Hardwood Flooring Grades
From Floor Coverings
Contents |
What are hardwood flooring grades?
How many flooring grades are there?
When a tree is cut down and processed into hardwood flooring, there are a few different factors that will determine the appearance of what actually ends up on your floor. The quality of the tree and the sections of the tree that a plank or board is processed from will determine its grade. Grades varieties start from Clear Grade Flooring, Select Grade Flooring as the best and most expensive and then venture on to Country - 1 Common Grade Flooring and Traditional - 2 Common Hardwood Flooring, country, standard and traditional as the next level of quality and cost. Rustic grade or tavern grade flooring are the least expensive but also contain quite a bit of character.
Floor Grading Terminology.
Pre-finished and unfinished hardwoods have different terminology with regard to grades, but are basically the same description. For example, in pre-finished hardwood, the grade known as prime is the same description as clear and select in un-finished hardwoods. The standard grade in pre-finished hardwoods contains the same description as common #1 and #2 in un-finished hardwoods. Certain manufacturers use different terminology for the same grading requirement as well. Different types of woods also have different grade varieties. For example, unfinished oak has four grade possibilities, clear, select or better, common #1 and common #2. Whereas, unfinished maple, beech, pecan and birch have three grade options, select or better, common #1 and common #2. Tavern and rustic appear to be the same grade for hardwoods that come pre-finished.
How does the hardwood cut affect the grade?
Other factors such as the cut of the hardwood determine its appearance as well. Some logs are cut lengthwise deep in the heart of the log and are called heartwood. Others are cut near the outer surface or bark of the log and are called sapwood. The color will sometimes vary so strongly between the heartwood part of the tree and the sapwood part of the tree, that different styles of hardwood may come from the same log. For instance, red pecan is processed from the heartwood and white pecan is processed from the sapwood of a pecan tree. The direction of the cut is also a determining factor. Plain sawn boards are cut lengthwise down the rings of the tree log. Quarter sawn planks are formed by cutting directly across the tree rings, depicting parallel lines in the wood.
Environment and Flooring Grades.
Natural forces in the environment sometimes give the tree natural characteristics that end up determining the grade of its hardwood. Sometimes a tree will form a rounded growth that when cut into slabs look like a curling pattern. These are called burls. Branches that grow become encased in the tree as it grows around the forming branch. These formations, when cut into boards, appear as cylinder, rough spots known as knots. At other times, trace elements in the soil and water will leave an olive or grayish color streak, appropriately called mineral streaks. Growth rings and the wood grain are also natural parts of the woods appearance.
Not all trees are the same.
No two trees are alike in any forest. And, within each tree, these natural decorations vary from the center all the way to the bark. So, no two boards that are processed from any one tree will be alike either. Each pattern left in the tree tells the tree’s life story. From the growth of the branches all the way to the pecks in the wood that tell about all of the times that birds were looking for insect life to feed on. All of these things put together will determine the grade of your hardwood. The following pages offer a more detailed description of each grade.
