Solid wood flooring

Before spending a fortune on this stuff it's worth checking with your local Enviroment Office that their aren't any Pandas living wild in your area....you'll be woken in the night by the sound of your back door caving in, then they'll just sit there and munch through a whole floors worth!

Since they're a protected species you're not allowed to interfere, you just have to leave them to it...breaks your heart when you spent all that time and money on a beautiful floor!

Depends on the type it is. Solid blocks can be laid on a floor with just a moisture barrier. However, especially with bamboo, it's more likely to be a floor known as 'structured', 'engineered' or 'floating', which consists of a layer of cheaper wood running the length of the board, then a layer of the same wood running across the board, and then finally the top layer is the layer of bamboo running lengthwise. In general, these need an moisture barrier + sound insulation; that's often sold as one single piece of underlay with the two types bonded together - usually in bronze, silver or gold (the metallic side is the moisture barrier), with gold being the top quality.

As you've got a concrete floor, you will either need it to have a smoothing compound (screed) layer on it on it that makes it very smoothor else board it out with sheets of hardboard - lumps in the concrete will break the planks eventually (think of how easy it is to break a branch across your knee rather than just breaking between your hands), .

If the flooring is structured boards, then the underlay is laid on the floor, and the boards laid on top. You lay one row of boards, cut the last one to fit, and then start the next row with the cut-off bit - this is to ensure that you don't have all the gaps lining up together, which not only looks naff, but seriously weakens the floor. The boards are usually tongue & groove, and depending on what type they are, may need glueing, or may just click together without needing glue. Whichever it is, it's sensible to buy strap clamps (usually a few quid in a DIY shop) that have an adjuster on them so you can tighten the boards to make them fit really close together.

Importantly, whether the floor is solid or structured, you need an expansion gap around the edge of the floor, and there are two ways of doing this - you can either leave the gap in front of the skirting and cover this with matching wooden beading, or take the skirting boards off, lay the floor with the gap round the edge so that it's just slightly narrower than the skirting board, and re-fit the skirting board afterwards. Obviously, the latter gives a much neater and professional finish, but it's more work.

Have a search online for further info - this one might help: http://www.fabfloor.co.uk/faq.htm