Morning Star  9/16" x 5-1/4" Sufong Palace Strand Bamboo

Installed about 1500 sqft. Product had consistent color, no warped boards and has a very solid feel when installed.

very please with product

installed nicely, easy to work with

Had this product for almost a month. This product because of color does show, dust, dirt, paw and shoe prints very easily not to mention pet fur. My 2-60lb dogs run across the floor and have not scratched the product once. YOU MUST PUT FURNITURE PADS DOWN. My 13yo did scratch the floors with her couch, and a paper clip that got stepped on; however, it was very easily stained and you can't tell. It is very easily cleaned with hard floor vacuum(only need vacuum because if pet hair) and a microfiber mop with the Bellawood floor cleaner- looks great. It is easily cleaned up when pets soils it. Makes my 2400 square ft house feel bigger, looks great and we get lots of compliments. No more carpet!!!!

Used for complete second floor renovation

We used a contractor and glad we did. Without the proper power tools, this would be next to impossible to install. Even with a air-driven nail gun and high-quality table saw, this requires experience to get it right. Very happy with the outcome.

Service and delivery comments:

Service at the Santa Rosa store was excellent. Everyone I dealt with was knowledgeable and friendly. They seemed there to help. No "hard sell" tactics

First time I installed a hardwood floor. It went fast because of the 5" wide board. I also loved that it was same length. My floor looks great and everyone loves the way it turned out.

The Morning Star Sufong Palace bamboo is an excellent product. I put down over 400 sq ft in our master bedroom and entry way, and I didn't find a single defect in any board. Every piece fit well and looks great.

The material is VERY dense, so it's hard on tools. Make sure your blades are sharp!! An 18 gauge brad nailer was insufficient for face nailing - I ended up using a 16 gauge finish nailer.

Con: All the boards are 6 ft long. That makes planning/aligning the joint more difficult than with random length planks. It also limits the options for joining different perpeindicular flooring sections to the use of thresholds instead of using the tongue-and-grooves (because then all the joints would be aligned). That's my only complaint -- otherwise it was a fantastic product to work with!

I love the feel and look of these floors. The hand scraped texture is great when walking on these floors barefoot. I also like the fact that scrapes are easy to cover up. It is a very hard type of wood and the scratches are very minimal with our 3 dogs. The only negative we had in installing the floors was the residue that the glue left on the wood was difficult to get off. But other than that, the installation went very smooth and easy. We put down over 400 ft in a weekend. I am very pleased with this product.

This floor seems much harder than brazillian walnut (our original selection). After taking many samples home, this was our obvious choice. The distressing varies, as well as the plank colors, making the finished product look even more spectacular (pictures do not do it justice). The quality was tremendous. Zero planks were warped or had no damaged tongue and grooves. Every single board was traight.

THe install was strenuous because of having to use a manual floor nailer. Make sure you "test" nail. We had issues getting consistancy with the pnuematic floor nailer and reverted to a manual floor nailer making the install tough; you definately need to be in shape. Also, make sure you have a good miter saw and table saw with a high quality blades, because low power equipment or dull blades will have a tough time cutting this stranded bamboo, it is like cutting a piece of iron.

Besides nailing, we also used hardwood floor and bamboo glue on the planks (ends and mid sections). Since we used glue, no underlayment was necessary. After 5 months, no creeks or noises.

We have 2 chihuahua's, no visible scratch marks from them (I know, not the best test for dog nails). However, if you do scratch the floor, an ebony grease pencil will blend the repair and add more character to the distressing. If we had a regular wood floor, we probably would have destroyed it already. This is a very strong floor, but still take the precautions by felting every piece of furniture and replacing hard plastic chair casters with softer ones to be safe. A harder floor does not necessarily mean scratch resistant. So far, this floor seems to be very scracth resistant compared to the previous oak floor.

We installed approx 1500 sq ft of this flooring, including on the staircase landing and closet floors.