Bamboo boards can simply be nailed into existing wooden subfloors such as floorboards or plywood, providing that they are in good condition and most importantly level. If not, we recommend you first lay a 4mm thick plywood down prior to fitting your floor. Cautiously assess the subfloor, making sure that you securely fasten any loose floorboards, to avoid squeaking noises in the future. Furthermore, you can also use a simple foam underlay to create a barrier that supports noise reduction.

You can also nail down Bamboo flooring over a concrete subfloor, providing you lay battens or thick plywood (10-12mm) on top of the concrete. Remember to use a damp proof membrane prior to laying the battens. Also ensure that the battens used have at least a 50mm depth density to provide the right strength.

When nailing your Bamboo flooring, ensure you use a nail gun to place the nails into the floor. Nails should be angled at 45 degrees towards the centre of the board, going straight through the tongue of the board and into the subfloor. To get the perfect secret nail into the boards, try to use a good Porta-Nailer. It is also very important to adjust the nail gun cautiously, so that the nails are shot at a steady pace. If a nail is accidently fired too deeply into the wood, your flooring may crack and even result in severe damage to the subfloor or pipes beneath the ground level. We therefore recommend you test your nail gun prior to installation.

1. We recommend you avoid using Bamboo boards that are less than 50mm wide at the edges of your room. To do this, we advise you measure the width of your room and divide it by the width of your Bamboo board. The outcome will indicate how many boards wide the room is, and will show you how wide the last board at the edge of the room will be. If your last board is less than 50mm wide, you can simply cut your first board slightly thinner so that both boards at the start and at the finish edge are wider than 50mm. (This does not always apply to all floors, as some boards are fashionably thinner in style)

2. Some Bamboo wood flooring have a click system locking mechanism, which are fast and easy to fit. Essentially, the Bamboo boards will fit together like jigsaw pieces, without any sort of complications. However, a majority of Bamboo flooring consist of a tongue and groove that may require gluing, screwing or nailing, which is slightly trickier and more time consuming (see ‘Securing your Bamboo Floor’).

To start, the Bamboo boards should be laid from the edge of the room, making sure that the groove side of each plank is facing the wall adjacent to the side your laying your floor. Ensure that you use expansion spacers as you go along, maintaining a consistent 10mm gap between the flooring and the wall.

3. The very first board on your first row should be a full plank length Bamboo. The second row should be started with a board two thirds of the size of the plank. Next, the third row should be started with a plank one third of the size of the plank, and the fourth row would start with a full-length board again and so on. We recommend you follow this pattern as you go along until the full area is covered with your new floor.

4. Once the fitting process of your flooring is complete, you can then start to cover the expansion gaps with your new beading/scotia or skirting boards.