Hardwood Flooring Grades

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.

Hardwood flooring grades.

This grade is slightly lower than the clear still presenting uniform color and little to no knots and pinholes. 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. 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. There are grades on engineered but not regulated standard and all sorts of names that manufacturers use and often inconsistently.

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. 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. Qualities meaning aesthetically whether they have a lot of knots wormholes and open grain lines or pretty evenly toned and without natural blemishes. Reasons being you will find prefinished manufacturers prefer to stay within a defined area of flooring that is basically more uniform in appearance unless otherwise specified.

Grading rules have two specific purposes. The first is to address aspects of strength and serviceability when flooring is to be laid in structural applications such as over joists. Especially pertaining to oak hardwood flooring the 3 most commonly used grades are. I m beginning to realize that a lot of people out there don t know that there are different grades of hardwood flooring.

The official wood grades apply to solid hardwood. Each grade has its own particular characteristics and appearance. The graining is a bit distorted due to how it s. 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. Select 1 common and 2 common which is also known as rustic grade or builder s grade. Almost all boards sold for hardwood flooring in the u s. 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.