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Okay, so your floor prep has been done. Now you're ready to start installing the bamboo floors in your room.

I finished a 13 foot by 10 foot bedroom on Saturday. I did a little work on Friday evening to set everything up, but it's a job that can be completed in one whole day.

How to Install Bamboo Floors - Part Two
Here is a list of items you'll need to install your flooring:

• 15lb. Felt Paper Underlayment
• Bamboo Flooring (naturally...)
• A Floor Stapler
  
• An Air Compressor (to run your floor stapler)
• Flooring Staples (I used 2 inch crown staples for the 5/8" thick bamboo)
• A 10" or 12" mitre saw
• A Rubber Mallet (mine came with the Floor Stapler rental)
• Measuring Tape
• Hammer
• Finishing Nails
• Nail Set
• Chalk Line Set
• Matching Wood Filler

After the bamboo flooring has acclimated to your room for 3 to 7 days, and your subfloor is clean, you can begin installation.

Lay out the felt underlayment paper. Put it in the same direction your bamboo planks will go. Put down one row at a time to make sure you don't tear it up walking back and forth.

Start with the longest wall that is also an outside wall. Those tend to be the straightest walls. Use a chalk line to snap a straight-as-possible line along this wall. Place your first plank along that line, next to the wall. You'll have to nail it down with finishing nails. Try to nail the planks down to the floor joists underneath (you'll see a line of nails along in the subfloor where it was nailed to the joists.)

Note - Make sure you don't put the bamboo boards up tight against the walls. Give yourself a half inch or 5/8 inch gap between the wall and planks to allow for expansion and contraction of the bamboo. Your baseboards will cover the gaps (and if it's not enough, you can add an additional quarter-round to the baseboard.)

Fit your next plank in and nail it down. Continue along your wall until the row is completed. On your next row, stagger the lengths of your planks. You can either make it random or alternate lengths - you just don't want any of your seams to line up. You want the alternating look and you want the added strength.

Because your floor stapler won't fit, you'll have to nail down your first two or three rows. Use your nail set and hammer to hammer down the finish nails until they're below the surface of the bamboo.

Once you have room for the stapler, you can place your planks down and use the rubber mallet to pound the floor stapler to nail in the 2 inch staples. Put in a staple every 6 to 8 inches and not any closer than 2 inches to the edge of the plank. Tap your bamboo planks in with the mallet before a final staple to make sure you're eliminating gaps.

You may need to use a table saw to cut the planks length-wise once you get to the end of the room. It's rare that all the planks will fit in perfectly to every room. You may also need to remove the "tongue" on the planks to be able to drop those thinned boards in next to the wall.
One problem I had - when I first started, my air compressor was set to about 100 psi and it was causing the staples to go in very hard and crack the tongues on the bamboo boards (see pic below.) I backed the pressure down to below 95 psi and the splitting of the tongue stopped. Always test out a spare board before you begin to make sure you don't ruin too many planks.
I purchased matching bamboo T-moldings to transition from the bamboo to the carpet in the hallway. If you're going from bamboo to tile or laminate, you may need a bamboo "reducer" for your transitions. Nail those down with finishing nails and use the nail set to drop them out of sight.

The only thing left is to clean up and install your baseboards. You should prime and paint the baseboards before you nail them to your wall to make it easier (and avoid getting paint on your shiny new bamboo floor!)

RELATED POSTS:
Bamboo Flooring Preparation
Bamboo Countertops

Interested in putting bamboo in your home, but don't want to try it yourself?

You could hire a professional to do the work for you. Need to find a flooring installer? Submit your request for free to ConstructionDeal.com. It's a fast, easy way to find contractors.

Simply fill out a form and you'll get calls from a few local professionals. There is no cost or obligation. And it will save you time - you won't have to call a bunch of people at random from the phone book. They call you.

Labels: Bamboo, Flooring Options, How To Install

Bamboo has been huge in flooring lately. Well, now there is a bamboo option for countertops. Can't imagine using wood on your kitchen counters? There's a company close by in North Hollywood, California, called Totally Bamboo that carries many bamboo products -- but they've also developed a bamboo counter application.

According to their site, "Ready for contractor installation, Totally Bamboo brand countertop sheets are constructed with cross-band laminates that we call Multilam(TM) (patent pending). In early testing, we discovered that this is the ideal way to glue bamboo. This method keeps the sheet both flat and true, as well as lessens the tendency to twist or warp."

The other great reason to use this for your next countertop, besides the fact that bamboo is a more renewable resource than wood -- it uses a Formaldehyde Free Adhesive. In 2004, the World Health Organization re-designated formaldehyde-based glue as a proven human carcinogen. The company has several styles and several sizes as well as a choice in thickness.

If you're going for a totally unique look for your countertops and kitchen islands, bamboo is an amazing choice to make your new kitchen the talk of the neighborhood.

And if you decide to order your bamboo countertop from the company, you'll need to find a countertop contractor to install it for you. Construction Deal has a full network of countertop contractors and we'll find someone in your area to install this beautiful and unique product!

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Labels: Bamboo, Bamboo Flooring, Countertops