Hardwood Flooring Grades

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Hardwood flooring grades.

Each grade has its own particular characteristics and appearance. The first is to address aspects of strength and serviceability when flooring is to be laid in structural applications such as over joists. Select grade hardwood flooring is top of the line in terms of both appearance and in terms of cost and comes from the heart of a tree. Select 1 common and 2 common which is also known as rustic grade or builder s grade.

The official wood grades apply to solid hardwood. Grading rules have two specific purposes. This is the best grade of hardwood flooring because there are few color variations board lengths are not widely varied and there are little to no visible knots or pinholes. This grade is slightly lower than the clear still presenting uniform color and little to no knots and pinholes.

While the national wood flooring association or nwfa has established a grading system it only applies to certain domestic species there is no universal system for international grades of hardwood. Because of this the wood s sap content is very low which results in very uniform color very few knots and the smoothest finish of any grade wood. Grading of hardwood floors is more prevalent with unfinished flooring as it is with prefinished. The grading of solid hardwood flooring revolves around australian standard as 2796 timber hardwood sawn and milled products.

Among the many qualities that influence the appearance of any particular hardwood flooring is the grade of the wood. Also many engineered woods especially cheaper ones are rotary sawn think of an apple peeler and these tend to be weaker and certainly look cheaper i e. Especially pertaining to oak hardwood flooring the 3 most commonly used grades are. The hardwood grading system was created to help both home buyers sellers and flooring professionals to have a common point of reference for describing batches of wood with similar qualities.

Are graded according to standards originally laid out by the national oak flooring manufacturers association nofma to help create consistency in the quality of oak flooring in the u s. I m beginning to realize that a lot of people out there don t know that there are different grades of hardwood flooring. Almost all boards sold for hardwood flooring in the u s. There are grades on engineered but not regulated standard and all sorts of names that manufacturers use and often inconsistently.