After much research, I have decided to go with a stranded bamboo floor and have narrowed it down to Teragren synergy floating and Dansk fusion uniclic. The Dansk is solid and the Teragren is an engineered all bamboo ply with a very thick stranded top layer. Anyone have experience with either of these floors in the floating click version? Would one expect the engineered or the solid strand to be better for the click application? Mostly I'm concerned about differences in the stability of the floor with respect to buckling, for example. I will be installing on a plywood subfloor over a crawl space.

Links to the two products are:
Teragren: http://www.teragren.com/products_floori ... float.html
Dansk: http://www.danskhardwood.com/DFC_BambooFusion.asp

Thanks in advance for any insights anyone might be able to provide.

I'm sure someone can chime in with advice. No experience with either of these. I've just always been curious as to how they can market "solid" bamboo....it is all engineered in one way or another...pieces of grass held together with glue. I wonder what kind of backlash a major hardwood manufacturer would get if they made an engineered hardwood floor, say using oak for each ply, and because it is all layers of oak they marketed it as a solid oak floor. Just food for thought.

teragren makes some good quality bamboo floors. As far as bamboo goes they have been ahead of the curve for along time. i like that they offer it in a long length product vs the 36" standard you see all over the place. And the eng construction is a safer choice over a crawl space. Solid bamboo isnt all that stable it likes to soak up water and swell when given the opportunity. Never heard of the other one so cant say much about them.

Hi KevinD,

Thanks for your inputs. Do your comments about bamboo soaking up water also apply to strand woven bamboo? Although Teragren is engineered, the subplys are all non-strand bamboo which they claim is a big benefit over other engineered bamboo products. But if the problem is bamboo soaking up water, how does that help?

its more about how the plys are layered together vs stranded and non stranded and how the peice expands and contracts when exposed to low/high rh. Keep in mind strand woven Bamboo has only been out a short while, less then three years iirc, being a new product there is limited real life info out there. If it were me, someone who has sold nothing but wood floors all their adult life and my father before me, I would go with the eng. product over a crawlspace. Their is a good chance the solid would be fine. If that is your preference go with that in the end its your floor and you need to be happy with your choice.

Thanks Kevin, I really appreciate your input. You have been very helpful.

Hi BW, your comment about a certain type of engineered construction of flooring brings to mind one product in particular. One of our best products up here is exactly as you describe, and it is made of a top layer of finish wood, a balancing bottom layer of the same or similar wood, with centre fillets laid across the plank with small spaces between each of them. More and more manufacturers are looking at this construction method (similar to the older Kahr's process) as a way of optimizing the use of raw materials, and at the same time, increasing the stability of the floor itself.

The kicker: the one I am talking about is marketed as : "Solid Sawn". No way that could confuse the average consumer, eh?