We have a Bruce engineered 5" plank maple floor in our house. The floor looked great new, but that didn't last long. The planks scratch and dent VERY easily. My neighbor just had Bamboo installed and not only is it beautiful, the planks are thicker, heavier and heartier than my Bruce planks. Our neighbor insisted on demonstrating for us: he hit one of his Bamboo planks (uninstalled, of course) with a hammer and it barely left a mark. Any and everything I drop on our Bruce floors leaves a dent. If I were shopping for a floor now, I would definitely go towards Bamboo. Good luck with your choice.

Bruce is at the bottom of the entire hardwood group in my opinion. With Bruce we add 10% more waste than the job dictates due to quality control.

echoflooring, I can believe it. Bruce was the only manufacturer our builder offered when we were buying our new house. Based on what we were charged, we thought we were getting a quality product. I wish we knew then what we know now.

Which bamboo flooring are you considering? I'm considering fossilized Cali Bamboo or Natural Floors spice woven strand bamboo from Lowe's. The pricing is pretty similar. I can find more info on Cali in terms of moisture (6%), bamboo source (mosu on 7 yo trees), formaldehyde (don't use urea).

I have samples and they're gorgeous. But I've read horror stories on bamboo scratching and denting. I'm guessing they aren't woven strand or a low end brand but it's making me very nervous. Any info or experience?

Bruce was the first mfctr of offer pre finished flooring. The quality has been there. Like any brand there is high end and low end. Some retailers don't like Bruce cause they can't make profit margin as when Armstrong bought Bruce they promote it as a big box brand making it harder for retailers to mark it up as much.

We were in the market for hardwood flooring a couple years ago. We initially picked Bruce. The job was about 1/4 finished and we noticed a purplish hue to the wood and the quality wasn't there. As a matter of fact, it didn't even match the sample.

we had the Bruce taken out and went with BR-111. So happy we did that, we love the BR-111. Hated the Bruce quality!

Careful, not all bamboo is created equal. In it's natural state, it has a janka rating of about 1380 (brands will vary), but when it has been carbonized, it brings the rating down to 1180. Strand woven though, which might be what your neighbor has, has a janka rating of 3000.

In my opinion, it is not appropriate to compare hardwood flooring quality by brands only. Each brand has its higher end and lower end products. Again it is also very hard to compare Bamboo to wood flooring in general. I recommend to set a realistic budget for your hardwood flooring project. A good floor store online or offline should be able to lead you through the whole buying and installation process.

Wood floors have different hardnesses which will account for how easy it is to dent. Look at the link below, Armstrong has a hardness chart to see which species are harder than others. Bamboo is not listed, but I understand that it is a pretty soft wood. If it's treated as mentioned in a previous post, that will make a difference as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hardwood Floor Hardness Guide

Bamboo isn't a wood; it's actually a plant.

Bamboo is a grass, but thats really not important. The cellular structure is very close to a hardwood. Having said that I live in the land of soft hardwoods and hard softwoods.