A maze of twisty bamboo floorboards, all different

July 25, 2006 12:14 PM

Have you ever seen a warped, damaged engineered hardwood floor?

I'm considering putting an engineered (multi-ply) bamboo floor over radiant heat in the kitchen of my house. There's a wide price range for this flooring, from about $2.79/sf to $10/sf (materials only). The purveyors of expensive material warn that cheap floorboards aren't dried properly and will warp soon after installation -- particularly if I put them over radiant heat. However, I haven't actually encountered any complaints or stories from people whose floors warped, so I'm wondering if this isn't just a story the expensive players tell to sell their stuff. (It looks like most/all of the bamboo flooring comes from factories in China, and I haven't even seen any convincing evidence that it's not all from the same factory.)

So: if you installed an engineered hardwood floor (particularly a bamboo floor) and it warped, please tell me:

• Where did you get the flooring?
• How did you install it? (Nail, glue, float, etc.)
• Was it installed over radiant heat?
• How long did it take to warp?
• How badly did it warp?
• Are there any unusual conditions that might have contributed to the problem?

Thanks!

posted by spacewrench to home & garden (5 comments total)

I am thinking about wood floors in the bathroom and read this thread recently.
posted by sulaine at 12:24 PM on July 25, 2006

Bamboo isn't "hardwood".
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:50 PM on July 25, 2006

My parents are currently fighting it out with the person who installed their floors and insisted they didn't need a moisture barrier. Apparently, that person (a professional installer) was wrong.

The floors apparently warped pretty badly due to relatively normal moisture and they're replacing them completely. I think it took about a year, but I'm not positive.
posted by JMOZ at 1:12 PM on July 25, 2006

You say that you are putting an engineered wooden floor
over radiant heat in the kitchen. Is that radiant heat in a
concrete slab, or radiant heat in gypcrete over a wooden
subfloor, or radiant heat stapled to the underside of the
subfloor? It makes a difference.

With radiant heat installed
over a crawlspace, you have some chance of evaluating
any moisture problems that you might have below the
installed floor. With a slab-on-grade concrete floor, you
are at the mercy of things that you cannot see, and have
to use indirect measures (like putting an impermeable
object on the floor to block any "insensible" moisture
transmission, and checking it after a week or three to
see if there was any darkening).

Speaking specifically of a hardwood floor over a radiant
subfloor, you have to keep the floor temperatures below
about 85 degrees to avoid excessive drying. I would expect
that an engineered floor is more stable than that.

Additionally, it doesn't take that long for sliced wood to come
into equilibrium with ambient humidity.
Specifically, with 3/4 inch red oak, I'd feel fine about installing it after a
month, unbundled in the space where I was going to install it.
I would expect an engineered wood floor to be more stable.
posted by the Real Dan at 4:39 PM on July 25, 2006

My inlaws bought oak flooring from a liquidator or outlet type business. They hired professionals to install it. It was taking forever to install. 10 hours into the job on the first day the workers realized it was warped. It wasn't going together easily, and they had to scrap the job. Thankfully my inlaws got their money back for the flooring. They bought new flooring and it went in without a problem.
posted by LoriFLA at 10:38 PM on July 25, 2006