mshannon
31st May 2006, 12:01 AM
Hi,
I've been visiting these forums anonymously on and off for the last few years - mainly to read the posts related to the Triton. This is my first post as a member. The posts on this flooring forum have proved very helpful to me, but have now also put some doubt on to how I should proceed.
I'm in the process of renovating a unit (more "demolishing and coordinating" versus actual "building").
The wife and I would like to go with timber flooring in our unit on top of the concret slab - primarily cause it looks great when done well, and neither of us like the idea of exclusively tiling the place.
We have visited a few show rooms here in Brisbane, and seen many great products - bamboo flooring / floating t&g hard woods etc.
We have around 70 square metres to cover, consisting of a long hallway, 2 bedrooms, lounge and kitchen/dining area.
We plan to live in the apartment for around 3 years, then switch it over to a renter. So durability will be key. As we are in a unit complex, we also need to be considerate for the apartment below, so some type of noise dampening is also going to be required. Being in Brisbane, we may also need some type of moisture barrier.
We like the look of the bamboo flooring, but have received mixed reviews as to its quality. In typical friends-of-friends told-me fashion, we heard that bamboo flooring sourced from China is not up to the same quality of that produced in Australia and is likely to shrink/disfigure etc etc. I have not found anything on the internet to confirm this though.
Things that I have been pondering include:
Whether to go floating flooring, or glue directly on the slab?
Whether to use bamboo flooring, or hard-wood t&g
Do the noise dampening products work well, and if so, which do you recommend?
How has the flooring aged? Did it shrink?
Can you sand prefinished bamboo flooring should it get scratched, or after it becomes old (20+ years)?
Is it worth putting bamboo flooring on ply-board, or stick directly to slab?
As you can see, I'm thoroughly confused! We don't mind paying the extra dollars now, so long as that we get a quality product that is going to look good and more importantly last.
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
regards,
Matt.
I've been visiting these forums anonymously on and off for the last few years - mainly to read the posts related to the Triton. This is my first post as a member. The posts on this flooring forum have proved very helpful to me, but have now also put some doubt on to how I should proceed.
I'm in the process of renovating a unit (more "demolishing and coordinating" versus actual "building").
The wife and I would like to go with timber flooring in our unit on top of the concret slab - primarily cause it looks great when done well, and neither of us like the idea of exclusively tiling the place.
We have visited a few show rooms here in Brisbane, and seen many great products - bamboo flooring / floating t&g hard woods etc.
We have around 70 square metres to cover, consisting of a long hallway, 2 bedrooms, lounge and kitchen/dining area.
We plan to live in the apartment for around 3 years, then switch it over to a renter. So durability will be key. As we are in a unit complex, we also need to be considerate for the apartment below, so some type of noise dampening is also going to be required. Being in Brisbane, we may also need some type of moisture barrier.
We like the look of the bamboo flooring, but have received mixed reviews as to its quality. In typical friends-of-friends told-me fashion, we heard that bamboo flooring sourced from China is not up to the same quality of that produced in Australia and is likely to shrink/disfigure etc etc. I have not found anything on the internet to confirm this though.
Things that I have been pondering include:
Whether to go floating flooring, or glue directly on the slab?
Whether to use bamboo flooring, or hard-wood t&g
Do the noise dampening products work well, and if so, which do you recommend?
How has the flooring aged? Did it shrink?
Can you sand prefinished bamboo flooring should it get scratched, or after it becomes old (20+ years)?
Is it worth putting bamboo flooring on ply-board, or stick directly to slab?
As you can see, I'm thoroughly confused! We don't mind paying the extra dollars now, so long as that we get a quality product that is going to look good and more importantly last.
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
regards,
Matt.