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The Kitchen Table

Care of Bamboo flooring

13 years ago

I've posted this on the flooring and home decorating forum as well.

We decided to go with strand bamboo for the kitchen and will have it installed Monday.

I've done a lot of reading on the care of the floor and am a bit confused. Some articles/users suggest using throw rugs/carpet runners on the floor in high traffic areas. Others say, not to as it will stand up to almost anything. We do have a dog and we keep his nails trimmed which I've been told can scratch the flooring. Also, IÃ¯Â¿Â½ve been told to use something like Swifter to clean the floors, but there seems to be some debate about using that on hardwood floors.

I plan on using a throw rug (which I've always done) in front of the sink.

So anyone else have bamboo and how much of what I've read/been told do I need to take as good advice?

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Comments (4)

Jodi_SoCal
13 years ago
Steve, we don't have bamboo flooring but looked into it a while back. Our good friends are in the flooring business so I ran a few questions past them. They told me bamboo is inherently tough stuff but the quality of the coating can be the downfall. If it's cheap, it will scratch up pretty easily. You get what you pay for is what they tell me.
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ravencajun Zone 8b TX
13 years ago
check into a steam mop like the Shark, they work beautifully on pretty much any floor, they do not get the floor soaking wet like a wet mop does and it is dry virtually instantly and uses only water no chemicals. I love mine.
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hi secsteve: we installed strand-woven bamboo by HomeLegend with the 7-layer aluminum oxide finish throughout the house. i would not worry about your pup. we have a labrador mix who is spazzes every time we get near his paws, so needless to say his nails are not trimmed as frequently as they should be. we put the floors down 2 months ago and have yet to see a scratch from the dog. i'd worry more about furniture legs. we put felt tabs on the bottom of all the legs, but a couple of them came off, and we got a few scratches that way. also, trying to figure out how on earth to clean these suckers, what product to use exactly, was quite a task. i finally ended up getting P&M floor cleaner from National Vacuum. it's pH neutral and evaporates really quickly; honestly, i think it might just be Windex--looks just like it. i'm not 100% satisfied with it, but have yet to find anything better.
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jak1
13 years ago
I have bamboo flooring in two bedrooms, one is a child's room. We also have two dogs. I sweep or dry mop the floors about every second day, and about once a week I damp mop or wipe them with a damp cloth. They have been in about two years and look as good as they day we installed them. Very easy to keep and good looking too.
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kayjones
13 years ago
I have bamboo flooring in all rooms except the guest bedroom, the three bathrooms and the kitchen - those are tiled.

I use warm water and alcohol to clean all my floors - 1,600 sq. ft. of space, and it does a wonderful job.

We don't have soil to make our floors dirty - we have sugar sand, so I have to clean my floors with a vacuum made for picking up sand and pet hair, then twice a week, I scrub them.

Bamboo flooring does get scratched easily, so I have area rugs in the high-traffic areas and by all the doors. Having a large area rug in the Florida room helps keep a lot of the sand out of the main house.
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