A Few Considerations & Suggestions For Installation

While bamboo is a whole lot easier to install than hardwood, we suggest you use a professional to install your quality Mill Valley bamboo floor. A professional can enhance the finished look with a few “tricks of the trade.” If you choose to install your bamboo flooring yourself, you can achieve good results by carefully following these instructions. Every site/situation differs to some extent and the following are general instructions which cannot guarantee perfect results in every circumstance.

The bamboo flooring you are buying is amongst the highest quality flooring products available anywhere. Careful, dedicated attention was given to every step of manufacture starting with the bamboo species selection, to the farm site selection, and personal attention during maturation, as well as the choice of harvest maturity, harvesting season, harvesting method; then through every step in the process leading to the fully finished flooring and even its packaging. We, or our trusted associates, have followed all of the bamboo from forest to showroom, each and every step of the way. It is THE BEST milled product to be found.

General Rules for Installation
MV Bamboo flooring is intended for installation above grade only. For all concrete pad installations, special precautions must be taken including an assessment of the humidity levels and seasonal variations in humidity. Your flooring professional can best offer you advice. Vapor barriers are necessary.
Only with proper precautions, can our product be installed over radiant heat in concrete floors. It is widely used as such in Korea and Russia.
Bamboo needs to be acclimated to its environment. We recommend that boxes be opened with heating or a/c on for 72 hours prior to installation.
MV Bamboo flooring is a natural product. It differs noticeably from stalk to stalk. Utmost care was used in matching texture and color before manufacturing and packaging your bamboo.

Your flooring requires a minimal expansion joint at the wall edge accomplished by using a shim. To allow for any expansion, the space is covered by baseboard or molding after flooring installation.
High spots on the sub-floor should be sanded (wood), or ground down (concrete), and re-nailed where necessary to eliminate squeaks and loose boards.
We strongly suggest underlayment for resilience, sound absorption and water proofing.
Because of the natural color variation in bamboo flooring, it is important to shuffle and mix material from multiple cartons to assure a beautiful blend of shadings.
Randomly mix the slightly varied contents of several boxes and place them loosely on the floor to assess the look you will have. Make adjustments so variation is as you want it with plank ends randomly spaced in the different rows before you commit to the final installation in a well-lit room for random distribution of colors and joints for a natural finished look.
For advanced designs, the installer may choose to override these suggestions to create a dramatic effect by special color placements and end joint patterning.

Floor preparation:
The installation space and the flooring product must be stabilized to a common temperature and humidity. We recommend that the room be at a normal local humidity (20% to 40%) and at normal room temperature (50 to 70 degrees F). Sub-flooring and bamboo should be in the 8% to 12% range. Our highest grade, fully matured bamboo is a dimensionally stable product, unlike “young” bamboo, which is not. A precise and tight jointed finish will be achieved by following these instructions.

The sub floor must be structurally sound, clean, level, flat and dry (not exceeding 12% moisture); well secured with ample nails, screws and/or glue to avoid squeaks. We recommend refastening high traffic areas. If your bamboo is being placed on concrete, the concrete must be fully cured, dry, level, flat and known to remain dry all year long. A vapor barrier is an absolute.

Tools needed include eye protection, knee pads, pencil, square, tape measure, rubber mallet, hammer, fine cross-cut saw blade, (80 tooth), duct tape, snap line and possibly a router.

Install the flooring perpendicular to, or diagonally across joists. A moisture barrier under-layment is required over concrete and is highly recommended over wood and plywood subfloors for water proofing, sound absorption and increased comfort due to the added resilience.

Bamboo flooring can be installed in three standard ways: nailing, gluing or full floating. These techniques should not be mixed. In each case, please make every effort to scramble and mix planks from different boxes to randomly distribute any natural variations of color and create the best finish presentation with an even variation in natural color tones and well spaced end joints.

Remove the baseboards before beginning. Install removable shims. Start the first row along your snap line, tongue side out. Subsequent rows are tightly positioned with the rubber mallet after it has been determined that the color mixing and end joints form a pleasingly random look. The last row may be ripped to fit. Shim is removed before baseboard trim is installed.

If the baseboard does not cover the new flooring, install bamboo quarter round, available in matching colors. The end board in each row, when cut to fit, may be placed at the beginning of the next row. Plank breaks look best when they are randomly staggered to avoid a patterned look. Since the product is 100% natural, it differs in coloration and tone. Lay out 10 rows and step back to adjust before finally attaching to the under surface. Special designs call for carefully aligned, positioned end breaks. MV Bamboo flooring is so dimensionally stable and precisely milled that many creative floor designs can be achieved without problems associated with lower quality floors. We suggest using a professional for more complex designs.

Installation: First lay down the appropriate vapor barrier underlayment using duct tape to make a continuous surface. Non-covered foam plastic strip is wrapped up along wall. Snap line a straight line parallel to the wall. Planks are laid groove edge to the wall, tongue out..

Nailing: (Not needed) Nail the tongue every 8” - 10” using an appropriate nail gun. The small shim will resist expansion. All courses must be treated identically.

Edge Gluing: Gluing makes for a more stable edged joint. Use white glue applied sparingly only to the bottom of the tongue after desired pattern is accomplished. This will allow most excess glue to drip down and will minimize cleanup. If excess glue squeezes to the surface, wipe clean immediately with a clean damp sponge. Edge gluing will add considerable time to the installation process and requires compression be maintained until the glue is fully set and to assure that the joints are tightly held together. Pressure until dry is necessary.

Attaching floor to subfloor with glue: We do not recommend this method. It is not necessary. We strongly recommend a professional floor installer if you are using this method.

Floating: The first board must be straight. Any deviation will be accentuated later on. Other than for not using nails or glue, the above general instructions apply.

© Copyright Mill Valley Bamboo Association.