Wood floors have been around for thousands of years. For added value, beauty and health benefits, many consumers are turning to wood flooring. Easy maintenance, new longer lasting finishes, style versatility and competitive prices are some of the reasons for wood floor’s popularity.

If you’ve never shopped for wood flooring, you may find the experience a bit mind boggling due to the variety of product available and industry terminology. Here are some of the basics that will guide you to your ultimate choice of the best wood flooring product for your application. First, you will need to choose the wood species, such as Oak, Maple, Beech, Elm, Pecan etc., etc. Each has their own characteristics of grain structure, color, hardness, knots and streaks of mineral color.

Relative Hardness Of Selected Wood Flooring Species
The Janka (or side) hardness test measures the force required to embed a .444-inch steel ball to half its diameter in wood. It is one of the best measures of the ability of a wood species to withstand denting and wear.

Click here to view sample Janka hardness test measures