Hardwood Floors Offer Beauty and Versatility
While some manufactured flooring attempts to imitate hardwood, there no substitute for American hardwood floors made from verifiably sustainable American hardwoods.
There are myriad hardwood flooring choices available in today’s market and American Red and White Oak are among the most popular choices. Bamboo is often touted as a rapidly renewable alternative to American hardwoods due to their 10-year growth cycle. However, Bamboo is not a hardwood at all, rather a grass. The carbon footprint of its transformation from grass to a flooring material is far greater than of any hardwood. This transformation includes the use of adhesives and production methods that are far from environmentally friendly. American hardwood floors are the most durable, sustainable and beautiful floors available.
Hardwood Sawing Methods Make a Difference
The way in which wood is sawn determines its appearance. Plain or “flat” sawing is the most common hardwood log sawing technique. Sawn from the outside-in with the log’s growth rings parallel to the board’s broad face, plain-sawn lumber typically features a more uniform, arched grain pattern, commonly known as “Cathedral grain”. While plainsawing produces wider boards than quartersawing, it is prone to cupping and warping over time.
Quartersawn hardwood has a more distinct straight-grained look, as it is cut perpendicular to the tree’s growth rings. This process produces quartersawn hardwood’s most important characteristic – a “shimmering” effect, created by the increased exposure of the log’s medullary rays. The perpendicular geometric relationship between the angle of the log’s growth rings to the face of the board is what makes a quartersawn floor more stable. Expansion and contraction of quartersawn wood will only occur vertically, therefore reducing movement in width, cupping and warping. As a result, quartersawn hardwoods are often used in high-traffic environments and regions where the climate experiences more volatile humidity.
The Hardwood Advantage
Aside from their natural beauty and durability, hardwood floors are relatively easy to clean and maintain, while eliminating carpet-captured allergens. They are also adaptable to just about any type of décor. Hardwood flooring increases the value of a home and is very attractive to prospective homebuyers.
Hardwood floors have stood the test of time. There are quartersawn oak floors around the globe, for instance that are still in service after centuries of use. A friend just returned from France where he toured some chateaus in the Loire Valley that get more than a million visitors per year. Those visitors are walking on Quartersawn White Oak floors that have been there for more than 500 years and they are still beautiful, flat and tight. Aesthetically and practically, hardwood has been a preferred flooring surface throughout the ages in every corner of the globe. The most beautiful aspect of hardwood floors is that there is nearly twice as much hardwood growing in the US now than was growing 50 years ago. This is a truly sustainable, durable and beautiful product.