Been researching the stuff for 2 weeks now , I'm doing a new construction and its time to pick out the floors . Got 2 real expert opinions . The opinions vary some but the gist of bamboo floors is this : It is an extremely hard surface , the primary makers of bamboo carried by Lowes and others is Cali brand , they encourage the employees to bring their dogs to work to prove bamboo wont scratch . That seems to be their big marketing thing .. a floor dogs wont scratch up . Bamboo has a hardness rating of 4000-5600 or so .. Oak has a rating of 1800 or so . But we had a bamboo sample setting around that my lab pup got a hold of , he dented it all over . Here is the biggie for me , both the expert floor guys I spoke to said attempting to nail it is flat out dangerous and horrible to work with , it bends EVERYTHING , one guy said after two nails in the gun ended up in his beard he quit trying , the other guy said he took a job to install it , hes a real pro , does floors and floors only for a living , he said it took double the amount of time because it kept tearing up nail gun . So you can do a floating floor , un nailed I guess . But its hard to lay in general . One of the guys says he loves his after it was down . Has a rather unique look to it , a " love it or hate it " look .
