bamboo?

[picksbigwagon]

The bride and I put a 3 season screen porch on the back of our house last fall (yeah, great timing), and were considering putting a tile floor out there. Then this weekend watching nothing on tv, I watched installation of bamboo flooring and thought that would be better than tile, especially after the cold winter we had this year. The porch is not heated, the walls, ceiling and floor are insulated, but with the plastic film windows over the screens, it seems silly to want to put a heater out there in the winter.

Is there an indoor/outdoor bamboo flooring out there? My brother in law will be installing the flooring and is pretty confident about the tile, but I know a floating bamboo floor will be way easier to install.

thanks for the help

[delcecchi]

When I investigated new flooring for our cabin, about the only things that anyone would suggest were vinyl sheets or planks, or carpet.

I would be happy to know of other alternatives.

[bobbymalone]

Not an expert by any means, but I know a few folks that have installed bamboo flooring and mentioned that the color changed fairly quickly after having the sun shine on it. They were happy with it, just mentioned that it changed color a bit. I noticed you could see areas around the door that got the light that had faded a bit while the stuff that was permanently shaded didn't. It wasn't dramatic, but noticeable. All floors will change color with enough sun exposure, this just happened pretty quick with the bamboo.

Could also be related to going cheap on the bamboo.

[frazwood]

We bought a bunch of bamboo flooring for our house from Costco in February and we're in the middle of the long process of installing it (we're doing several rooms, one at a time).

The bamboo that we bought had very explicit guidelines as to where it should be installed and they would have recommended against what you are proposing. This type of bamboo that we used, apparently, expands and contracts more than normal wood, so they recommended against applications with large swings in temperature and humidity.

I would recommend going to a place that specializes in wood flooring and ask their opinion. There might be bamboo out there that would work.

You could install electric heat mats beneath a tile floor... we did that in our basement bathroom and it was not particularly difficult.

[picksbigwagon]

electric heat mats??? that would be a great option, hadn't thought about that

[Tom7227]

Electric mats may be a good solution until you see the prices and then get your first bill.

[Biggerfish]

Yes the electric mats are a little more, but I will tell you that that warm tile makes a huge difference in that room. We did it 5 years ago and that room is the center point of our home. I only use them when we are home and the cost is not that bad.

You will not regret it if you go that route. and as said earlier they are easy to install.

Good luck