Best Hardwood Floors

Wood floors come in a variety of styles, grains and colors. The look of your floor will depend a great deal on the species of wood you choose.

Brazilian Walnut grows in Central and South America. It has long been considered one of the most beautiful woods in the world. The color ranges from golden brown to nearly black, with a very fine, even grain. Also known as ironwood, walnut makes strong, durable floors for any area in your home. Because of its relatively high cost, walnut is often used as an accent in floors rather than to create entire floors.

American walnut is considerably softer, and the color ranges are wider. The grain and pores are open and well-defined. As with Brazilian walnut, American walnut is often used in borders and patterns with other woods in a floor.

Here are some specifics about walnut wood floors:

Color: When freshly sawn, Brazilian walnut can range from light brown with greenish overtones to dark yellow brown. It darkens upon exposure to air, and when fully dried and cured can be nearly black. It contrasts beautifully with other woods in borders or medallions, and is often used that way.

American walnut ranges from rich, dark brown to purplish black. The color difference between heartwood and sapwood is great, which causes some manufacturers of wood products to steam the walnut and bleed the deeper, richer tones from the heartwood to the sapwood.

Grain: The grain of both varieties of walnut is open and straight, though there are often uncharacteristic burls and wavy grains evident.

Properties:

Strength: Through different combinations of quality, both species of walnut are extremely strong and durable. They wear well, and are extremely stable in construction.

Flexibility: Walnut has a good ‘bounce’ that gives it excellent shock resistance and its denseness makes it wear very well.

Stain-ability: Walnut takes stains and finishes well, though the dark color limits the colors of stain that can be used successfully on the wood.

Hardness: Wood hardness is measured using the Janka scale, a test that measures the force required to embed a steel ball into a sample of the wood. It’s an excellent measure of the durability and ability of wood to withstand everyday wear and tear. It’s also useful in determining how difficult it is to work with. Brazilian walnut is nearly three times as hard as red oak. It is very difficult to cut and saw, even with machine tools. The heavy, oily wood shows scratches easily, making it important to sand carefully. American black walnut, on the other hand, is less hard than red oak. It machines easily and sands without problems.

The relative expense and low availability of walnut makes it rare for full floors to be made of walnut. Instead, it is often used in borders, medallions and accents in lighter floors.

Buying wood flooring online

Online wouldn’t be the first place most people would go to look for wood flooring, but now it’s essential to look online. Why? Simply because online prices are so competitive.

Think about it. An online store doesn’t need to position itself where it attracts local traffic, so it can house itself and store it’s products in low cost locations, thereby keeping costs down. That’s why online stores are so competitive. But make sure you look for a large reputable store.

LumberLiquidators.com is the biggest online flooring store. If you’re looking online for flooring you’ve got to check them out!