We got our engineered bamboo flooring about a month ago and we were just about to start installing it past weekend (float it over cork). They had been sitting inside our condo of the second floor on the wood subfloor with no apparent moisture problem. Well, the boards are bowed! They are 7.5” wide x 6’ long strips and when laid on the floor, the middle of the board is anywhere from 0.5” to 1.5” above the floor. We opened 3 boxes out of 18 we ordered, and all of them contained bowing boards (in length wise). We’re not sure if it happened while they were sitting in our condo or came that way. So we contacted ifloor.com and they said it’s normal. Is that true? We thought that once we interlock them together, the bowing will be corrected, but we couldn’t even put the boards together because of curvature! Anyway, should we go ahead and install them as ifloor.com told us or try to pursue a claim with them? Also, does anyone have any experience with ifloor.com? Any advice/tips are much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

bowing?
how were they stored?
Could be a moisture imbalance or stored on ends, not flat.
End to end bowing, i'm assuming, is not produced during manufacturing (generally speaking), but during storage, handling or on site conditions.
Please post a photo or give more detailed description of what the plank is doing, then maybe we can be of more help.

Wait, this is Bamboo. File a claim as well as give better description of problem. Bamboo is reactive to Relative Humidity and Moisture changes.

I didn't know how to add photos here, so here's the link to my photo album. As you can see, they are bowing in length wise. ifloor.com says that once we install them by staggering the planks, the bowing will be corrected. Please let me know if the photos cannot be viewed for some reason. Thank you.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ansi31/al ... /my_photos

Bamboo is a grass, not a wood. It does some funky things.

Most bamboo I have installed, says to keep in the closed cartons until use.

As soon as you pull the boards out they start moving!!!


It is the nature of the beast!

You appear to have an engineered longstrip style floor designed to be floated with bamboo as the top veneer layer. All the longstrip floors I've installed come wrapped in plastic and caution the buyer NOT to open the boxes or remove the plastic until the day of installation. Did you open yours up? If so, that may have caused the bowing. Also, I've seen this before on longstrip floors; mostly the ones that use the fillets on the back side. Try dry fitting some of the planks and see what happens. Does this floor click together or glue up? If it is a glue up, you should be able to dry fit and pull apart. The floor may settle down in time.

Well, it was stored inside the house for a little over a month, right on top of the wood subfloor of the second floor condo. I really don't see any moisture problem. Also, I live in San Francisco, and even though it gets foggy,it's not enough to cause high humidity inside the house. 2 boxes were opened on the first day we got them in order to check for any damage but didn't even think about checking for levelness of the boards. 1 box was opened just a few days ago - board were shrink wrapped inside the box to protect and hold the wood. All of them, including the one we just opened, contained bowed wood. I don't know if it's ok to install them like that. And even if the bowing may seem to go away after installation, we are worried that it might cause another problem later on such as buckling or popping up at the joint.

I don't think I'd try to install that material. Installing end to end bowed planks is difficult, at best. There does appear to be an imbalance in the material which is not your responsibility to correct.
My suggestion is to file a claim and return the material or exchange the material.
Who is the manufacturer?
Oh, installing bowed material is difficult leading to possible installation damage and you would be responsible for the damage.
When in doubt, return the material.