Did you get your floors finished? What kind of sub floor are your using? I have a mud floor with thinset on top and want to use the bamboo with the roberts 1408. I would love to see some pictures.

 

I just began to install this "Bamboo Toast" product in a customer's basement and instantly noticed that the ends of each plank DO seperate during proper installation and by merely walking upon. This product cannot be floated as a result of its non-locking configuration. Home Depot's flooring folks offered no remedy and seemed to care less, and the Homelegends website was useless as well. The moisture excuse is garbage.... this product cannot be floated and be expected to perform as it should.

 

I worked at HD, in the flooring department too, and I will say, that bamboo is at the very low end of quality.

lvlndhandyman,

If you're a floor installer, why are you asking HD employees on how to fix it? No employee is trained on bamboo installation or issues that could arise. They are there to sell customers product.

 

We installed the bamboo flooring just before Christmas. The flooring immediately came apart at the ends. Also, the color variations were dramatic, everything from natural bamboo to terra cotta red. When the representative came out he assured us that we had a real problem. But when he contacted the company, his report was not in our favor as we had believed. I protested it along with pictures I'd submitted. The expediter at Home Depot worked with me and although it took weeks we were finally reimbursed for the flooring and the installation cost. We are retired and living on a budget so we were thankful to Home Depot for getting our money back. No more Home Legends for us.

 

We installed the Home Legend bamboo flooring into our living room about 6 months ago. I have many young children in the house and due to the fact that the living room is their main play area for them, the flooring has received it's fair share of traffic and abuse. I've had no problems with the installation, no complaints about the ends/grooves splitting or coming apart. Thus far, there has been no dents or scratches on the surface. I believe it's excellent quality bamboo at an extremely decent price. I don't understand why others have so many problems with it. Regardless, I highly recommend it and it's definitely worth giving a try.

 

Mike, I am having the same problem with my bamboo floors. They started coming apart at the end joints almost immediately. I just kept banging them back together. I have taken the mouldings off the wall several times to knock the floor back together. It has been almost a year since I put in the floor. During the winter months, I didn't have too much problem, but now during the summer, the whole thing is coming apart! So I am thinking about going back to home depot to see what they say. I was wondering what happened with your complaint. Thanks!

 

We bought a house with bamboo flooring throughout the upper level. It looks fairly nice, but does scratch and dent pretty easy. Seems pretty low end. Most of the end boards stay together, but when I replaced our cabinets a few did slide apart. I just put some construction adhesive at the ends and they have stayed in place since.
I wouldn't recommend bamboo floors to anyone though, probably best to go with a composite.

 

My boyfriend installed my floors in my 30-year old house, with no prior experience or background. He used a nail gun, no glue per my request, & I'm overall very happy with it. His installation was outstanding, including around a stone fireplace. It does dent if you drop a tool or drag metal over it, but it looks terrific. Some sites say use water, others say dry mop. I've been using dampened soft-cloth wood floor kit & just bought some Bona per a floor specialist's recommendation. The finish seems to be dulling just a bit. What should I be doing?

 

my neighbor installed it aver a year ago. he is not happy when he talks about it.

i checked out the HL oak, the darker stuff, at around the same time. looked great. i layed out 1 box of it. then my "test". put an office chair on it, my kitchen chairs are much like office chairs, in that they have wheels.. i then sat in the chair and moved around a little. it left ruts on the wood so deep that they would flow water = no exaggeration .

if they have not improved on it. it is junk.

 

Wow, I should have searched more before I purchased this product.

I purchased 500sq/ft installed by a HD sub. Fortunately the contractor was really good. I installed floating on slab. The installer re-checked moisture after demo of my carpet over the whole slab. Don't trust the guy poking the corner of the room when they measure. My slab was not very flat, so I paid extra to have it leveled. It was a pain, but very happy with those results. The installer also used 6 mil under the 3-1 product that HD sold me.

What I learned of the product:

1) over 40% of the product was warped BADLY out of the box, as to be unusable. The poor contractor had to go through more than 30 boxes to find 20 that were usable. Some of the pieces looked like a the blade of a hockey stick.

2) for reasons in #1 don't accept a box from HD if the plastic is opened. Reason being that everyone takes back their warped pieces and HD rather than sending back to the manufacturer or throwing out, just tries to sell to the next sap to come along. So opened boxes are just someone else’s rejects.

3) glue the ends ... fortunately my installer was all over that from having working with the product before.

4) my installer was very upfront in showing me how soft these planks are. Drop a knife of fork from waist height and expect a noticeable dent or hole (depending on how it lands) .. if you put it in your kitchen, pray do you don't ever drop that 5qt soup pot. Take a sample piece and try dropping normal objects from waist height ... you'll be really disappointed. I didn't expect hard as steel ... but this might as well be made from cookie dough.

5) With a good installer, it is very pretty to look at. I'm very pleased with that part. Just hope I can keep it that way.

Had I known before I bought this, would have saved my money for a better quality product.

 

I had two customers houses that we did with this ***** brand and that was some nice material for the money. I did one house for a relative with bamboo flooring from Home Depot and I was not impressed.

 

I'm sitting in my house with the carpet taken out of one of the room and several boxes of this product sitting around because it can't be installed. It seems the floor has to be VERY level for this product. So level, in fact, that the difference could not be detected when the installer came out to check the floor.

So, HD told me that I have to find a contractor to fix the floor. They don't do that. In the meantime, that room is unusable and all the stuff that was in it is scattered all over my house.

I don't know how good the product is, but it doesn't really matter if it's sitting in boxes in my hall. I can't believe that HD would sell me a product that can't be installed. They left me in the lurch 2 weeks before the holidays. They suggest I put in vinyl or carpet. Vinyl in a bedroom, really?

If the tolerance for installing this floor is so low, HD should warn people or have a viable solution. Instead, I'm left with a big mess, and the options of putting in a new carpet, or a tacky vinyl floor. If I wanted carpet I would have left the one that was in there and saved myself a lot of time and trouble.

Thanks HD.

 

Sadly I cannot remember the brand but this week was looking at HD's bamboo flooring. It was $3.80 square/foot. Is that what everyone here is talking about--is that how much the Legend flooring costs? If so, thanks for the thread; seems the stuff isn't worth bothering with--risk factor simply too high. Of course most happy owners are not here complaining about it, but still...

 

I am in the process of installing 600+ square feet of the home legend solid toast bamboo floor (not the click lock). I'm installing it over an existing oak plank floor with finishing nails as suggested in the instructions. The quality of the planks is excellent, and they look fantastic. The biggest issue so far is that there are significant differences in color between cartons. All the way from natural looking bamboo to fairly dark brown. Luckily the color of all the planks in the carton is fairly consistent with what you can see in the 'window' on the front of the box. We had to haul 8 boxes back to home depot to exchange for a better color once we realized how different they are (at 50+ pounds a box and only a sedan to haul them that was a bit of a pain). But at a sale price of $1.99 a square foot, I'm willing to sort through the cartons and deal with a labor intensive installation. I'm treating this as a hoby I'll let everyone know how the floor holds up and how the rest of the installation goes.

 

I dont recomend bamboo to any of my customers unless they, float, dont use the room or want stranded bamboo.
All regular vertical/horizontal Bamboo is just grass glued together. It dents and scratches very easy between reeds. It can also warp and seperate easily do to poor qaulity or improper install/enviorment.
Stranded bamboo, is much stronger do to having alot more resin in it and also provides a unique look. A much better choice.
BTW I dont believe bamboo is a green product, its just marketed that way. Theres alot more chemicals used to hold it together plus all the same finishes that pre finished wood has. Not to mention all the shipping from over seas and the same freight on land.

 

Just an update.

3.5 years later with this floor in my master bedroom. Never had any warped boards in any of the boxes. Floor laid well and never had an issue. Floor seemed to be very durable and hasn't dented or scratched in the past 3.5 years even with house dogs running around. Nail down method I used over the slab has proven to have worked very well. No separation or any installation issues related to moisture, warp, etc... Floor is just as tight and durable as when it went down.

A good installation is definitely the key. My location is high humidity also, but no issues. I can't imagine even attempting to float this floor, or any 5/8" plus floor, using a tongue and groove gluing method. I don't even like a glue to slab method.

YMMV

 

Great! Thanks for the update.

 

I am experiencing the same problem as rosendm. Home Legend Bamboo flooring is crap. Don't buy it. It scratches and dents very easily (have two cats and they have scratched it by running across it). Joints have been separating from day one. Filed a complaint with Home Depot. They have been pretty responsive, but I'm not sure how much they are going to be able to do for me. The floor isn't perfectly level, so I'm sure that will be there excuse for why the planks won't stay together. Sounds like gluing the ends may work, but I'm tearing mine out and installing hardwood (nail down).

 

If I truly thought this floor was crap, I would definitely say so. I am the type that likes to find things wrong with stuff instead of backing something just because I used it.

In the case of this flooring, it has been solid and no issues in the 3.5 years since I installed it. For those having issues I am questioning the installation as opposed to the flooring itself. I would never consider doing a glue down with this floor. If so a good barrier had best be used. Even then I wouldn't want to do a glue down method. Never mind a float method as that definitely will not work.

 

Sir:

I looked at the Ledgends Bamboo Flooring at Home Depot and looking to put it on a painted concrete slab located in athree season room. I live in Media, PA. Any suggestions and where can I find the installation tips for this product. Also, would it be wise to put wonderboard over the concrete, and then attach the bamboo flooring, if possible.

LRAII

 

If I remember correctly, the instructions within the boxes of flooring suggest either a glue down or nail down application, which is pretty common with this type of flooring. While a glue down method can work well, IMHO a glue down method is not the best method.

The most difficult and time consuming method is the nail down method using plywood as your nailing surface. However when done correctly, it will be the best method hands down. As mentioned it is time consuming and difficult and many installers will not even consider doing it that way for profit margin / effort reasons. Homeowners may cringe at this method due to cost and installation time and inconvenience.

As for the Wonderboard, I am not sure why you are thinking of using it? I will just answer what I think are a few of your possible reasons just to try and cover some bases if I don't check back in awhile.

Is it because you wish to raise the overall finished floor height or using it as an independent layer to counter lateral movements?

If you are considering using Wonderboard due to moisture content of the slab, remember Wonder is a cementious product and will suffer from the same effects of moisture that the slab is prone to. Wonderboard or cement in general is not that affected by moisture but it is not to be confused with any type of barrier. It will still transmit moisture.

The only other thing I can think of, is if you are considering the Wonderboard to be used as a nailing surface. If this is the case the answer is a definite NO to this one.

Hope I covered it, if not feel free to ask. Maybe I, or someone else might have a more clear answer.

 

I've just finished putting down Teragren bamboo flooring on my top level of my Townhouse (3 bedrooms, hallway and closets) Used nail-down method and it came out beautifully. There was almost no color variation, no gaps, and no rejects due to warping or defects. I wound up using every single plank and have a full unopened box left over. I couldn't believe how perfectly straight and true each plank was. What I really like about this floor is the 4 different board lengths so that you can make a random pattern. I have looked at the Home Depot brand before I picked this one, and I'm pretty glad I did. No comparison!

All I can say is that this is the most beautiful floor I've ever done. Having used unfinished oak before, this one goes down fast! It's true that it scratches a lot easier than oak, but in the bedrooms is not really an issue. Also, I understand that it will not be possible to sand it down. Hopefully the finish will last many many years.

--Rob in VA

 

It's only been three months, but we finished installing the floor in a second room and the first room still looks fantastic. The biggest issue has been picking planks without too much color variation and getting trim that matched. But once it's installed it's gorgeous and seems to stand up to foot traffic just fine. It's holding up much better than oak flooring at a friend's place, but the lack of felt pads on their dining room set probably has more to do with that than the durability of the flooring.

It would be nice if the colors matched better, but this stuff was so cheap that I'm fine with traveling to several different home depots to get boxes from lots with consistent colors.

 

We installed the Home Legend Toast Bamboo Floor more than six months ago. We have two boys aged six and fourteen plus and dog and one cat. We have lived well on this floor in our main living and dining areas. It looks as beautiful now as it did when we put it in. And we live in Oregon - can't get much more humidity than we get. Easy, easy to clean. Just love it!
Heartily recommend to friends and family.

 

Stay away from Home Legend bamboo flooring unless your subfloor is perfectly flat. I installed it in my dining room which had a slight slope and nearly all of the planks separated at the ends. I noticed that they didn't click together very well when I was installed them. I installed Pergo in my other house and they fit together nice and tight. Not this flooring, plus it scratches very easily, one of my cats skidded across it one day and now there are permanent scratches on it. Way too soft. On sale or not, I would never recommend buying this crap.