Cali Bamboo They sound great BEFORE you buy, but forget getting help if you have problems San Diego, California

I installed a vertical grain solid bamboo floor from Cali Bamboo.  We floated the floor and did the preparation and installation according to the instructions we received from the company.  Prior to making the installation I inquired repeatedly of the sales representative what precautions I should take because our house is in Hawai'i where the ambient humidity is 75% or more.  I specifically asked if I should do the installation during the wet or the dry season and was told that this made no difference because the material was sufficiently stable so that expansion and contraction would not exceed the tolerances the instructions specified.

I did the installation during a dryer part of the year, since that worked for my building schedule.  The floor subsequently expanded to the point where I was concerned that it would begin to buckle when the winter rains came.  I called the company to get some advice and spoke to Stephanie Champagne who first asked for photographs so that her technical people could get a better idea of what was happening.  I sent the photographs even though I saw no benefit to doing so and heard nothing for 10 days.  When I contacted Stephanie again, she asked me to answer a set of questions.  Again I complied with the request even though the questions either didn't pertain to my situation or seemed more designed to protect Cali against a lawsuit.

When I finally did get a response, that response had no advice of how I should handle the situation.  Instead it dealt exclusively with why Cali had no responsibility for the situation.  I told Stephanie that her response did not constitute customer service.  Rather it constituted SELF SERVICE.  She referred me to her supervisor, whom I subsequently have seen mentioned in another report on this site.

Based on my experience, I would never recommend this company to anybody.  In fact, I strongly recommend that you avoid them.