Congratulations on your solid bamboo flooring. Now that you have your new flooring, it’s time to install it. Be sure to follow these steps in order to enjoy a smooth installation and a floor that will last you for many years.

Note, all the instructions here are general. You should always refer to your manufacturer’s installation guidelines for more detailed instructions and specific care.

Pre-Installation Concrete Slab

It’s important to ensure that if your flooring will be glued to the concrete slab, that slab is clean, flat, and dry, including conducting a moisture test. You’ll be best served if you use a high quality urethane wood floor adhesive such as Bostik’s Best.

Wood Sub-Flooring

The most common sub-flooring material si ⅝” plywood, or thicker. Screw this sub-flooring to joists 16 inches on center. Like the concrete slab, this sub-flooring must be flat, clean, and dry, and should undergo a moisture test.

Acclimation of the Flooring

In order to achieve true dimensional stability, you must acclimate your bamboo flooring by placing the planking inside the room it will be installed, up to 2-3 days prior to installation. Boxes should be open and the room should be at normal living temperature.

Installation Methods

You can install solid bamboo flooring by gluing, stapling, or nailing down the floor. This type of installation isn’t for a novice, but of the three, the gluing method is the safest for a DIY approach.

Plan it Out

Blueprints are necessary for any project. But don’t fret if you can’t draw. Your flooring blueprint doesn’t need to be anything more than graph paper and a drawn-to-scale diagram of your floor plan. That way you can determine how many planks you’ll need for this space (factoring in, of course, a ½” expansion space between the flooring and the walls).

Laying it Down

Bamboo will come in a variety of colors, so you want to make sure that you distribute the various colors throughout your flooring to get a more appealing look. Also, you’ll want to determine what direction you’ll install your planks. The most common approach is to install the planking parallel to the longest walls.

Make a reference marker for the starter wall with chalk. The mark will be away from the wall, and will be a distance equal to the width of the planking, plus tongue, plus expansion space.

Place spacers between the wall and starter row to maintain the expansion space. Line up the tongue edge of the planks with the reference mark and secure them to the sub-floor according to your choice of installation method.

Use a tapping block – a scrap piece of flooring will work – to join the grooved edge of the second row with the tongue edge of the starter row. Secure each plank in place as you proceed and repeat the process until the job is finished.

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