I must say....Sorry "Wellmade", ( Ironic name isn't it ?) ...This product and the way your talking, and displaying in circles to Homeowners and professional installers is very distubing to say the least.

I wish I had the time to address every controversial issue you have presented as a product and a company. All I can say right now is from a product that appears to be self distructing in 4 months, to the way your handling installation requirements, to.........I won't go there. Interesting....what's next? From a person that's been in this business over 38 years...This is a real eye opener...what's next?

Howard, if they are conceding their attached cushion is not thick enough and may have performance issues why didn't they pull the product is what I am wondering. Now what about all those people who may have performance issues that have already bought and installed it? The techies statement here was a total shocker to me. I always read manufacturers installation requirements very carefully looking for those grey areas. Some of the literature I read is simply awful.

This is probably why most techies cannot answer your questions if you have to call them. And why most shouldn't bother trying to answer them online me thinks.

I'm still trying to grasp the fact that apparentely their attached backing isn't suppose to be the underlayment. Ofcoarse over concrete... you always need 6 mil...but what's the real deal, or issue with their backing? And if they say now that they require an underlayment with their backing, why aren't they specifying one. Seems to me a backing on top of an underlayment, ( especially some underlayments), may be too resilient, causing all kinds of other issues. Ah ha...maybe that's why they original say to leave that up to the installer...another item they can wash their hands of.

Yer a pretty smart feller there Howard. I didn't want to say that but it is a dark dark grey area for sure.

I know this is an older post but I recently saw this bamboo flooring at my local Costco and I thought it was a pretty good deal. I am interested in how Justin's installation went and how the floor is holding up right now.

Stephen, would you have any updates on the floor you installed for you client (more delamination?)

Thanks
Tony

I did not see that same horizontal click bamboo at Costco the other day. I guess they pulled it and now there is a stranded click with no core. The locking mechanism is milled out of a solid piece of stranded bamboo. Probably better but I bet it could squeak.

This is a interesting thread,so one should not get a bamboo hardwood floor? I know this thread is about a specific brand,but some of the stuff mentioned in here makes me question if that kind of floor would be a option for me.

I have installed over 2200 sq ft of Golden Arowana bamboo flooring in my two residences (Arizona and Montana) and have no complaints.

The Montana residence was installed on the second floor, over a plywood subfloor. I used a heavy barrier underlayment (brand name escapes me but it does a great job of silencing footsteps) in a bedroom and a library. Both rooms look terrific, and over a year later they show only some very minor surface scratching from the two small dogs that live there full-time. No banding from grime in the joints; no spalling or delamination, no wear patterns from traffic. No squeaking, either.

The Arizona residence was laid over a concrete slab with a heavy underlayment barrier and a cork pad (added to help overcome the typical unevenness of the concrete). I am in the desert, so humidity is dramatically different than the Montana residence, which is 20 feet from a lake. A year later and I see some minor surface scratching, with absolutely zero separation and no delamination. Maybe a few dents that can be seen if the sun hits the floor at the right angle, but nothing that looks "abused". Hey, I expect there to be some character wear in any flooring, and certainly all flooring has some sort of compromise built-in...but for my money, this stuff is a grand bargain.

The surface scratches respond very well to a quick stroke from a Zenith Tibet Almond Stick. I have no complaints about durability, but one must realize that wood floors need some special care and feeding to stay beautiful. We run a dusting-style mop over the wood floors every couple of days, we generally remove our shoes while indoors, and we pad the legs of chairs, dressers, etc that might get slid across the floor using real wool pads (not the crappy felt pads you find at the big box stores) we found at a Canadian company. We don't drag heavy stuff across the floor. We spot clean when needed. We dustmop and vacuum regularly and use only a slightly damp microfiber mop to do a general clean once in a while.

I am more than satisfied with the ease of installation and the durability of my Golden Arowana flooring. The clic-lock style of the floating floor means that you have to be aware of leaving proper gaps around borders and transitions, and that furniture weight distribution might come into play because of the floating nature of the install. The random grain and colors of this particular brand look amazing in my opinion. I found myself setting aside boards to use in certain areas so they could be seen and enjoyed rather than hidden under furniture or a rug. With a little TLC in installation and long-term care I see no reason to balk.

I have friends who spent a fortune for some absolutely gorgeous hand-scraped real wood flooring in their home. I'd say that theirs looks better than mine, and it should for almost $18/ft it cost them. But their floor had needed to be repaired twice in the last five years due to splitting and lifting. Not sure why, but my engineering degree tells me that it might be due to the humidity acting on the different densities of the wood and so forth. I have heard that bamboo is much less prone to this issue, so I guess I'll see.

If I had any complaints it would be that I had to order the trim and transition pieces rather than pick them up locally. Because of the size and shape of the packaging the shipping costs were high, and the delay to receive them means planning ahead and possibly ordering more than you might need so you can have some room for error and not call a halt to the project for a week.

Maybe one other gripe... This flooring chewed up a brand new carbide blade on my miter saw to the point that I replaced it (under warranty) about halfway through the second project. Kinda surprised me. Hope that says something about how tough the floor might be.

I was reviewing this thread so I could link it to a client.

I'll say this about performance issues and bamboo in arid zones. It depends on the manufacturers quality control in China or where ever it is made. I know QC is often poor in many foreign facilities, ie no HVAC systems, poor storage facilities etc.

If you think a product thats half the cost of a higher cost bamboo product, then go for it. Just don't blame the installer. There's a plethora of complaints on bamboo, stranded, click and other wise out there on the net. Buyer beware!

Look at LL, they have sold billions of sf of flooring and hardly replaced a sqft as far as I've heard.