In this weeks video I take you through some of the steps that I took to install our 1/2″ stranded bamboo flooring in our kitchen and foyer. I have installed a lot of hardwood floor in the past and this stuff definitely behaved a little bit differently than your typical hardwood.
Bamboo is extremely hard so it is a bit harder to cut so take your cuts slow and take precautions to make sure your work piece doesn’t slip. It is hard to prevent because the flooring is pre-finished and likes to slide around. If you need to cut with a jigsaw be sure to have your saw on the most aggressive cutting mode, use painters tape to prevent tare-out, and cut slowely otherwise you will quickly overheat your jigsaw blade.
When using the flooring nailer be sure to have the tool perfectly square to the floor otherwise it can cause a slight bubble in the finish on the top of the floor. Also, no need to go all macho with the hammer when striking the nailer to drive a nail, this will also cause the finished to bubble a bit and it can cause the tongue of the floor to split.
Using opposing wedges is really helpful to tighten your boards together in areas where you can’t get enough leverage or simply when you need to wedge and hold the floor board in place. I made a couple of wedges out of some scrap hickory and they easily lasted the hole flooring project.
Thanks for checking out our stuff and if you have any questions be sure to let me know!
