What kind of flooring do we have?

June 1, 2020 4:47 PM

Pictures of the floor. Installed before we bought the house. Not asking for any particular reason, just interested. It's in pretty good shape for now but it does seem to scratch somewhat easily.
posted by Tehhund to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Best answer: That looks like pre-finished bamboo flooring.
posted by niicholas at 4:48 PM on June 1, 2020 [6 favorites]

Seconding bamboo.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:50 PM on June 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'd bet $100 that niicholas is right. It's almost identical to the bamboo floor at my mom's house.
posted by saladin at 4:51 PM on June 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

nthing that that is 100% bamboo.
posted by LionIndex at 5:06 PM on June 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster:

pre-finished

Do we need to finish it? Or is that optional?
posted by Tehhund at 5:10 PM on June 1, 2020

I think that means that it was finished before installation, not that it's currently in a state where it is yet to be finished.
posted by LionIndex at 5:13 PM on June 1, 2020 [2 favorites]

yeah this is engineered laminate bamboo. it comes finished from the factory. It will scratch under heavy use and can maybe be refinished depending on how it's made. But you'd have to completely sand it down first like a regular hardwood floor. Even then, the top layer is only good for one or two sandings.
posted by GuyZero at 5:22 PM on June 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

Yeah, our bamboo floor also scratches very easily. I keep meaning to try installing new felt gliders on the bottoms of our chairs, at least, because everything (even previous plastic gliders) scratch this flooring.
posted by ldthomps at 7:52 PM on June 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

We have this type of flooring in our bathrooms, because it's good at resisting water damage compared to traditional wood. Ours is bamboo all the way through (it's called 'strand woven bamboo' where I live). It's much heavier, and much harder than most woods, so I'd guess that the damage you're seeing is mostly in the lacquer.
posted by pipeski at 2:30 AM on June 2, 2020 [1 favorite]