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.

Beech is a popular choice for gymnasium and other athletic floors. The color ranges from warm cream to dark brown, depending on whether it is heartwood or sapwood, and whether or not it is seasoned. Flexible, durable and beautiful, it’s been used for floors and other building for centuries. European beech is generally darker and coarser than North American birch. The durability of birch and its enduring popularity in building makes it one of the more popular ‘reclaimed’ woods using in recycled flooring.

Here are some specifics about beech wood floors:

Color: Beech is generally a pale white to dark cherry brown, with the paler wood being sapwood. The darker hardwood has tones of warm red with darker grain shading to deep brown.

Grain: Beech has a fine, even, straight grain with a uniform texture. The natural variations in color between sapwood and heartwood are subtle but unmistakable. The evenness of the grain shines through when the wood is stained or finished.

Properties:

Strength: Beech is close in strength to oak and ash. It resists splitting and damage, but can be difficult to work with hand tools. It does machine well, though.

Flexibility: Beech is fairly flexible, with a nice ‘spring’, which makes it popular for gymnasium and other ‘active’ floors like squash and handball courts. It’s stable enough to be used in a ‘floating’ floor, and is suitable for use in above or at ground level uses.

Stain-ability: Beech accepts stains and finishes well. The light wood and deep, even grain are most attractive simply finished with a protective urethane coating.

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. Beech measures 1300 on the Janka scale, just beneath ash. It shapes easily, and sands well.

Beech’s warm red tones and fine, close grain help create an elegant wood floor with a tight even grain. As beautiful as it is durable, it’s an excellent choice for a professional looking office, or for a busy family room floor. It’s one of the woods recommended for making athletic and auditorium floors, but is as at home as the setting for a traditional or contemporary residential room decor.

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!