Progress!

[errantember]

The bamboo floor project, which had previously been stalled since Crossmas, is almost complete. We're half way across the kitchen, with everything else completely finished, and all the tricky cutting and joinery behind us. One or two more days and we will be orgasmically finished laying planks. A day or two more and we should be able to finish the trim, which will be in a dark coffee to match the rest of the house and make the light bamboo floor pop. We've been slowed down by the necessity of running the tablesaw outside at a time that:

1) Won't piss of the neighbors
2) Isn't over 100 degrees
3) Allows us to see visually the relative positions of fingers and the blade

I finally got tired of only working for 2 hours a day, so tonight I attacked the woodshop, which had become so disorganized it was no longer safe to work in. I got about 2/3 finished cleaning it up, including making an organizer for the extra wood, and removing about half of what may well be the ugliest shag carpet in human history.

Once the floor is done we'll be throwing a snack-and-movie party to christen it.

Comments

[errantember.livejournal.com]

This is my first install, but I'm happy to pass on whatever wisdom I may have acquired. Having a good saw really helps, as does having a contour gauge, which is a thing that looks like a comb where the tines move. You push it into weird corners that are hard to measure, and it provides and outline of the shape that you can then trace onto the wood and cut out. It's also really important to let the wood cure in the house for a month or so before you install, but also to store it properly so it doesn't warp. I left mine sitting around for over two years, and so nearly all of it was warped. There are much larger cracks between the boards than I would usually be willing to accept, but there's only so much fixing you can do up once they're that warped. Finally, it's a good idea to check the boards for straightness when you're removing them to cure, and to take back any warped ones for exchange early in the process.

I might be willing to actually do installation work, but I'm not insured, bonded, or necessarily competent. :) However, I'm pretty confident I could do a similar job a much closer to professional level of quality the second time around. I've saved at least $2000 installing it myself, and it will probably add about $5000 to the value of the house.