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Bamboo, Pergo, Other?

28 Sep 2003 by Jason Fried

I’m considering putting in new “wood-like” flooring in my bedroom, but I’m trying to avoid using real wood. Has anyone has any experience with bamboo flooring or Pergo? How’s the look/feel? I think I’m leaning towards bamboo (I prefer the look and renewable nature of the material). Thanks.

27 comments so far (Post a Comment)

28 Sep 2003 | Anil said...

Seems like Matt's been eyeing bamboo flooring:

http://a.wholelottanothing.org/archives.blah/007452

28 Sep 2003 | Matt Haughey said...

I had never heard of bamboo as flooring until a few months ago. A couple family members used it, based solely on the look of it. They both went for the flat grain ( here's an explanation of the different grains though the photo of a room shows the vertical only), which looks a bit "zebra" and in a small kitchen I thought it was kind of busy looking, though in another family member's very open and airy house (across a thousand square feet instead of 50-100 in the kitchen), it looked great and didn't look busy at all.

Both of them used solid bamboo, and I heard the installation was very easy, being a standard floating floor that was glued together. I think the only downside to it for them was the price, at around $4 per sq foot. You can get standard wood or engineered flooring cheaper than that, but I think the ecological aspects are worth the price. I'd like to do a new kitchen and den with it, and I'll probably go with the vertical grain since it looks cleaner.

If this flooring gets popular, there's no doubt it will get cheaper since the raw materials are so easy and cheap to produce (bamboo grows like crazy almost anywhere on earth). If money is no object, Dwell Magazine had a thing on floors a month or two ago, which covered quite a few other forms (cork, leather, and other weird stuff).

28 Sep 2003 | Matt Haughey said...

Actually the photo here at the same site looks like flat grain.

28 Sep 2003 | andrew said...

I've never had Pergo myself, but I've heard others say the sound of pet feet / nails on it is kind of annoying. So if you have pets, that may be something to consider.

29 Sep 2003 | Elaine said...

I saw the bamboo a couple of years back on This Old House, and some friends of ours had it put in not too long ago. Yeah, it's still pretty spendy. They seem to like it, and it's very pretty. They're still quite nervous about shoes, etc., on it; though I don't know if that's just paranoia about having a nice floor. :)

if we had the cash right now, I think we'd be doing that in our living room (at least) as well.

29 Sep 2003 | Benjy said...

What is the cost difference? I've loved the look of the bamboo floors for a while. I was thinking of putting Pergo or the Ikea laminate in my kitchen, but maybe I'll have to think about the bamboo if the cost isn't too much more...

29 Sep 2003 | JF said...

I think bamboo starts around $4/sqft, but don't take my word for it.

29 Sep 2003 | brian said...

i want to see if someone can get black bamboo flooring, as i know that it is extremely rare, but it seems possible. This would be perfect for those who see this trend and want to one up everyone else. It might even look cool too...

29 Sep 2003 | Don Schenck said...

I installed the Ikea flooring in my living room. It's manufactured by Pergo.

It's nice.

However, if you use manufactured laminate and a large area is exposed, your eye *will* pick up the repeating pattern, which is not good.

We put down a wool rug (which cost twice as much as the flooring!) so we're covered. HA! ... I just made a funny.

Do NOT think "what can I afford now" ... think "what do I want to live with".

29 Sep 2003 | Matthew Oliphant (formerly fajalar) said...

Do NOT think "what can I afford now" ... think "what do I want to live with".

Yup.

This is really strange since I woke up thinking about choices between bamboo and Pergo. Depending on what you need the flooring to do, you might also look at Marmoleum.

29 Sep 2003 | Steven said...

I installed a glued laminate floor in our living room and dining room last summer. We used the Armstrong brand, but they're all similar in composition and method of installation. It looks good, though not like real wood floors.

It is loud, as someone mentioned above (even with the foam underlayment, which is supposed to help with that). Big pets with claws and babies that like to throw/smash/slide toys make a lot of noise on it.

On the upside, it's nigh indestructible. Our baby hammers the crap out of it with his toys, and he's caused not one gouge or scratch. But, on the wood floor in the bedroom, he's scratched that a couple of places.

If had to do it over again, I'd look hard at the bamboo, even though it's 2x the cost.

29 Sep 2003 | Darrel said...

Pergo is akin to plastic wood grain in your car. It exudes fakeness. Some people like that, others don't.

I'm a bit of a modernist and cringe and faux materials, but to each their own, of course.

The nice thing about bamboo is that it's fairly green, and it's more of a 'real' material (opposed to a printed photo of wood on pergo). It's grass, which grows constantly, and I believe some (if not all) of the bamboo laminates simply use pressure and steam to adhered the layers (as opposed to glues and such).

Before you go with Pergo, visit someone in the burbs and walk across their floor for a bit. It really isn't that nice, IMHO and you want to make sure you like the 'feel' of it before going with it.

29 Sep 2003 | Mark Fusco said...

Several years ago my roommate and I installed Pergo in our kitchen - using their "snap together" system. Installation was rather quick and painless and it looked and felt alright. We installed it directly over the existing laminate.

I've seen bamboo at it's nice - never walked on it though. Cork is also cool looking, and I understand pretty comfortable to walk on - but a real pain to clean and easily stained.

29 Sep 2003 | Michael said...

Cork flooring... very cool patterns available in the tiles, as well as a plank option. From my understanding you actually "finish it" to avoid the staining/clean-up issues. Some decent information at Seattle's Environmental Home Center.

29 Sep 2003 | Benjy said...

Several years ago my roommate and I installed Pergo in our kitchen

Mark, how did you deal with appliances? Did you pull out the stove, fridge, etc. and lay floor under them? Is there a way to lock in the edge of the floating floor in front of appliances so that planks don't slide under? That the problem I'm having with the vinyl tiles in my kitchen currently that I want to fix by installing a lamanite floor.

29 Sep 2003 | Mark Fusco said...

We pulled the fridge out, but not the stove or anything else.

Pergo comes with quarter round pieces that are especially for dealing w/cabinets and stuff. At the time - nearly 10 years ago - I recall remembering being glad my roommate was an engineer and insisted on measuring everything twice before cutting it.

30 Sep 2003 | Elaine said...

I asked our friend last night how much the bamboo ran him, and he said it was $4.20/sq. ft.

30 Sep 2003 | David Crow said...

We put the Uni-Clic floors from Quick-Step down in our office. It survives the dogs running on it every day, salt from the winter, rain water and the occasional wine spillage.

We choose the Harvest Oak in Living Surface collection because it looked like old milled oak. It had faux saw marks, and looked as good as the old floors in some of the buildings that surround the office.

It's absolutely fabulous, the best part was the installation. We laid 2000 square feet in 2 days. It was very easy, no glue, just cut the underpadding, cut the floor and click.

30 Sep 2003 | TL said...

Pergo has some interesting Web apps on their site...

* Pergo eShowroom
* Interactive Room Planner
* Interactive Color Palette

02 Oct 2003 | Josh Berezin said...

The offices of Panic, Inc. have bamboo flooring. I like it, it's real pretty. You can see some pictures of it on their office buildout page.

03 Oct 2003 | Dane said...

I've installed the Pergo in my kitchen & dining room. We're very pleased. We don't have pets, so we don't have the nail problems metioned by others. I installed it myself, and was careful to avoid a patter. With the backing, it is actually quieter than the lanolium I ripped out. Easy to clean. Nearly indestructable. Looks good. Easy to install.

08 Oct 2003 | Mark said...

We put in a bamboo floor about one year ago. It looks great, but is easily scratched or dented (drop a glass and you've got a new dent, if a corner lands first). Strangely, Home Depot told us that it was one of the hardest woods.

09 Oct 2003 | Laird said...

I plan on installing bamboo flooring over about 600 sq.ft. of my basement--I'm pretty sold on it both aesthetically and environmentally, and even functionally (more stable that wood and harder than most). I notice that most of the major brands (Smith & Fong, Timbergrass) run around $5 - $6/square foot, but I've also seen prices on the net (ebay, others) as low as $1.93/sq.ft. for what is described as the same product (solid, vertical grain, prefinished, 5/8" thick). Anyone know if there's a real difference in quality or is it all coming from the same mill anyway?

28 Oct 2003 | Bamboo Moron said...

Don't believe the hype with respect to "more stable that wood and harder than most". The hardness of Bamboo varies from different manufacturers. I recently installed 900+ of natural colored Bamboo planks from Expo.

While it looks fantastic, it dents so easily. Everytime I drop something, it shows up with a ding. In fact, if I were to dig my finger nail with enough pressure, I can see a slight indentation. For crying out loud, my dried out ply wood is 10X more dent resistant than my Bamboo floor.

Buyer beware....I say test it out on sample before you make the purchase.

03 Nov 2003 | Julie Stock said...

I have recently had Norbo Malmoliem flooring fitted to my hall and kitchen. I am very dissatified with the result. Has anybody else had any similar probems.

17 Nov 2003 | world directory said...

thanks for the resources

02 Jan 2004 | melanie said...

has anyone ordered the bamboo from ebay, the price seems too good to be true?

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