some assembly required
Today the studio floor was delivered, or at least the components thereof. So I guess you can figure out what we will be doing in the next few days.
Actually this is just the joists and the subfloor. We still haven’t picked out the actual flooring yet. Right now we are leaning toward bamboo.
November 16th, 2006 @ 9:14 pm
I’ve heart good things about bamboo, but are you interested in heat retention? I don’t know if bamboo will collect and hold heat.
November 16th, 2006 @ 9:54 pm
We LOVE our bamboo floor. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.
As soon as we get done with this kitchen project we are going to continue the bamboo into the living room. Ours is Panda brand. Micro-beveled edges and an aluminum oxide finish.
If you can do the joists and subfloor, installing the bamboo on top will be the easy part.
To answer some of the questions you left on our post. It was easy to nail down because we rented a floor nailer with an air compressor. Very loud. It’s tongue and groove and it all fit together very solidly. The first row is a little tricky because nail gun nails at a slant and you can’t get it up against the wall. Same problem with the final two rows. But we just drilled and hand nailed those.
Cutting the pieces to fit our odd-shaped room was a pain but we didn’t have to fit it around cabinets, so it wasn’t too bad. (Part of the master plan.) If you have a plain, rectangular room it would be a breeze.
The finish is hard but it is still like any hardwood floor. It can be scratched and it can be dented. We have two carts on wheels and they roll along fine with no marks. I dropped a knife and it left a small dent. We put our new heavy oven on those plastic gliders. It moved without leaving a trail. However, some grit got under one of them and it scratched the surface slightly. And I’m not letting any women with stilleto heels walk on it–not that I know any women who wear stilleto heels.
You asked about cat vomit. I don’t think it would be a problem. So far most spills have cleaned up very easily. They recommend cleaning with water and vinegar and not any strong detergents like Murphys soap even.
We used some leftover pieces to make mats under our computer chairs. Rolling back and forth over the pine floors has completely ripped them up. It’s only been six weeks, I know, but I don’t see a single mark left by the chairs on the bamboo.
November 18th, 2006 @ 10:37 am
I don’t know about heat retention. We haven’t really considered that.
November 18th, 2006 @ 4:01 pm
I’ve walked on a few bamboo floors around Austin, and they felt very nice under one’s foot.
Pablo, could you explain why Bill needs to consider heat retention? In the seven years I’ve been here getting rid of heat has been the hard part.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
November 19th, 2006 @ 12:19 pm
I, too, have heard good things about bamboo. Cork as well.
You guys are going to be busier than a one-armed paper hanger!
November 21st, 2006 @ 10:41 pm
What studio? Art, sewing, dance?