I purchased 1764 square feet of solid bamboo flooring to install in my whole house. This is my first time doing nail down flooring-- I did floating in my previous home.
Here are the issues I'm having/have had:
- I purchased a new Bostitch 16 gauge nailer with 2" cleats. The tongues were splitting on EVERY. SINGLE. nail. Tried 1-1/2" cleats and 1-1/2" staples and they did the same thing. It was bad!
- Returned that and ordered a Freeman 18 gauge nailer and have 1-1/2" (may be 1-1/4") cleats. They are doing better, but still splitting most of the time, but not as severely as with the 16 gauge.

Current Issue: I've gotten about half way through the first room and now it's not going together without gaps, which are getting worse the more rows I lay.

I've wasted so much time and money by ripping up numerous rows-- the planks are no longer usable after they've been torn up.
I rented a flooring edger today hoping that leveling out some of the subfloor seams that weren't completely flat would help, but it's still doing the same thing.

Any suggestions other than ripping out the whole thing? That's where I'm at right now anyhow, but if I do that, I'm going to return what I can and get solid oak, which is cheaper, skinnier, and I don't like as much. This is my primary residence, but I'm probably going to list the house in the spring.

I use a Bostich Floor Runner with 18 gauge narrow crown staples and have not had a problem with caramelized bamboo, the light brown color. Strand bamboo I use an 18 gauge cleat nailer, available at LL, or maybe Harbor Freight. Cleats would be easier to back out if you would need to remove a plank or two on regular bamboo flooring. Strand would be impossible to back out, just bend back and forth to break them off.Using the narrow crown staples with the floor runner you can fasten the ends of the planks through the tongue without a problem.
I would never use 16 ga. staples on anything but ¾ inch.