Help With Bamboo Floors With Aluminum Oxide Urethane Finish

I had bamboo installed throughout my home in March and the very next day after installation, we had multiple scratches - even gouges in the floor. Every thing has scratched this floor, dogs, my vacuum cleaner, even a plastic hamper my husband pushed to the side to clean under. We have been fighting with the manufacturer ever since. Today, we are sending a sample of the bamboo to a forensic lab for testing. I cannot believe the coatings they say it came with are actually on it. I'm not giving up.

We just had a natural bamboo floor installed and selected for the very reason that it was advertised as very hard. The very day installation was complete I found an extraordinary number of shiny scratches and also many deep gouges. Needless to say, I am very unhappy and in dispute with the installer about the installation and waiting to hear from the manufacturer's rep about this finish and what can be done to 1) repair it, and 2) make the finish hold up to normal wear and tear. We had planned to get a small dog, and now I don't think any dog could live on it without causing extreme damage. I never intended to have a floor I had to tiptoe on in booties.

Just had a black bamboo floor installed. It was totaled within a week. Deep scratches even with a finger nail. Manufacturer is replacing but I'm not confident the new floor will be better. The samples of the new floor certainly were not.

My wife and I had the caramelized bamboo flooring installed throughout a 2400 square ft house. indentions and scratches result by the least amount of friction or weight upon the floor. We had the dealer visit our house and he offered a bucket of commercial grade finish which the installing company agreed to apply. Now we have shiny scratches and indentions. I may seek legal counsel.

I installed bamboo throughout my home this past year. And as many others are saying, all of the advertising, research and phone conversations were misleading. I asked about dogs & scratches & was assured my two beagles wouldn't do damage. I some parts of the floor there are more scratches than not. I am at the point I have to replace my whole house. The manufacturer recommends I refinish it in a commercial grade finish, even though when I ordered it they told me the finish was the hardest out there. I am wondering if anyone else out there is interested in participating in a Class Action Lawsuit. My old maple floors held up better than this!

I would like to join a class action law suit. I experienced the same problems. I can't wear my shoes in my unit because the wood scratches and dents so easily. In addition, at least half of my boards are cracked. I feel I was mislead as well. I was also told that the product is extremely hard. Any pressure results in dents and scratches as well as cracks.

Just installed 2200 sq/ft of carbonized Bamboo and the finish can be scratched off by my finger nail. Dents and scratches everywhere! Class action let's go!

Sorry to hear all of the problems with bamboo flooring. I installed bamboo a little over a year ago. It was the vertical spice from Lowes. Other than furniture movers dropping a few things and my dog, the floors are doing pretty good. If you want to protect your floors from animals I would recommend soft paws. I wish I had started using them before I had scratches from my very hyper dog.

I am sorry to hear so many people having problems. We installed natural (horizontal) bamboo (with Husky brand aluminum oxide finish) in 3 rooms over 5 years ago. NOT A SINGLE SCRATCH OR DENT! We wear our shoes and use rolling chairs daily on the floor. Even my 12 year old son's room is still perfect despite friends with shoes, 2 rolling chairs without pads, and toys. Now we want to install it in our office but I cannot find the Husky finish and after reading the bad experiences I am getting nervous.

A. Hello, my company supplies and installs all natural flooring mediums. We have found the best adhesive for bamboo flooring is SIKA T53 & T55. The T53 is applied to the board where the T55 is trowelled to the floor. The advantage of this adhesive is it has an adhesive remover than will not harm the coating on the floor. Smudges or hand prints are not the normal trait of a careful installer but if they happens they can remove quickly and efficiently

David New Zealand

My husband and I just built a brand new 4200 sq ft house and installed natural bamboo throughout the entire downstairs. We were told it was the toughest wood flooring out - commercial grade - the first week we had several large scratches. If there is any dirt, sand, etc. on floor - watch out - major scratches. We moved a rug from our entry which has been down 2 weeks and already major bleaching of the non covered wood. What a disappointment! What a waste of money - beautiful yes - worthless yes - it's only good if you don't walk on it, live on it, breath on it. Water leaves marks - horrible floor!

!! I finally got a check to refinish my carbonized bamboo floors. It took 8 weeks for the claim. Keep on them!

Jason J [returning]
- North Berwick, Maine
2005

An update:

The cabin in Lake Tahoe finally has the bamboo floors installed. It's beautiful, but TOTAL CRAP. Rolling the refrigerator into place has GOUGED it horribly. The act of stumbling in hard shoes has also gouged and scratched it. The contractor cannot walk through with anything on his feet, and literally, a plastic cup dropped onto the floor has also gouged it. I cannot believe that this stuff is actually 25% harder than oak, as we'd been told by staff at the store.

I also want to let folks on the west coast know about [person's name deleted by editor], the regional manager. He is THE WORST I have encountered, especially considering that these folks were paid in full up front for the whole package. He does NOT return calls, he does NOT follow up, he does NOT deliver as promised.

First, the flooring in the package, which was marked "Carbonized" was actually natural finish. We needed it replaced ASAP so we could get our C of O and funding.
We called, "Yes, the whole pallet's wrong. Yes, we'll replace it."
"Ok, when?"
"Well, it'll take a week for it to get down here."
(The location is about 8 hours away, how it needs a week I don't know. )

"A week? We ordered this stuff months ago, and we paid for it when we ordered it. Then, when we called to see if our order was in we were told yes, we get down there and you can't find our whole order, so we had to make a second trip, and then you didn't have the installation materials we'd also ordered, so that was a THIRD trip. You folks have already been paid in full, the check passed, so we know you've been paid. We want our whole order, and we need to have it now!"
"We can try to find it closer and get it to Sacramento sooner."
"Ok, but we want *you* to ship it to Tahoe at your expense, we don't have the time to continue making trips into your store only to stand around for hours before anyone can help us."

Many, MANY phone calls and promises later, including a promise for a flooring upgrade that never materialized (thank you!), we got the initial flooring order delivered in full (they hadn't even completed the original order, you see) TWO WEEKS LATER. Now, we're supposed to be getting $450 back for all our trouble, but I am now ready to sue not only for the incredibly poor quality of the flooring, but for the delays their ineptitude has caused and cost us (we've ended up almost a month behind schedule).

So, not only did the refrigerator being moved into place seriously gouge the floor (NO refinishing is possible with this sort of damage), but I can gouge into it with my FINGERNAIL! I don't have acrylic nails, I have plain old natural nails, and I can gouge this stuff like it's dough.

Now, I've been doing some searching on this stuff, and found that there are those who argue that it's the finish that's bad. I call BS, because I cannot see how the finish would make something that is apparently inherently soft, hard enough to live on. I want the entire floor replaced, but we can't do it before our tenant moves in. I plan to sue for the flooring and cost of this installation, as well as our tenants costs while the new flooring is installed. Only this will make us whole.

I will also comment that the CS reps at headquarters are great to work with, but they seem to be unable to get others to follow through on their end (namely regional manager). They have failed miserably between product offered for sale, product information (truth in advertising is a real issue here) and customer service.

Marina H [returning]
- Pioneer, California

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Ed. note: Hi, Marina, we sympathize with your hardship! We printed your comments, but people have a right to privacy even when we are very angry with them ... we cannot trash them by name on the public internet. Sorry, but this site is for technical information exchange, not brand comparisons; we have no resources to test the products nor to verify that the "people" who post are real (several times a product "slam" has been proffered here by a competitor using a fictitious name pretending to be a customer). To the extent that general information pertaining to bamboo flooring is interesting to readers, we are very happy to help. But brand comparisons are for organizations like Consumer Reports that have testing capability and that are not anonymous; and inquiries into the business practices of companies are for Better Business Bureaus and Attorney Generals. Apologies!