Bamboo flooring learning curve

It was the weekend we have been waiting for.  For months now, we have had piles of bamboo flooring in the great room, waiting for the day when it would finally go down.  This was THAT weekend.

The first thing we did was to thoroughly sweep and vacuum the area and move everything out of the way.  Of course that meant that all those items were now shoved into a smaller area.

All clean and ready to roll 

Then Len tested out the flooring nailer which seemed to work quite well on our test strip.  But there was certainly some learning to be done.  The bamboo is quite brittle and not that easy to work with.  Most of the planks are quite straight, but some are a bit bowed.

Wack-a-mole anyone?

 We also ran a line to keep everything straight.

The first two strips ready to go in

 Len had to work around the vents and posts.  And guess what, the posts have shifted out of square as they dried, so it was even more challenging.

Len marked the area then cut it out using the table saw and chisels

Putting in the next row

The chop saw is down in the basement so every cut means exercise

As we progressed, we noticed that the big floor nailer was leaving some marks on the boards.  Len tried to adjust it, but soon realized that there was just too much pressure on the small and brittle edge of the planks.  So he got out the trusty brad nailer and has been using it instead.  This means that we have to do all the fitting by hand as there isn't the big wollop when the nail is put in (with the big nailer, it moved the planks together tightly).  Len devised a method to get it really tight - first the hammer., then if it is resistant, he uses a wedge.  One part is screwed to the floor and then he puts the wedge next to the plank and hammers the wedge in to tighten the planks.  It works like a charm!

Using the brad nailer

When we can't get a tight fit by hand, Len uses his "wedgy" device

A small strip had to be cut to continue into the dining area

The completed area with the furniture "stored" out of the way for the rest of the floor

 One other small accomplishment on the weekend was putting up the Christmas lights.  We opted for low-tech this year and just wrapped them around the deck railing.  Does look festive.