Bamboo flooring

dearface

Hi,

I’m looking for a new floor for our living room and snug (no underfloor heating requirement.

I have been looking at either solid wood or laminate, and over time i seem to be settling on natural strand bamboo.  I’ve done a fair bit of research and the more I look into the more I don’t really find many downsides with it - relatively affordable, durable, aesthetically pleasing, sustainable.

Can people share some real world and relatively recent experience of bamboo, good or bad?

Eg
wear/durability
scratch resistance
underlay (the companies I’ve received samples from have sent 5mm thick underlay - initial impression was that it’s quite thin!)
fitting (ease for diy’ers)
differences between certain retailers

Many thanks 

travis-powers

I fitted some engineered bamboo flooring for a client in a bathroom against my advice!
 10 years on still looks as good as new.

twopenny

It's used for a lot in countries where it's easily available because it's tough.
I think here it may depend on who the manufacturer is. Genuine or cheapskate. 
I'd look at that.

dearface

Thanks for the comments.

Does anyone have experience on bamboo flooring thickness?  Budget end appears to be 10mm, more premium end up to 15mm - price scales accordingly.

I imagine the advantages of thicker flooring are:
- greater stiffness, less flexing
- better insulation (thermal and acoustic)

But are these advantages really noticeable based on people’s experience?

benson1980

I’ve fitted it in one of our old houses.

Fitting wise, was quite straightforward. No more difficult than laminate really and I recall just floating it over an underlay.

We had two young kids rolling toys over it all the time, plus a lively dog, and nothing touched it in terms of scratches so it did hold up really well.