Since wood floors comprise one of the largest visible areas in your home, they have a major impact on its look and feel. Choosing species and styles of wood that match your design and lifestyle preferences will ensure a harmonious relationship with your plank floors and a lifetime of enjoyment. Solid wood floors can be sanded and refinished many times; they will last longer than you will, so keep in mind that the floors you choose today will likely be beautifying your home for generations to come.
Plank Flooring Widths and Lengths
The term wide plank flooring refers to solid, usually unfinished, wood flooring greater than 3 inches in width. Most wide plank flooring is between 3″ and 20″ in width and is sold in random widths (a random amount of three or more different widths). In the old days, people used the entire log or resource that was available to them, so floors in old homes have planks of several different widths, known as random widths. Single width floors, a more recent invention, are also available, although there is often a surcharge for single width orders or repeating pattern orders as this requires the manufacturer to do more sorting of the product.
Installing a random width floor is no more difficult than installing all one width or a repeating pattern. The floor will consist of three or more widths in varying amounts. You will receive a tally sheet with your order telling how much lineal and square footage you have in each width of your order. The widths that have the most lineal footage will repeat more often than those with less lineal footage. For example, an order with mostly 4″ widths but some 5″ and 6″ widths may go like this: 4, 5, 4, 6, 5, 4, 6, 4, 5, 6, 5, 4 with the 4″ repeating most often, but randomly. The tally sheet tells you how many times each width should repeat across a given length of a room.
Wide plank flooring lengths vary greatly by manufacturer. Higher end wide plank flooring comes in longer lengths, often 8 to 16 feet long, and is sawn full length straight off the log. Longer planks mean that there will be fewer end and edge seams, or transitions, on your floor, creating a clean visual line. Because longer planks were common in early America, traditional and antique homeowners often prefer long planks for their historic appeal. Lower end wide plank flooring, made by cutting around defects in milled boards, comes in lengths as short as one foot. The abundance of shorter boards creates a busy or patchwork effect.
Since plank lengths vary widely among wide plank flooring manufacturers, it is important to ask the manufacturer the following questions in order to get the lengths you want.
- What is the manufacturers’ plank length range (from shortest possible board to longest possible board)?
- What is their minimum average plank length (the shortest average length of all the boards in an order).
- What percent of the planks in your order will be minimum average length or longer?
Once you have an idea of the width and length you want for your flooring, consider how you feel about wear and tear.
What Is Your Tolerance for Dings and Dents?
All wood floors develop wear marks over time. This is part of the charm of wood. Some people prefer softer woods because they develop a patina more quickly. For example, wide plank pine is very popular among traditional and historic homeowners because it soon develops an “aged” feel. Others do not find wear charming, and they tend to choose harder woods such as Oak, Hickory, Maple, and Ash. Depending on your tolerance for wear, you may want to factor species hardness into your flooring decision. One way of comparing the hardness of various woods is the Janka hardness scale, which measures the force required to push a tiny steel ball into a piece of wood. The higher the Janka number, the harder the wood. Janka numbers for wood species are available online. Though your floor is unlikely to ever experience the kind of pressure exerted for the Janka scale, hardness numbers can give you an idea of the general toughness of the various wood species.
Where Will the Floor Go in Your Home?
Where you plan to place the floor in your home may make all the difference in your wood selection. Depending on your tolerance, a harder wood may be a better choice for a high-traffic area, while a lower-traffic area such as a bedroom may be the best place for a softer wood. Placing area rugs over your wood floor in high-traffic areas will also help reduce wear. Of course, wide plank flooring can always be refinished to remove scuff marks, if desired. The beauty of solid wood floors is that they can be sanded and refinished many times and still have a lifetime of wear left in them.
Consider What Kind of Statement You Want Your Floor to Make
Do you want a floor that draws attention to itself? Then you may enjoy a dramatic or visually exciting floor with a lot of contrast between heartwood and sapwood. Or you might gravitate to the character grades of flooring, which showcase the rustic beauty of naturally occurring knots, bird peck, bark pocket, and other variations in planks that are as unique as each individual tree.
If you want an understated floor or one that blends into its surroundings a bit more, you might prefer a traditional choice, such as Red or White Oak. Eye pleasing but not attention-grabbing, Oak accounts for approximately 2/3 of all new floor installations in the U.S.
Once you have decided on a species, you still need to consider what grade of wood you want within that species. One way to decide is to ask yourself whether you prefer a floor with clear grain or one with some knots and natural character markings. A clear floor (often called Select grade) has few knots and is well suited to a more formal setting, while a floor with some knots and character marks (often called Country or Character grade) will have a rustic, sylvan appeal.
What Color Do You Want Your Finished Floor to Be?
Are you thinking of a light colored floor or a dark one? Lighter floors tend to give a room an open or airy feeling and make the space seem larger. Darker floors can exude an antique, formal look. While you can stain your floor any color you like, it helps to start with a wood whose natural color is close to the tone you are trying to achieve. Cherry, for example, is prized for its reddish brown hue. Red Oak is also popular for its reddish color. Keep in mind that some woods take stain better than others. Oak and Pine, for example, absorb stain readily and can be finished equally well light or dark.
Test Drive A Sample
It’s always a good idea to ask the manufacturer for a sample of the wood(s) you are considering. Not only will this give you a chance to see the wood up close, you will also be able to apply that stain you’ve been considering to see how it will look.
Going Green?
If you’re looking for ways to reduce your carbon footprint, choosing wood flooring is an excellent start. Solid wood flooring is an environmentally responsible choice in that it is a 100 percent renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable material that requires less energy to make than other flooring options. The energy to grow trees comes from the sun. In addition, much of the energy used to process lumber comes from wood itself, helping to reduce carbon emissions. Want to make sure your flooring comes from responsibly managed forests? Choose wood grown in the United States, which has some of the most stringent environmental laws in the world. And talk to the flooring manufacturer. Ask them where they get their wood. Is it from a country halfway around the world or is it locally grown? Do they control the growing and harvesting process? What kind of forest management do they practice? Another green option is choosing antique or reclaimed flooring.
An Investment in Wood
After weighing the many choices available to you and comparing manufacturers for the best product and price, rest assured that your efforts will pay off in more ways than one. According to the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA), 90 percent of realtors polled in a national survey said that homes with real wood floors sell faster and at higher prices than those that do not have wood floors. So think of wide plank flooring as an investment in your home that you get to enjoy every day.
