Strongest Woods For Floors

Red oak one of the most common hardwood flooring species ranks 1 290.

Strongest woods for floors. Softwoods such as fir pine and hemlock rarely work well as flooring materials except in a shop or utility area. The best wood floor for the bathroom is reclaimed or engineered white oak. This species is more likely to handle the increased moisture of the space with minimal damage particularly as it ages. The janka hardness scale ranks wood for density and is a reliable indicator of floor durability in regard to hardness and denting.

Laminate will not resist deep scratches of the type caused by sliding a refrigerator but its wear layer does an excellent job of warding off lighter scratches that a dog s claws may inflict. Try this local wood from kalimantan province of indonesia borneo. Third you ll need to limit your search to exotic woods instead of domestic ones. The most durable flooring woods will be hardwoods such as oak walnut ebony maple ash and pecan.

The best wood flooring for the basement is engineered. Laminate flooring may not have the cachet of real wood but it is superior to most woods in one way. We usually call it as kayu ulin ulin wood. The spruce margot cavin.

For the hardest woods you need to look for exotics not domestics. Soft wood flooring isn t a long term solution for floors unless they re installed in work or hobby areas. It is rated very hard on the janka hardness scale. It measures the force required to embed an 11 28 millimetres 0 444 in diameter steel ball halfway into a sample of wood.

Pine fir hemlock poplar and chestnut are soft woods. For this reason a final coat of wax often tops the oil for extra protection. Cherry is not just a visually appealing dark wood it is also one of the strongest options. The higher the rating the more resistant the floor is to dents scratches and wear.

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. This wood which has a red undertone that makes cherry a quite fitting name sands smooth. Brazilian cherry a more exotic species ranks 2 350. Exotics are sourced from areas like indonesia and south america.

A common use of janka hardness ratings is to determine whether a species is suitable for use as flooring.