Question: Hi, I hope I am not filling your mailbox with erroneous questions, but our architect has just recommended using a flooring made from “bamboo”. Do you by anychance have any information at all about it? When I put the word “bamboo” into your “Ask the Expert”, it came back stating nothing was available. Might you have information? Thank you for you help… A. Perras Answer: Dear A. Perras I’m not too fond of this stuff myself, it is not wood, it is a grass, and is generally sold a prefinished laminated material. The bamboo is very hard in itself but due to the thin wear layer, it may be a short lived floors like most laminated wood floors (about 20-40 years at best). I don’t personally like the busy looking nodes in this material. Be sure you pick a brand that has a good track record and be sure to see a job that is more than 5 years old, of the same type you are choosing now. If the architect cannot show you an older floor in great shape, don’t touch this stuff. New products may take years to perfect manufacturing techniques, in the mean time you have to buy their mistakes. I prefer sand on site finished wood floors, with proven longevity and great classic beauty, but I am totally biased, sorry. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: I’m in the process of laying a mesquite floor in the first of 2 bedrooms. I’ve ripped out the 30 year old carpet and pad and am gluing (PL-400 construction adhesive) 3/8 inch thick tongue and groove strips of mesquite to the subfloor. The installation is going well, if slowly – it’s one of those spare time undertakings. What I’m noticing is that the floor isn’t going in perfectly smooth. Especially the butt joints at the ends of some sections are less than perfect mates. So I assume that some sanding will be necessary. I had thought to rent a random orbital floor sander, but your article makes me question it’s practicality. So (if I can locate one locally) I guess I’ll need to hire a professional to accomplish the sanding. I’d appreciate your thoughts on that. Second concern – there are some open spaces due to warped boards and other issues. I’ve seen a mesquite floor where the holes, etc., were filled with a black material and I really liked the end result. Any suggestions ? Is this an epoxy ? (My friends bought the house and don’t know who did the floors.) Then we come to finish. I’ve had several different finishes recommended to me and I guess I’d like to hear your thoughts. I do not want a high gloss finish! But I do want smooth. Tung oil has been suggested, especially one with a polymer “filler”. Do you wax over tung oil ? Maintenance is a concern (a minor one, but a concern none the less.) Thanks for your time. I’m looking forward to hearing from you. Answer: Dear Les While I don’t agree with the method you are using, as longs as the glue is a urethane adhesive, and cures properly you will get the wood at least initially, to stick. The problems accour when there is changes in indoor humidity. Get a Wet-Dry bulb hyrometer to check this. When and if the indoor relative humidity changs by 20-30% the wood will shift and break off the glue. Don’t let this happen !!!! I can only recommend the Dri Tac 7500 urethane adhesive (www.basicadhesive.com) for this least favored method of solid wood instalation. The wear layer on this very thin floor is only 1/8″ and you should HIRE a pro for this rather tricky sanding job. But do the finishing yourself, that’s the fun part anyway. You really should use a good oil modified polyurethane. Fill the floor with colored latex filler before you sand. Choose whatever color you want, you can mix in a black paint tint to the filler if you wish. I would prefer one that is the same tone as the finished wood. You need to have a moisture resistant finish, on this poorly fastened wood. You need to keep the moisture content of the wood stable and the oil finishes you have been told about have little abilty to do this. You may use a satin finish OMP, which will look like a waxed floor. Wax in itself is not a finish, just a top dressing for a film finish like OMP or varnish. One doesn’t wax over an oil finish in any case, as this type of finish cures softly, and the solvents of the wax will remove it. You could wax over a polymerized oil finish (which is called a oil/varnish) but it would have to cure for a month, before you do so. And most polymreized oil finishes are just weak forms of varnish anyway, so you will no avoid the toxic fumes, and metallic driers, by using these. There is one exception to this and that is the Tried and True oil/ varnish, at www.triednandtruewoodfinish.com. But you may have to apply 6-7 coats of this finish to achieve a water reppellant and durable floor finish. These are really furniture finishes, and will only stand up to gentle use on floors. All in all the mesquite is a nicely textured ring porous wood, very durable, with good moisture stability. Now read my floor maintenance article in the Floored News section. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Two weeks ago, I have completed half of a 12X22 room (I’ve done 6′) with prefinished maple. I noticed that the new floor slants down toward the center almost a 1/4″. The subfloor/underlayments was relatively flat or actually slanted the opposite direction,down toward the edge of the room where I started. The slight quirk is that it is installed over oak parquet glued to a plywood subfloor. I’m using a Porta Nailer tool, nailing about every 8 inches, and used a moisture barrier on top of the parquet. Everything else is going well, the joints are tight and straight, and the floor looks good. Any idea of what is going on or of what I can do before I finish the other half of the room? Is this just the wood settling in? The joist run along the 12′ direction, and the flooring is along the 22′ direction. Richard Answer: Dear Richard Stop what you are doing. You should NEVER, NEVER NEVER install a hardwood strip floor over any type of hardwood, and the parquet is just about the worst choice in nailing surfaces. You must start all over or you will have a creaky squeaky floor in just a few years. The parquet needs to be removed and the plywood checked for it thickness. Then and only then can we talk about what is happening. I hope you are using flooring nails and not staples. Staples have been known to crack the tongues off and cause a slanting of the wood. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Hello….I am writing for my daughter…to remind you I am the person you helped w/the diamond stained floor…they are fabulous! She has what I see as a larger problem…some months ago she had a “Mercier” wood floor installed in her kitchen….it has slowly, but surely, begun to crack all over….the company & the insurance company have agreed to replace….she want to put in a different brand. We would like your advice….prefinished?(which is what she has now) or finished in the home any brands better than any other ? Your help & advice would be appreciated & very welcomed! Thanking you in advance… Debi Answer: Dear Debi I will need to learn a lot more about your daughter’s situation, before I can offer some concrete advise. Please have her email the details, as to the subfloor material, fasteners of the hardwood, and the composition of the hardwood. Meaning solid wood, laminated and the thickness and width. And do you mean gapping or actual cracking of the wood itself ? Generally speaking I NEVER recommend a hardwood floor in a kitchen, and the contractor should have read your daughter the riot act before installing such a moisture sensitive floor in a water spill prone area. And ANY prefinished floor is less than useful in this kitchen due to all those exposed seams. Whenever I am persuaded to do a kitchen floor in hardwood, it is always sand on site with 4 coats of oil modified polyurethane, but don’t get me started, have you daughter email me directly. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: My husband and I want to install hardwood floors in our living room, foyer and dining room; however, we have a dog that’s 75 lbs. Are we asking for trouble? What is the most durable finish? Should we consider other flooring? Answer: Dear Amy, I think hardwood would be OK in the living and dining room, but consider ceramic or better yet real linoleum in the foyer. Don’t even think about those prefinished wood floors in your situation. This is because even though the finish on these floors is just about indestructible the wood is not. The dog’s nails will dent the wood and gouge the wood, and in no time your perfect factory finish will look pretty banged up. These floors are just about impossible to touch up. All that said, choose a white oak (it’s harder than red oak) or hickory and maybe install it yourself but have it professionally sanded. These woods are ring porous so have a texture, which disguises the scratches well. Avoid the fine grained woods like maple. Finish it yourself with a finish that you will feel comfortable recoating it yourself. I still like the oil based poly. But you can try the water based finishes. Some are more durable than the oil poly but are poisonous to use (the catalyzed water based finish has a poisonous additive). Check out the article on the Dura Seal 1000 water based finish, which can be found in the search box at the top of the web page. This finish is about as durable as the oil based poly, and it dries a whole lot faster. But it is new on the market, so we don’t know how well it will age. The main thing is to use a finish that you will feel OK about touching up and recoating yourself, not hiring an expensive pro to do each time. This would be the case with the industrial catalyzed water based finishes. Very hard but only sold to pros because of the health risk. But by all means have the pro sand the floor, this is not a job you should be doing yourself. I’ll explain why if you wish. Oh, and use lots of area carpets, and be sure to read my floor cleaning article, which can be found in the search box at the top of the web page.

Question: 1. Is there a specific grade/type of plywood I should use if I’m going to replace the OSB? 2. The floor joists change direction between the low and high floor. I’d love to find a way to install the floor so the can be oriented the same way (length-wise with the town home). Perhaps using boards at a 45 deg angle across the bottom floor joists (which run the length of the town home). If not, then so be it. 3. I’ll be snagging several of your articles, one of which deals with removing hardwood floors. I’m thinking that if it’s my intention to install plywood, I can be far more destructive in my removal process than I would be if I wanted to preserve the subfloor. At a minimum, I won’t have to worry about pulling out all the nails. Answer: Dear Doug Just a suggestion but why don’t you lobby Eterna to supply you with a “select and better” grade of red oak unfinished strip floor as a replacement for the whole floor ? The best plywood for subfloor would be 3/4″ BC douglas fir plywood and a grade at least CDX. But the same CDX in spruce plywood would be fine also. Instead of doing these fancy 45 angled floors (looks busy and is a waste of wood) you can install small 2 by 6 or 2 by 8 block across and between the joists about every 16″- 24″. Use urethane glue and a pneumatic nailer to get into this tight spot. This is easy in your case because you are blowing out the whole OSB subfloor. You might at the same time shave down any high joist, that will create a hump in the floor again. I should say that 1″ plywood (hard to find) is quite stiff, and it would be fine with this stuff to run the hardwood in the same direction as the joists. You could also use two layers of 1/2″ ply well glued together. I’ve done this on my own floor. Both layers have to be nailed through the joist and the top layer has to have short staples (7/8″ narrow crown) in between the joists. This is so the two glued layers act like one thick layer.               But be careful when you remove the subfloor not to remove the support under any bearing or non load bearing wall. Sometimes you will find that you have to leave a bit of the old OSB in place because of this. It might be worth consulting a carpenter to at least prepare this. The 2 by 6 blocking will have to support also any left over edge of old OSB. Try 2 1/2″ Spax brand wood screws to fasten the new plywood to the subfloor. Great screws, in that they drill their own pilot hole with a agressive thread design. And of course use a squiggle of urethane adhesive in each and every joist, not more that 20 minutes before installing the plywood. No squeaks EVER. Oh, and don’t buy that squeaks article for removing both layers of floor. It just deals with trying to salvage an old floor without damaging it. On the other hand, if you find that the three bad men (Eterna, shop and installer) won’t refund you enough to cover the total costs, you might consider removing the floor more carefully (then the article will discuss tools and methods) so as to salvage maybe 90% of it. Get some additional wood from Eterna, to make up the difference. Install in carefully yourself. Then of course sand the wood smooth and level on site. Bear in mind that you will have to sand off the “micro bevel” (a real misleading promotional term) and you will loose some depth of wood because of this. Mention this also to Eterna, that you will loose about 1/5 of the value of the original wood and that you ought to be compensated for this also. As well as compensation for removal. We charge as much as 2 bucks per square foot to remove and dispose an old hardwood floor. When you see how much work it is and what your land-fill charges if you were to throw the wood away, you’ll see why we charge that fee. I hate to be such a rabble rouser, but I feel it’s my obligation to arm you with all the ammo I think you’ll need. You’ll be going after experts who have been there before, they will have a distinct advantage over you. Gee, I guess “Eterna” really means a “short lived floor”, sounds like double speak to me. I rarely now install lower grade material, but it will, in most cases last at least a decade, before some internal cracking shows up. And then those boards have to be replaced. I warned about this in one of my early (free) strip floor articles, not too many people have read this. We hope to have all the info in this site you will need, but it’s been over three years work so far, and I’m not sure I’ll ever be done. But I think I’ll devote an article on prefinished hardwood floor grading. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor. You may also find these articles helpful:   1. Avoiding Squeaks And Pops When Nailing Down A New Strip Floor 2. Cant Figure It Out? Ask The Doc! 3. How To Chemically Strip Wood Floors without dust! 4. Floor Types And Finishes 5. How To Take Care Of Your Health And Safety when Installing, Finishing, Repairing or Cleaning your wood floors    

Question: Thanks. The article is excellent. The only issue missing deals with the use of t-n-g vs non-t-n-g plank flooring. I know the advantages of t-n-g but would like to experiment with thicker planks which would not be t-n-g. e.g. planed 2×6 or planed 2×8 softwood as planking. Do you have any articles related to this or can offer advice? Answer: Dear Ben Oh, sure some folks even opt for the square edged plank. But what you have to do is use a good urethane adhesive in long continuous squiggles about every 2″ on the back of the plank your are about to lay. Some floor guys use a pneumatic gun to tack it edge-wise in place to hold it while they screw it and peg it. Or else use the cut nails. The same principals apply with the subfloor as I have already mentioned. Just make sure the subfloor is really level and flat. It’s a really good idea to undercoat these planks else they will have a great tendency to warp. The is no T&G to stop the warp. But don’t use just any old lumber from your lumber yard, it’s air dried, and you will need real kiln dried material (to the average EMC in your area-find out what this is from a carpentry or flooring shop). See if you can find a local mill to do such work. I don’t really recomend the new plantation pine and softwoods for flooring. Look for old growth (lots of rings per inch) Eastern White Pine for a light duty but quite appealing floor. You will have to edge plane this yourself, or get a shop to do this. You should be warned though that when you lack the T&G, when the boards shrink during the heating season, your gaps will be the full depth of the board. When you go to a thicker board also use longer screws. Good idea here to use a 1/4″ plywood underlay in case the whole floor fails. This is just about the poorest method of flooring, to be honest with you. I don’t advocate it at all, and that’s why I didn’t mention it. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: Hello, Here is my problem. I have a 4 year old house which had some water damage on the second floor. Foyer and dining room were hardwood parquet. Kitchen and laundry room were vinyl. Living room was carpet. The original floor is engineered “plybeams” of laminated chords and webs on 24″ centers. They are continuous for the full width of the house. For a subfloor, I have a 3/4″ Tx Sturdifloor glued and screwed to the floor joists. (my choice after consulting with Am. Plywood Association as to whether to use plywood or OSB.) Even though the single layer was rated for 24″ OC I glued and screwed a layer of square edge 5/8″ exterior glue wafer board for additional rigidity. I removed the underlayment in all the damaged rooms. I replaced it with 5/8″ underlayment rated plywood in all rooms except the foyer and dining room. I want to use 1/4″ or 3/8″ plywood underlayment in these rooms and install some D.B.M. brand prefinished “rosewood”. It is an Asian hardwood, harder than woodpecker lips, and is beautiful. It is 3.5″X .75″ X random lengths. Home Depot sells this brand. I am a believer in screws versus nails and used screws throughout the entire house. I want to predrill the flooring using a jig (for proper angle) and use finish screws to fasten the wood to the underlayment. The floor is over a very dry and temperature controlled albeit 70% underground, 1st floor. One other thing. All my exterior walls are reinforced concrete. (both floors) My questions: Given the above parameters, what is your advise; (1.) Would YOU recommend this installation given the previous data? (2) If you are familiar with it, what do you think of D.B.M. material? (3) What kind of paper barrier do you think is BEST for under the hardwood? (Have you ever used TYVEK for that application?) (4) Is there any particular thing that I need to be really careful of because of something that you have experienced in a similar situation or with this particular wood? Thank you very much for your time. I really like the way your web site is set up. It is very professional looking. Best regards, Ray Answer: Dear Ray First you are correct in assuming that you need to beef up the 3/4″ subfloor, so that the hardwood does not flex and squeak eventually. But I have found that only by adding 1/2″ plywood does this work in the long run. 3/8″ might work, but the effect might be marginal, and 1/4″ won’t add any stiffness at all. So add the 1/2″ plywood and be sure to use squiggles of the new urethane construction adhesive on and between the joists as you nail this new underlay down to the subfloor. Nail or screw so that the these fasteners go into the joist, and run a second row of shorter fasteners ( screws for sure ) between the joist. This second row of screws should not penetrate the subfloor, as this is your only real moisture barrier. But it will help the 2 plywoods act as one solid sheet. There is no point to laying a vapor barrier just before you nail hardwood down, you will just be punching a thousand holes in it as you install the hardwood. Just rely on the waterproof nature of the plywood, and the fact that your 2″ flooring nails will only penetrate the total subfloor thickness 7/8″. True there will be a few face nailed rows that will penetrate both the plywood layers, but that will be limited. Always use a exterior grade of plywood, and this will prevent any dampness from getting to the new hardwood from below. Allow even the plywood to acclimatize. Overlap the seams of the subfloor with the underlay. Try to get the relative humidity lower than that 70% in the space below the floor ( I hope I understood this is what you said ). It is the difference of moisture content between the top and bottom of the hardwood floor that can cause it t cup or crown. Ventilate, dehumidify, heat or air condition any crawl spaces under hardwood floors, to minimize this. Oh, and NEVER, NEVER, NEVER lay a hardwood floor with screws as you are about to do. Read my article about the Primatech Floor nailer, in the Product Reviews section of this site. Don’t worry, it’s free. When a hardwood floor is TOO well fastened ( in the article I mention the floor staples doing just this ) it will no longer be able to move seasonally. What may result is tilted boards and even cracked tongues in some cases. Stick to the good old nail technology, read the article, and you see what I mean. Now as to your last question, I hope you have read my article about Prefinished Floors : Which to Choose, also a free read in the How To’s section of this site. There are so many brands out there, that there is no way to keep up with the varying quality of milling and finishes in the Prefinished sector. A lot of the exotic woods are now milled and finished in the factories in the Far East and South America, so you should really scrutinize this material BEFORE you buy it. I have found that in general however that the big box stores ( no names ) will stock only the most mediocre material. They will have the best prices, but there is always a reason for this. And the species of wood you mention, is not it’s real name. Find out the genus and species for this wood, and I can give you it’s pro and cons. If the store does not know the scientific name for this wood, or will not tell you, I would pass. You may find that later when you need some repair material, it is no longer being imported. Sometimes a whole room may need repairing, you’ve been though this already. And the hardness of this wood may come back to bite you later. When the finish on this wood wears out ( and it will, I am now sanding prefinished floors installed only 4-6 years ago ) the floor mechanic will have to charge double the going rate to tackle your floor. It will prove to be a difficult wood to sand smooth if it’s an oily tropical wood. Also some of the really resinous woods will not take a conventional finish well. Drying and peeling problems can occur depending on species. So get back to me on the species, and I will give you a more definitive answer.

Question: Hi, Do you have any other suggestions on how to install bullnose on steps other that nailing or screwing down though the top and then plugging. Thanks, Rod Answer: Dear Rod This is quite possible if it is the first thing you install, before you lay the flooring material. I assume that this is prefinished floor, and that is why you want no hole in this blullnose. Cut a small sample piece off the bullnose (just 2″) and use this as a guide to mark some notches in the top part of the skirt stringer. The skirt stringer should come up that high and you want the nosing to fit into these notched slots on both sides. It will look a lot nicer and if you fit the nosing in with great care, it will give tremenduos support. Choose a nosing that has a grooved edge on it. If the skirt stringer doesn’t come that high up the staircase, you may have to undercut the baseboards, and in some cases, only the drywall. Once the notches are cut, fit the nosing in by cutting it so that it fits under the skirts by at least 1/2″ on either side. You will need to slide it back and forth so that both sides are caught. After you are satisfied with this dry fitting, clean both the nosing and subfloor area and apply a urethane construction adhesive. Some of these urethane adhesives require a misting of water on one piece if the MC in the wood is below 8%. One hint about this fitting is to cut both ends of the flat underside of the nosing with a slight bevel. This bevel needn’t extend to the surface, just bevel the underside ends enough so that they will help you slide it under one notched side and then move it across to the other side. Once the piece is in place, and make sure during the dry fitting that this placement lines up well with your planned floor installation, you can insert a slip tongue or spline into the exposed groove of the nosing. This will change the groove into a tongue. You should be able to buy pre-made splines from your local hardwood floor shop that caters to professionals. Or you can cut a strip out of 1/4″ plywood. Glue the spline into the groove of the nosing with a good carpenters glue (let dry a few hours) and then predrill some nails holes and nail down and a 45 degree angle with 3″ spiral finishing nails every 4-6″ on the nosings new tongue. If you are lucky these long finishing nails may hit the framing header, and if not see if you at least contact one of the joists coming off the header. While you are nailing be sure not to kick off the planned line of the nosing. Don’t use pneumatic nails for this, they are all to thin to hold any wood flooring. Now begin the rest of the installation, fitting the next board (with a small bead of urethane glue under it’s groove side on the subfloor) to that nosing. It’s OK to glue just these two boards to the subfloor (not to each other), although I generally don’t like the practice. Don’t use the nosing for at least overnight, and you will find it is quite firm and quite permanent. You can also glue and nail a cove molding under the nosing for decorative reasons and a bit more support.

Question: Wow–your point is well taken!! I did receive your information in time..thank you! I’m very confused now due to I spoke with a hardwood manufacture (BRUCE) and they (technicans) told me this was an approved installation and was even listed in their installation manuals! I trust that the information provided by you is correct therefore I have full intensions to contact the contractor and recommend that he start ripping the floor up. (this happens to be an insurance claim anyway)! Sounds like you are very experienced in what you do. Thank you again for the valuable information provided. Shellie Answer: Dear Shellie It matters not what the Bruce manual says, this is not the way to install hardwood floors. Else we would all have many layers of hardwood in old houses. It’s just the cheap way of doing it. The bruce guy was probably reading about installing on old floor boards, and these he has mistakenly thought meant any type of wood. Softwood takes nails well with out splitting, That’s why it is used in all framing and subfloors and sheathing. Any carpenter know this. It’s not rocket science it’s just common sense. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.