I have 800 sq ft of 1/2" locking solid stranded bamboo floor on its way and I'm trying to decide between floating and glue. I'm doing every room on my 1st floor (see attached pic), except for the powder room and adjacent W/D area. The flooring will run lengthwise from one side of the house to the other, if that makes sense. The longest length of a single span is 30' from "front" of dining room to "back" of living room, and 30' from the garage entry to the far (right) side of living room. We are installing over a wood subfloor (I assume OSB, but I have yet to check).

My concerns for floating are: hollow sound (I wanted solid h/w, nailed down), expansion issues (I don't want to use T molding), and dealing with 2 stair transitions (2 steps down from front entry into living room and the top edge of the basement stairs off the living room).

My concerns with glue down are: slow/messy install (and hearing about it from my wife, who wants to float), difficulty of removal (although I don't plan to), and I guess that's it.

I mainly want to know how concerned I should be regarding expansion issues if I do a floating install? Between the pinch point(s) heading into the kitchen and the somewhat long length of some of the spans, will I be able to get away with not having expansion joints (aka T molding)?? I'm in CO, where it's very dry but I have a house humidifier and plan on keeping the house around 40-50% RH. I consider myself quite competent at recreational home improvement and am not worried about the difficulties of executing either install...I just don't know best practices when it comes to this stuff.

Thanks!
Eric


Flooring:
https://www.flooranddecor.com/bamboo-wood/ecoforest-spanish-tiger-locking-solid-stranded-bamboo-100095611.html
Pic:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ve9Zb2hdjPslcIwZ2

There are foam rubber underlayment rolls that deaden the tapping sound. You may want to use cork, too.

Glue a click lock? Not a good idea unless the manufacturer approves other wise it will void the warranty. Seen it done though. Gluing relieves you of using T-molds. I just leave a 3/16 gap along the tile and stuff a backer rod in there then top off with grout caulk.

The main thing you should be worrying about is acclimating the bamboo and keeping your Rh up to 40%, near impossible in some arid zones. Otherwise it will uncouple at the joint.
And it's impossible to pinpoint the moisture content of strand bamboo due to all the resin they use to glue it up with. Seen some shrink an inch out from under base board.

One last question. Are the STC and IIC ratings to be taken as the "end all" comparison of how "solid" the floors will sound? I see that 1/4" cork is rated way lower than the Floor Muffler (links below). Or are there other factors involved that those ratings don't account for?

Cork: STC rating of 52 and IIC rating of 51
Floor Muffler: IIC74/STC73

Oh, and do I need to glue cork down to the subfloor? (sorry, I guess that's 2 questions)

Cork: https://www.amazon.com/QEP-4-Inch-4-Foo ... derlayment

Foam: https://www.amazon.com/FloorMuffler-Flo ... dpSrc=srch

Those are for sound transmission through floors and walls like in condo's. It has nothing to do with how solid they sound while your walking on it.