Hardwood Floors August/September 2018

By Bob Goldstein

My advice is simple: CYA - cover your assets! Read all instructions and then opt to be very conservative, use your acquired knowledge and experience and reach out to the NWFA for suggestions and options when any part of the installation process feels wrong or instructions are vague. One last point. An old saying that we have always used during NWFA training: “Sometimes that job you chose not to do turns out to be the best job you never did.” Bob Goldstein is in Technical Services, Training & Sales at Vermont Natural Coatings based in Hardwick, Vermont. He can be reached at bgoldstein@vermontnaturalcoatings.com.

moisture from under the oor ge ing to the berboard? As mentioned earlier, some have a cork backing, which also is not waterproof. Others have a HDF (high density berboard) core that is coated, but they still recommend cleaning up spills right away. I bring these issues up because a lot of wood oor folks took it on the chin with overly ambitious claims from some bamboo manufacturers over the years. We learned the hard way that solid bamboo must be treated like solid wood and acclimated to its in-use environment out of the packaging. Strand-woven bamboo also needs to be acclimated like real solid wood, keeping in mind that acclimation for these products takes longer than real wood due to the resins and glues that hold them together, and the fact that they are nished on all six sides. Because the installation instructions for so many of these oors (even now) can be ambiguous, the nger is always pointed to the person who did the work.

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the magazine of the national wood flooring association

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