Home & Garden

There are several different methods available for installing bamboo wood flooring. Bamboo floors can be installed by either the nail down, staple down, glue down, or free floating method. The type of bamboo flooring installation one chooses will depend on the type of sub-flooring one has, as well as on whether or not one wishes to hire a professional installer or to install the floor oneself. Free floating installations are the preferred method for do-it-yourself installers, and bamboo floors in particular are well-suited to this method.

Most bamboo floor boards are pre-finished on all six sides, which means they require no finish work at all after installation. Unlike most hardwood floors, bamboo needs no sanding–new bamboo floor owners can skip the lengthy and unpleasant dust phase of installation. And since bamboo floor boards are already varnished and ready to go, there is no protracted drying time (and no need to worry about toxic fumes in the house).

Easy Bamboo Flooring Installation
People who want an easy-to-install, low-maintenance hardwood floor with a tropical flavor are likely to find that bamboo is the answer. Free floating bamboo installations are so easy that just about anyone can do them. The term free floating means that a floor is not anchored to the sub-flooring with nails, staples, or glue.

A free floating floor rests on a bed of foam (or foam and plastic) and the boards themselves are glued to each other, not the sub-flooring. With a nail down, staple down, or glue down installation, each bamboo floor board is individually attached to the structures sub-flooring. With free floating installations, the boards are all attached to each other–almost as if they were a raft. This eliminates the gaps and warps that can occur when individual hardwood boards are attached to the sub-flooring instead of each other.