What Is The Hardest Wood For Hardwood Flooring

If you re interested in buy it for life wood flooring you re going to need to make hardness and scratch resistance a priority in the hardwood flooring industry the janka hardness test is the standard approach to measuring how resistant a wood sample is to both denting and wear.

What is the hardest wood for hardwood flooring. For hardwood flooring in homes it is the most popular material. Solid hardwood flooring will always be stronger than hardwood veneer engineered flooring. However different species of hardwood all have different hardness levels. Solid hardwood vs engineered hardwood consider the best type of hardwood flooring depending on where you are using it.

First let s make the distinction between solid hardwood and engineered hardwood solid hardwood is exactly what it says it is a solid plank of wood whilst engineered hardwood is a composite product consisting of an upper layer of hardwood that is adhered onto layers of. Depending upon your selections the total cost for hardwood floor installation including labor and materials can average up to 4 to 6 per square foot. As wood is a natural product it can vary quite significantly in hardness. The janka hardness test from the austrian born emigrant gabriel janka 1864 1932 measures the resistance of a sample of wood to denting and wear.

Solid wood flooring comes in long planks usually made of a hardwood species. It is milled with tongues and grooves on opposite edges so that the boards interlock when installed. Hardwood flooring can also be repaired and refinished unlike other flooring types. Best options by room.

Red oak one of the most common hardwood flooring species ranks 1 290. If you are looking for a hardwood floor for a busy area then you may want to read the following. It is always nailed down to the subfloor a process that requires some skill. Unlike most other hardwood floor finishes penetrating oils don t leave a hard shell on top of the wood.

For this reason a final coat of wax often tops the oil for extra protection. Solid wood flooring vs. A common use of janka hardness ratings is to determine whether a species is suitable for use as flooring. This means that it is hard and durable enough to be used as a floor covering.

Engineered wood flooring. Engineered wood has a thin veneer of real hardwood on top of dimensionally stable plywood. The janka hardness scale ranks wood for density and is a reliable indicator of floor durability in regard to hardness and denting the higher the rating the more resistant the floor is to dents scratches and wear. It measures the force required to embed an 11 28 millimetres 0 444 in diameter steel ball halfway into a sample of wood.

Even if that veneer happens to be the hardest wood possible such as brazilian walnut or ebony that veneer is still not thick enough to make the flooring truly durable. Installation prices vary depending on the type of wood you choose. Here s a guide to which species are the hardest. Popular wood floors oak.