Pets vs Bamboo Flooring

Re: Pets vs Bamboo Flooring

Joe Piotrowski - Chicago Burb's

>I was just looking at bamboo for flooring. it's an attractive wood. however I have pets also.

I grabbed a few sample cuts from the big box and I was disappointed. it dents easy and I am afraid that dog running on the floor will scratch it.

I did not think about the urine issue. that is a good point to some degree. the fish on top will keep it out. nothing can stop it from seeping through to the underlayment.

if it's not a solid wood or solid wood laminate and one of those MDF engineered types like pergo, forget about the smell. if urine seep into the grooves and gets left there it will cause the joint to swell.

no matter what you do to dry it out and no matter how small the slight bump and that no one else notices it, It will stare back at you like mount everest.

I was really set on changing our floor to Bamboo. the straight grain and light color is perfect for smaller rooms. but I guess since it is a reed and not a tree I can;t expect it to be as hard as oak.

good luck with the pets!

Re: Pets vs Bamboo Flooring

Ted Wong

>That's the problem with most of the engineered wood floors. I think they'd be great for a couple with no kids or pets but introduce either or both and the floor starts to look pretty tired pretty quick. I think laminates would fair far better in the wear department with a pet or kids.

We had an engineered floor in our kitchen and it was okay for about a year and then the wear just started to multiply. The veneer was less than 1/8" and the substrate wasn't dense enough to back up the thin veneer. Dents and punctures occured at the drop of a dinner knife.

As for house breaking the dog one of the best things somone can do is get a cage to put the pet in at night or when you're away. Most dogs won't soil their immediate environs at an early age. Our dogs hated it at first and would howl and whimper forever when we first put them in it but after a few days they got used to it and actually went in themselves when it was time to go to sleep. They were housebroken within a couple of weeks and we sold the cages at a garage sale.

Just asking, but dents easy compared to? *LINK*

Craig Daymon

>Joe,

I'm planning on ripping out the Pergo knock-off crap that the previous owners installed (badly) and replacing it with bamboo. The samples I have received from Smith & Fong seemed very hard. Bamboo flooring is compressed, so hardness might be somewhat reflective of the process used by a particular manufacturer. I think you'll find bamboo (1380) flooring ranks near maple (1450) and harder than oak (white=1360, red=1290) in the Janka hardness test.

My brother has Jatoba/Brazilian Cherry in his house, which is 2350 on the scale with Sugar Maple at 1450 and his wife still complains that it dents. (Kids, no dogs.)

I suspect dents are just a natural part of wood (or bamboo) floors, like stains on concrete countertops. I don't know if hardness is directly related to dents, but I think the Janka test is done by dropping a steel bearing from a specified height and measuring the depth of the dent.

I will look into whether the vertical or horizontal orientation holds up better...once I save enough. I know I'd like to get some of the plywood to work with.

-Craig


Janka Hardness Test Data - Country Floors site

Better Jank link *LINK*

Craig Daymon

>Here's a more technical description of the test.


Janka hardness

Re: Pets vs Bamboo Flooring

Doug Reynolds in Seattle

>I removed my bamboo flooring after less than a year due to extreme denting from two labs. Spoke to a flooring guy who said bamboo is very strong not hard (read dent-proof) and, since it is a weed and not a tree it will probably suck up any dog urine. Plus, most of it is just glue joints seperated by very thin strips of bamboo.

better test.

Joe Piotrowski - Chicago Burb's

>my wifes finger nail seams to dent it just fine. when I am ready to pull the trigger I will just take here with.

there could be a big difference in bamboo. the stuff I am holding is 2 strips of solid bamboo. the outside layers both 3/16 thick are a single 3" wide strip the center is made up of small jointed strips.

I'm not totally writing off bamboo but I need more research in manufactures and there difference.

I have a Armstrong floor in one room and hate it. it has no depth or warmth of real wood. I will never put on again unless it's to dress up for sale.

Re: Just asking, but dents easy compared to?

ScottS

>There's a lot of variation among bamboo species in terms of hardness. Many bamboo manufacturers will quote a very high Janka hardness number, even though they might be using a different species of bamboo for their flooring. When I was thinking about flooring, I obtained samples of a number of different floors. Then I subjected them to a highly unscientific "drop test" (specifically: hammer and screwdriver). Bamboo, in general, seemed to fair pretty well though there seemed to be quite a bit of variation from one manufacturer to another.

In the end, I went with a laminate floor. I, too, have dogs and was able to scratch virtually every wood and engineered wood sample I obtained without too much difficulty. The laminate seemed to be considerably more durable than anything else I looked at...

Re: Pets vs Bamboo Flooring

Ken Platt (Granby, CT)

>About 2 years ago I put in the floors in a small addition we'd had constructed. One room is bamboo, the other birch. We have multiple kids and dogs of various sizes and energy levels.

The way the surface fares seems to me more a factor of the finish. The bamboo - Hawa brand - has a finish which is somewhat brittle, so dropped objects (me as much as anyone) chip the finish. Doesn't seem to do much to the bambool The birch was from a company called Foresfloor, and the finish seems to be a much higher quality, pretty impervious to whatever.

As for urine - the dogs usually pee on the carpeted areas. Talk about rude awakenings in the morning....

Ken

Dont know about bamboo flooring Ron......

Scott in Eastern Iowa

>.....but the answer is simple.

Keep the dog outside.

Opps.....Prolly not what she wanted to hear though eh???

Scott

Re: Pets vs Bamboo Flooring

Bill Ding

>Ron, last year I put in a 13 X 32 bamboo floor in a combined kitchen eating area/family room. I acclminated the bamboo for a week in the front hallway. I'm about halfway through with the project. I went into the hallway, grabbed a half a dozen planks, walked around the corner and spooked their golden retriever. In running the dog put two deep scratches about half way thru the project. Homeowner was not pleased. I told her it would be a half days job to pull nails and rip out floor. So she said leave it, I'll cover it with a rug. My thoughts are, if it scratched that easily, what's it gonna look like in five years. The people walk across it everyday to enter the house from the garage and the dining table. From this one experience, I would not recommend it.

adds character?

Joe Piotrowski - Chicago Burb's

>considering these so called antiqued and scalloped floor they are selling these days, you can make you own.