosity and in a very short period of time when I would life up the rug that I put down I could see a difference in color from where the exposed rug was. At that point I just made the commitment to leave that rug down for the duration but when I moved out there were then two areas of different colored flooring, one due to my bigger area rug and another area "inside" that from the last smaller area rug. Even an area where I just had a chair (up on legs) had a difference in color over time. So if that matters to you you might want to look into the fading factor.

Last summer when I had the flood in my condo and had to replace 2,800 square feet of solid oak hardwood floors I looked into a range of options, including bamboo, and the reviews were all over the place, with the once consistency being that "cheap" bamboo is universally "bad." I'm not implying you were going to put in "cheap" flooring of course, but if you do decide to go the bamboo route just do a TON of reseach on the specific brands, especially if you find a deal that seems too good to be true.

Thank you DeeJay for your feedback. The flooring guy said that he had complaints even with higher quality bamboo flooring. It is pretty but I don't think I can stomach all the possible potential ways bamboo could go wrong for us.

White Oak. Absolutely. One of my friends has some gorgeous prefinished handscraped white oak floors (actually from Lumber Liquidators) and she has kids and big dogs and put the sample they gave her through every imaginable torture she could think of, and the flooring has been perfect.

I personally, if I were to do hardwood, would do either white oak or hickory. I don't think they are boring at all.

Hi Gypsy! I picked a vendor I remembered from the flooring showroom I visited earlier this week to pour over. I noticed at all the white oak options are engineered and say R&Q... Not sure what that stands for. The hardwood floors were all red oak. Mirage flooring was the site I checked out for oak flooring and color options.

Harwood floors can have fading issues too. I have replaced area rugs in some of our rooms and every time, there has been vast color differences on the floors between the areas that were (and were not) exposed to sun.

Yes hardwood floors can fade, too. Also turn yellow I read from certain finishes enduring long term sun exposure.

 

[Calliecake]

Pinto Bean,

We went with a medium to darker finish when we restrained our oak floors. I had a lighter stain to begin with. The lighter stain showed nothing while the darker stain shows everything. They look beautiful but kind of drive me crazy as I hate seeing dust. Thank goodness our dog does not shed.

 

[Gypsy]

I think the one my friend has is engineered and like I said, it's fantastic (been down over a year and no issues) and looks amazing. With engineered hardwood you have to know how thick the wear layer is cause that will tell you if it can be re-finished. This is everything you need to know about wear layer: http://www.hoskinghardwood.com/Department/Hardwood-Floors/All-About-Wear-Layers--Engineered-Flooring.aspx?dId=7&pageId=53 So you just have to make sure you get one that has a thick enough wear layer to be re-finished.

I don't like red-oak as much at all. It has different durability and isn't as good.

As for R&Q: Rift and Quarter sawn is more of a vertical angle with the grain rather than plain or flat sawn and is more stable in side to side movement than plain sawn. It is also more expensive because less of it can be cut from a log.


So it's a good thing.

I would recommend you take some samples and soak them. Bang them up with hammers. Etc. And see what you think.

I had some flooring samples a while back. Bamboo included. And I put them through the paces. And White Oak and Hickory were the best ones of the ones I tried. Very durable.

 

[momhappy]

Since yellowing was mentioned, I've realized that's exactly what's happening with my oak floors. It's not something that I even realized until I replaced some persian carpets in a couple of rooms. I assumed it was just fading due to sun exposure, but now that I look at it, it's really more of a yellowing. Our home is very sunny though (lots of big windows, walls of patio doors, etc.).

 

[PintoBean]

Pinto Bean,

We went with a medium to darker finish when we restrained our oak floors. I had a lighter stain to begin with. The lighter stain showed nothing while the darker stain shows everything. They look beautiful but kind of drive me crazy as I hate seeing dust. Thank goodness our dog does not shed.

Good to know, Calliecake! Both my cats are light in color, so I find gray/silver dust bunnies every so often. I am thinking a light natural color for the den/living room. You can see the living room from the den - it's just a few steps down.

Then the living room is on "floor 2" - I hoping to do a grey-beige herringbone. The paint color I am going with in the living room is Benjamin Moore's wedgewood grey - which is a blue gray, so I want the floors to be light on the gray scale, and towards the beige side.

The 3rd floor I have the hallway and bedrooms that will have flooring done. I was leaning towards a cherry, but nothing past a "medium" tone. Not sure yet what color, but I have pine bedroom furniture that's moved from my in-laws to our current apartment and off to the new house. It's a natural stain, kinda orangey-yellow, so I don't want to have "natural" colored floors - i want something that looks more of a contrast.

I think the one my friend has is engineered and like I said, it's fantastic (been down over a year and no issues) and looks amazing. With engineered hardwood you have to know how thick the wear layer is cause that will tell you if it can be re-finished. This is everything you need to know about wear layer: http://www.hoskinghardwood.com/Department/Hardwood-Floors/All-About-Wear-Layers--Engineered-Flooring.aspx?dId=7&pageId=53 So you just have to make sure you get one that has a thick enough wear layer to be re-finished.

I don't like red-oak as much at all. It has different durability and isn't as good.

As for R&Q: Rift and Quarter sawn is more of a vertical angle with the grain rather than plain or flat sawn and is more stable in side to side movement than plain sawn. It is also more expensive because less of it can be cut from a log.


So it's a good thing.

I would recommend you take some samples and soak them. Bang them up with hammers. Etc. And see what you think.

I had some flooring samples a while back. Bamboo included. And I put them through the paces. And White Oak and Hickory were the best ones of the ones I tried. Very durable.

Gypsy - you are always so informative! From pictures, I do love how the white oak seems to have less of a yellow tint than red oak. Also, since the foundation of the home is concrete, the best option seems to be engineered flooring. Since I'm loving the look of the natural white oak on the mirage site, and the benefits of R&Q, and the white oak by mirage (if we use this vendor) being engineered makes it the forerunner for our living room and den.

Now if I win lotto this week, I'm flying all of you out and putting you in a fine establishment and hiring you as my renovation advisers lolol. It will be a PS-get together + home reno hahahahhaa....

 

[Gypsy]

I love house and decorating stuff. It's a hobby. I desperately wish I could put my hobby to practical use with my own house soon, though.

Since it is likely that one of the first 'challenges' I will have to deal with in any new home (new to me) is flooring, and I have my clowder to consider (one of whom has bladder issues when stressed), flooring has been a particular source of research and study. I do crazy things like get flooring samples and test them out even though I don't know when I will be blessed with the opportunity for my own home.

I highly recommend that whatever choices you narrow your research down to, you put the samples of it through every test you can imagine.

When I was looking for upholstery fabric for my couch I put the samples through everything I could (blood, juice, cat claws, you name it). And when I was looking at flooring samples it was the same thing. Most places will give you a decent number of samples free of charge.

I also highly recommend that if you can, you don't pick anything based on a small sample. But if there is a showroom where you can see it laid out in a larger area, you go to see that.

Something like this, for me, is the ideal look I was able to narrow down to: http://www.carpet-wholesale.com/item_302783/Hardwood/Somerset_Hardwood_Flooring/Wide_Plank_Engineered/Wide_Plank_Engineered_6_Inch/Hickory_Toast.php?utm_source=GoogPlAd&utm_campaign=g9Somerset&gclid=CM_fj7ff78MCFRFhfgodVE4AeQ

And the only way I was able to determine that was to go to see them in the showroom, all laid out. Because when I was doing research on the web, I was attracted to different things than when I was in person. It was a surprise to me. I expected to want something in a medium tone like this: http://www.carpet-wholesale.com/item_302784/Hardwood/Somerset_Hardwood_Flooring/Wide_Plank_Engineered/Wide_Plank_Engineered_6_Inch/Hickory_Saddle.php but once I saw it laid out... the lighter more natural finish with large color variation is what both my husband and I preferred.

It's similar to engagement ring shopping. What you love on the net isn't what looks good on your hand.

I guess that's my long winded way of saying. Take your time. Do your research. It's a REALLY BIG investment and you want to make sure that whatever you get, you are happy with for years.

 

[PintoBean]

We went to look at flooring to get ideas about colors. I love love love the hickory Gypsy posted, and wish I could find oak floors with that "50 shades of natural wood" thing going lolol

What surprised DH and I were how quickly we fell for Armstrong's engineered oak flooring in Mystic Taupe. We love it so much that we would be willing to commit to this color throughout the entire house!

http://www.armstrong.com/content2/flooring/images/83123.jpg

It's a bit beige, a bit gray, and light! We prefer cool tones it looks like, and by accident from randomly purchasing a mush mosh of light bulbs through the years only paying attention to whether the bulb fits a receptacle or not, we have learned that lighting can definitely warm or cool a room down.

What's interesting is that when we looked at the engineered oak versus the hardwood in mystic taupe, the engineered floor had more color contrast shade in the wood while the hardwood version was more uniform and "flat". We preferred the engineered with its contrasts. Hope it's not a fluke.

 

[Gypsy]

It looks lovely. Truly. What's the wear layer on it?

 

[PintoBean]

It looks lovely. Truly. What's the wear layer on it?

Thank you Gypsy! If I'm understanding your question correctly, it is 1/2 inch for thickness.

http://www.armstrong.com/flooring/h...eered-hardwood-plank-4210OMT/floor-139255.asp

It looks like Bruce also makes similar flooring that is 3/8". The Armstrong website shows both... I guess Bruce is lower end in comparison to Armstrong since Armstrong gives 50 year warranty to Bruce's 25.

There is one more floor manufacturer I would like to check out...Appalachian flooring. It is not carried in any of the closer flooring stores.

 

[partgypsy]

When we re-did our main bath we had bamboo flooring installed, which is the strand woven type. As it is installed in the bathroom it can handle humidity. So far it is performing great, no complaints at all, and a great improvement over the hand laid tile we had in their previously.
I can't remember which brand it was, but this is a link to the green builders who we purchased, and they are all supposed to be low VOC, etc. http://www.commongroundgreen.com/category/flooring-and-finishes/bamboo-hardwood/

One thing I remembers, is that the darker bamboo floors are actually a little less hard than the lighter shades. So If you want a dark tone wood, you may want to look at other options as well.

 

[PintoBean]

Hi guys!

Now that I've chosen my flooring, I wanted to get your opinion on where to purchase.

I've decided to go with the Armstrong engineered oak in Mystic Taupe 3". Any reason why I should purchase local versus Internet?

Any recommendations on online vendors?

Looks like we need 1100 sq ft so I am planning on ordering 1200 to allot for waste.

Also, if anyone has read anything negative about Armstrong flooring please chime in since I haven't bought any yet. Thanks in advance ye wise pricescopeers!

 

[Gypsy]

I do not know anything helpful there unfortunately.

But if you are having the local place also install it, I think it makes sense to go local. Why? Less finger pointing if something goes wrong. If one places does the material purchase and the installation there is one throat to choke (true they can still point to the manufacturer but if they are an authorized retailer it's still their responsibility) and that's a good thing, IMO.

That's my opinion anyway.