Wood Floors Throughout The House
COLOR
Wood flooring color is a crucial element in transforming any room’s ambiance. With an extensive palette of options, the possibilities are endless! From the deep, rich tones of American walnut to the crisp whites and warm tans of hard maple, and even the bold, regal purple of purpleheart, our customers are spoiled for choice. While staining can add an extra layer of depth and character to a wood floor, we often opt to showcase the natural beauty of the wood instead. After all, matching a stained floor’s exact color can be a challenge if it becomes scratched. However, we do use stain strategically to highlight ornamental details and add an extra touch of elegance to a beautifully crafted wood floor.
The color of your flooring can have a profound impact on the ambiance of a room. Dark-colored flooring can create a cozy and intimate atmosphere in large spaces, making them feel more inviting and comfortable. On the other hand, light-colored flooring can help to make smaller rooms appear more spacious and airy, giving the illusion of more square footage.
Wood flooring is known for its natural beauty, but it’s also subject to color changes over time. Direct sunlight can cause wood to oxidize, leading to dramatic color shifts. For instance, some woods can darken to a deep reddish hue within just a few weeks. Walnut, in particular, exhibits a moderate to high degree of color change, transitioning from a dark brown to a warm golden brown. Red oak, for instance, tends to amber slightly, developing a richer tone. Brazilian cherry is another wood that undergoes a notable color transformation, initially presenting a tan-salmon color with distinctive black striping before evolving into a rich, deep red.
HARDNESS
The Janka Hardness Rating is a widely used method for measuring the relative hardness of wood species. This test involves pressing a 0.444-inch diameter steel ball into the wood until it reaches half its diameter, with the force required to do so measured in pounds. While this may not be a common occurrence in everyday life, the hardness of wood is an important consideration, as it can impact the durability and longevity of your flooring.
For perspective, a woman wearing high heels can apply an impressive 2,000 pounds per square inch on a wood floor, which is more than enough to cause significant damage. If you have a large dog with long nails, you may want to choose a harder wood species to avoid scratches. For example, Eastern white pine with a hardness rating of 380 pounds may not be the best choice. In contrast, Brazilian walnut with a hardness rating of 3,680 pounds would be much more resilient. One important consideration is that even minor damage to a shoe’s heel can create a significant problem – if the heel has a protruding nail, it can apply up to 8,000 pounds of force on the floor, which no wood flooring can withstand.
The hardness of wood is often influenced by the direction of the wood grain. Quartersawn flooring tends to be slightly harder than plainsawn flooring. End-grain floors, which were historically used in high-traffic settings like factory buildings, commercial spaces, museums, bridges, and boardwalks, offer unique benefits. They absorb shock and noise, and the angled cut helps the growth rings resist scratching and wear more effectively than traditionally flatsawn or quartersawn boards.
