Bamboo Floor F.A.Q. - The Ordering Process

Below are a few questions you will want to consider before placing your order:

1. What type of subfloor (usually plywood or concrete) will the floor be installed over?
2. Do you already have a specific plan to float, nail, or glue down the floor, and if so, why?
3. What other types of flooring will the floor be butting up to?  Will you require transition pieces and how many?
4. How much flooring will you need to complete the job?  Have you added waste?
5. When do you plan to start, and when do you need to receive the flooring material?
6. What kind of traffic do you expect on the flooring?  Do you have kids, dogs, is it a commercial space?
7. Will you be installing the floor yourself, or hiring a professional?

We encourage all customers to read our policies prior to placing an order:

Return Policy: http://www.ambientbp.com/return.php
Sale Policy: https://www.ambientbp.com/sale-policy.php
Shipping Policy: https://www.ambientbp.com/shipping.php

The estimated transit time for your order depends on where you are located.  For overseas orders and expedited shipments, please call us for an estimate at (866) 710-7070.

Eastern U.S. orders are usually shipped out within 3 business days and have a transit time of 1-3 business days.

Central U.S. orders are usually shipped out within 3 business days and have a transit time of 2-5 business days.

Western U.S. & Canada orders are usually shipped out within 3 business days and have a transit time of 5-12 business days, however there are expedited shipping options to the West Coast for shorter transit times for an additional fee.

It depends on what shipping option you select and also how much of an incline there is on your driveway, but the default delivery method for our residential flooring deliveries is curbside with liftgate, so the driver will usually lower the pallet(s) of flooring down using a liftgate. We recommend you read more about it on our Shipping Policy page. 

All freight shipments are curbside delivery with lift-gate unless you specifically request freight dock delivery.  Curbside delivery means they lower the pallet on the street at the end of the driveway.  The drivers are not required to enter the property boundaries, although if not hazardous sometimes they’ll back up the driveway (if it’s flat and short) and drop the pallet on the driveway.   Someone must be on site to receive the delivery and inspect it for exteriror damage, and then note any damage on the driver’s bill of lading (otherwise we can’t send free replacements).   We highly recommend that you do not pay laborers to sit around and wait for the delivery, as the freight companies do sometimes miss appointments and they do not reimburse for such lapses.

The rule of thumb for ordering perimeter moldings is to multiply your total flooring square footage times 30%.  Therefore if you’re installation 1,000 sq ft of flooring, you’ll need 300 linear feet of perimeter moldings.

Absolutely.  We’ve shipped our floors to such far-flung locations as Guam, Kenya, Tanzania, Bahrain, Great Britain, Kuwait, France, Mexico, Canada, Hawaii, and many more.  Please note that international shipments may require you to procure the services of a freight forwarder at the port of discharge; most port authorities can provide recommendations for reputable freight forwarders that service your home port.  Also, minimum order quantities may apply to some countries.  Call your Ambient representative today at (866) 710-7070 for shipping quotes to your country!

1)    You can purchase right through our website (which you're currently on)

2)    You can send an email with your materials list or purchase order to [email protected]

3)    You can call us at (866) 710-7070 and place your order over the phone

 

We ship most orders out within 4 business days of purchase, the average being 2 business days, however on the final checkout page you will have the option to select Expedited Shipping for an additional fee, which simply means that we will ship the order out the next business day. We highly recommend reading our Shipping Policy for more details.

Once shipped, transit times depend on where you live, with most Eastern US shipments having a 2-4 business day transit time, Central US having a 3-5 business day transit time, and Western US and Canada shipments having a 5-10 business day transit time.  For residential lift-gate deliveries, once the flooring order arrives at the local freight terminal, they will call you to schedule your delivery appointment, which is usually a 2-6 hour window on the day of your choosing, when possible. All deliveries are curbside as we do not offer delivery into your home or business.

We recommend that you review our Return Policy first to ensure that your flooring qualifies.  If your floor does qualify to be returned, here are some general guidelines:

1. If shipping back more than 2 boxes we recommend you reach out to an Ambient representative to get a return freight quote. Please note that return shipping usually costs much more than the original outbound shipment.

2. You will need to have decent quality 4’x4’ or 4’x6’ pallets to secure the flooring boxes to.

3. Pickup appointments are usually a window between 2-6 hours. We will arrange to have the pickup and will send you an email with further instructions, including the documents you will need to paste to the pallets.

4. The pallets will need to be placed at the end of your driveway, on solid, paved and flat (as possible) ground, not grass or dirt. We reccommend following this guide: How to Return Freight Shipments

5. The pickup driver will use a pallet truck/jack to move the pallets from your driveway onto the truck's liftgate. In order to do this the pallet truck forks need to be able to slide into the large (not small) pallet holes. Most pallets only have suitable holes on two sides of the pallet. The pallet truck forks require a hole of at least 5 inches in height to slide in. Therefore, please rotate the pallets correctly before placing boxes on them, so that the pallet truck will be able to slide the pallet forks into the pallets to move them.

6. Once the product(s) arrive in our warehouse and have been inspected and determined to be in acceptable condition, we will issue your refund minus any return shipping charges and restock fees.  We will attempt to issue the refund via check in the mail within 2 weeks.

 

Below are links to our return, sales and shipping policies, we encourage all customers to review them before placing an order.

Return Policy: https://www.ambientbp.com/return.php
Sale Policy: https://www.ambientbp.com/sale-policy.php
Shipping Policy: https://www.ambientbp.com/shipping.php

We highly recommend you review our Shipping Policy, which has a lot of great information and a short video about the shipping process.  When your order ships out we’ll send you a notification email with all of your shipping information.  Once the shipment arrives at the local freight terminal near your delivery location, the terminal staff will call you to schedule a delivery (weekdays, usually a 2-6 hour window).  Make sure you don’t miss the delivery appointment or the freight company may charge a hefty re-delivery fee. 

Once the order arrives, ensure you mark any damages you see on the driver’s bill of lading (they’ll then usually give you a copy).  You don’t have to open and inspect every box, just look at the outside of the pallets – that is where the shipping damage will be. Ensure you write the number of damaged items and detailed notes, then take photos of the damaged items and email all of this information to [email protected] to ensure we can provide you free replacements.

Important note: If your delivery location is located on a road that cannot be accessed by a semi-trailer truck, you may be required to pick the freight up at the local terminal or meet the driver at an intermediary location.

We accept the following payments:

1. Money orders and cashier's check, personal check (please not there is a 14 day delay on these payment methods)

2. All major credit and debit cards.

3. Personal checks, ach debits, and paypal. In fact, paypal credit offers financing with 0% interest for 6 months. Once approved, during checkout select the paypal option to login and then select the paypay credit option.

While it can be a bummer if your shipment arrives damaged – it is not the end of the world! We can easily send you free replacements for anything that was damaged in transit. All we ask is that you do not refuse the shipment and mark any damages on the receipt provided by the driver. After that, please take a few photos of product while it is still on the pallet and email them to [email protected] so we can make a record on your account. Then, please examine the boxes further once they are inside to determine the extent of the damage. Once we have that information, we will send out the replacements needed right away. Most of the time, installers will be able to work around the damage instead of waiting to get replacements. For more information please see our Shipping Policy page.

Occasionally you will get a plank with a visible defect either in the stain, finish, or milling. Like most quality hardwood flooring brands, our effective defect rate is under the industry standard 3%. However, if you are finding that more than 3% of the planks you ordered have defects, please let us know as soon as possible so we can resolve the matter quickly.

We usually charge you what the shipping companies charge us, and add a small handling fee.  However if you have your own shipping account you’d like to use we can accommodate this.  We do still charge a small handling fee for small parcel shipments when using a consignee shipping account.