01st May 2010
Three Types Of Hardwood Flooring
There are many types of flooring on the market today, including all manner of man made materials, but solid hardwood flooring seems to one that isn’t out of place in even the most contemporary of homes. Here are just a selection of the choices available.
Maple Hardwood Flooring
This is a very hard wearing and durable wood very suited for use as flooring. So much so that it is commonly used as flooring for gymnasiums and even in ten pin bowling alleys, where there is high levels of wear and tear required of it. With a rating of 1450 on the Janka Hardness Test, this is a hard wood, even harder than oak.
Maple flooring comes in many light shades, from nearly white through to pale reddish brown, with a close grain. It would be the ideal floor in any modern home today.
Cherry Hardwood Flooring
This is a very beautiful timber for flooring, not really suitable for high traffic commercial use but very suited to the home environment. It scores 950 on the Janka Scale. Definitely not a cheap hardwood flooring option, but one of the most desirable. Any room would be transformed with its warmth and luxury.
Cherry flooring starts with light pinkish hues, but in a very short space of time will start to darken into more reddish auburn shades. This is a natural effect caused by sunlight, and only serves to make the wood even more beautiful and appealing.
Jatoba Hardwood Flooring
Jatoba is also referred to as Brazilian Cherry hardwood flooring. It is also one of the more exotic hardwood flooring products on the market today. Hailing from South America, this is one of the toughest timbers in use for flooring today, with an impressive 2350 rating on the Janka Hardness Scale. This is a very durable flooring that can cope with very high traffic, so much so it is often used in many public building applications such as hotels. So rest assured it is more than adequate for use in the home.
This is another timber that takes on a dramatic colour change from the rays of the sun. Depending on the intensity and duration of direct sunlight it will go from pale pinks and light orange hues to darker reds as soon as its laid. Colour shifts can go on for a matter of months depending on the type of finish the wood has, but only adds to its beauty.
This is just a small selection of the hardwood flooring available today. But any of the three would be a welcome addition to any home. If for any reason installing hardwood flooring is not an option due to constraints such as underfloor heating, then they are available as engineered hardwood flooring.
Leave a Reply