bikebuddha 

Anyone have any experience living with bamboo flooring? I'm curious about it's durability especially with say two dogs running around constantly.

ModoVincere

No experience.
I saw some really nice looking bamboo flooring at HD a few years back though. It looked pretty durable...I think the varnish/poly finish is the most important aspect of durability for flooring.

20grit

It's incredibly difficult to cut with regular blades, so one would assume the durability is up there. I saw it in a school for troubled children, in the cafeteria. The kids had managed to gouge it leaving some rather unsightly holes. The exposed edges of material all turned black. I can't say what contributed to that discoloration, it could be staining. It could also be the way the stuff rots; I'm not certain.

It will likely be fine, and definitely more durable in your situation than the other 'renewable' flooring, cork.

Indy_Rider

Dog's will tear up the finish on bamboo or hard wood floors fairly quickly, especially large dogs. Laminate flooring I've found to hold up the best to that kind of abuse as it is really difficult to scratch.

bikebuddha 

Showing my perchant for trivia, did you know the original floor of the oval office was cork but Ike would walk in with his golf spikes on and in eight years destroyed the floor.

cuda2k

Bamboo is a mixed bag when it comes to durability. Some of the stuff is really good, but a lot of the stuff is really not up to snuff. When it comes to bamboo, you get what you pay for. I looked into it extensively a few years back when I was getting ready to do flooring (which oddly enough - I still haven't done). Most of what you'll find locally is lower grade and won't hold up. I ultimately gave up looking at bamboo and started focusing on maple flooring instead. It's harder than oak and bamboo. But if you've got bigger dogs, I'd second the vote for a (quality) laminate.

overthehillmedi

I wonder if Ipe from Brazil is available as indoor flooring? According to another page on this site Ipe is an extremely hard wood.
Just did a quick perusal of Google and apparently it is available as flooring but has issues so one should do due dilligence before using in your house.

20grit

Google says yes, it is available. $5.78/sqft from Home Depot.

JonnyHK 

The parents have it. Seems to be holding up quite well (two dogs).

cuda2k

Here's how I decided against bamboo - bought samples of some of the best (engineered) bamboo flooring on the market, and then some samples of oak and maple. Then I dropped stuff on each sample (keys, coins, pocket knife, etc, stuff that may fall off a table or fall out of my pocket) and compared the results. Bamboo was much less resilient to damage from this sort of impact. Then I dropped a framing hammer, head down, on each - that was fun, and again, bamboo lost by a long shot. Scrapes and such, the differences are probably not as wide.

toytech

Having installed about 600sqft of it in my addition I will chime in. Decent bamboo is pretty hard as far as dents etc., but they really show. If you have dogs running around on it it will get scratched and marred fast, or at least the ones you get will really stand out. Cutting it is not too bad if you use a high tooth count carbide blade, I used an 80 and a 60 tooth on my miter and table saws. Mine is the tongue and groove variety from Costco. I found also that color consistency is pretty good, I was able to by quarter rounds and trim from other sources for a perfect match.
My 80 year old oak floors on the other hand have tons of scratches, dents and dings very few of which stand out.

georgekey

Bamboo flooring is durable and stain resistant. Its easy to maintain you just need to vacuum or sweep it. But they are not scratch resistant so not good if have pets. Instead go for vinyl flooring they are durable, long-lasting and resistant to moisture, scratches and dents.
Kitchen Faucets

RubeRad

I have maybe 500-600 sq ft of snap-together bamboo flooring, I put it in myself when we bought the place about 9 years ago. I don't know if the product I got (from Costco) is more durable than others, but I have been really impressed. There are faint signs of wear where the feet of the dining table chairs slide around, and where we keep a metal folding chair at the piano (and a lot of time was spent sitting on that chair with the rubber feet worn through and the metal sliding around on the bamboo -- hardly any wear!)

I don't have any pets though, maybe dog nails are something different?

My biggest complaint is it pulled apart a gap through the middle of the room. Size varies with the seasons but max maybe 1/4"? I always think about pulling out the moulding on one end, moving some furniture around, and trying to whack it all together again. But I'm lazy.

fooferdoggie 

I have built a lot of stuff with ipe that stuff is bullet proof indoors or out. but I can see it would be hard to install indoors and finish may be an issue since it is a oily wood. but a good water based finish would do it. its not the prettiest wood I have cut a lot of bamboo plywood it is very durable but who knows on flooring? the stuff is really expensive as plywood.