I am planning to install glue-down bamboo flooring on all three floors of my house. Each floor, of course, has a different type of existing floor. The first floor is acid stained sealed concrete, the second floor is 5” heart of pine tongue and groove plank, and the third floor is Berber carpet. I think I can figure out the third floor. The other two are going to have subfloor issues.

1. The concrete is acid stained and sealed. I don’t know what was used to seal it. Do I try to remove the sealer? Do I install a plywood subfloor over the concrete? Do I find a glue that will adhere?

2. The pine plank flooring on the second floor has cupped and expanded so much that there is some jump out of the tongues and grooves. I believe this floor was glued (I don’t see any nail holes) and polyurethaned (kind of amber in color). Do I try to pull this up and deal with whatever is underneath? Do I somehow smooth this out enough to lay the floor on top? Do I lay something over the pine?

Sent that before saying that any help is greatly appreciated.

1) It would be helpful to know what the brand of products used on the concrete are. If you know, contact the manufacturer and ask about how to remove them to adhere a bamboo floor. I think you will need to thoroughly abrade that concrete by either heavy scarifying or shot blasting if you want to glue directly to it. Another, simpler approach would be to install a floating bamboo floor. Then, adhesion nor moisture migration is not an issue. Plus, it is much easier and generally less expensive. My vote would be to float the floor over the concrete.

2) On the second floor, you will need to determine if what your looking at is a floor covering or if it is a subfloor. If it is a floor covering, you could remove it if it is in bad shape and not structurally sound. If it is the subflooring, then sanding down the high spots to make it flat would be in order. A rental drum sander would be the tool to use. Re-attach any loose areas and overlay it with 3/8" plywood, well stapled and/or glued and screwed. Now you will have a secure substrate to either nail, glue or float the new bamboo floor over.

Thanks for the response.
I think that getting any kind of sealer off of the concrete is going to be more of a mess than I want to tackle. I am sure that there are plenty of posts here that would tell me how to float a floor. Could you please point me to the best one for this situation? Do you need to have some kind of click-together flooring for this, or can you use the glue down in some way?

Now that I look at the second floor again, I think you are correct about the subfloor. The floor is probably not pine planks, but rather the finished subfloor. The stairs are just the finished lumber and the kitchen cabinets are on top of the flooring. Would I have to sand down the floor or could I get away with using some kind of underlayment material under the plywood?

Thanks again.

You need to select a brand of bamboo that is made to be floated. Not all are. The manufacturer will say whether it can be floated or not. And if so, how it is to be done. Some are a click system and some require being glued together. All will require being installed over a poly vapor barrier and volara foam pad. Follow the instructions to the letter. Here's a general description:
http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwo ... loater.htm





Underlayment UNDER the plywood? Ok, IF the subfloor is all uneven, then it will need to be flattened by sanding. You need a nice flat subfloor to install hardwood (or bamboo ) over. If it is just slightly uneven, you may get away with just installing some plywood OVER it, not under it. Then sanding any spots in the plywood that are out of spec. Here's another brief discussion on subfloors:
http://www.hardwoodflooringtalk.com/dis ... -floor.htm

I have comletely changed my mind on the gluing and am going to nail/staple instead. So I am going to put in 3/4" subfloor instead. I will put down felt paper on top of the plywood, but is there any benefit to putting felt paper below also?

The stair tutorial on this site is extremely helpful. The stairs are polyurethaned 2"X12"'s. I want to put planks down on the stairs and keep the painted risers. Should I try to remove the polyurethane finish on top of the stairs or put a layer on something else under the new planks?