What Is So Special About Hickory Flooring?
When I was growing up with my brother, we liked to play basketball while I preferred baseball. And he liked white meat chicken as I had a preference for dark meat. And he always loved Hickory flooring while I thought a simple Red Oak was the better choice.
What makes a Hickory hardwood floor special to people is that they like it on an emotional level. And that is wonderful. I tend to be a more rational person. And, because I am so rational, I have learned there is no species of wood on the planet better suited for a hardwood floor. A chunk of Hickory grown here in the Appalachian mountains will last for years to come.
So what about Hickory appeals to me?
1. Select Hickory Has a Unique Visual
Stark color differences in each board are easy to find in hardwood. Why? Well thats because the color of heartwood and sapwood are both present in a Hickory tree. There can be a huge color difference depending on the grade of lumber that you are seeing.
But whether you are looking at a creamy-toned board of Select and Better, or an anything-goes sophomoric plank of Cabin grade, no other species of wood will look like Hickory.
Many years ago the old Zickgraf brand made a custom floor for one of their customers and made too much. During one of their warehouse cleanouts that I handled for them I came across this floor.
Using a Select and Better grade of hardwood flooring they stained it with a rich copper-colored finish. That was the most beautiful floor that I have ever seen, hands down! It was such a high grade of wood there was almost no variation in color. Instead, it was the earthy color with the wavy grain weaving through it. A grain pattern that is only seen in Hickory. I sold that floor to a good friend, and he and his wife loved it as much as I did.
When I recently met with the great people at AHF Flooring, makers of Bruce and Hartco Flooring, we were talking about some odd lots of engineered hardwood flooring when the topic of Hickory came up. Long story short, they told me they had a few Hickory products that they needed to clean out. After looking at the samples I found that they had a beautiful solid Hickory floor with a stain from my past! You can See the Bruce American Home Hickory in the Prairie color below. The best part? You can buy this first quality floor for now at $2.99 square foot in the 3 ¼ inch width. Wanna save some money? Consider the same floor in the more narrow 2 ¼ for the price of $2.49 sq ft.
2. Common Hickory Has a Unique Visual
Unlike most other species, the Cabin grade in Hickory is very much in demand because of it’s special look as well. On the other end of the grading scale from my Zickgraf beauty, the contrast and natural characteristics make it a highly sought after floor. Because only 5-10% of a tree will fall into #2 Common (unfinished grade of Cabin) the amount of that rustic decor champion is never enough to meet the demand. Common and Better Hickory floors have graced many high-end cabins and ranch houses, as well as Victorians and Tudors, around the world. While a low-graded Red Oak is considered a poor man’s Rustic floor, Common Hickory has always been the LL bean choice for home design with flair.
So you can imagine my dismay when those AHF guys told me that they also had a natural finish on a mill run Solid Hickory hardwood floor. First, let me tell you what Mill Run is. Mill Run is like whole hog sausage. While most sausage is made from the trimmings, whole hog sausage is just what it says. The whole hog.
Mill Run Hickory is an ungraded run of lumber, with only the lower portion of the Cabin grade removed from the run. Select, #1 Common, and #2 Common lumber are all ran together, resulting in a flooring product that features long boards, lots of color, beautiful grains, great availability, and in this case….great value! We are offering the Bruce American Home in the Natural finish for the same price as the Prairie. $2.99 and $2.49 for 3 ¼” plank and the 2 ¼” strip, respectively.
As you can see in the photos below, this product gives us all the color that we would see in a lower graded floor but with the quality, warranty and board length of a higher end floor. And we have this for less than our competitors can offer a Cabin grade Hickory floor.
(thumb and room scene American Hickory Natural)
3. Is Hickory Better Than Red Oak or Maple?
Better? How about we start with the question Is Hickory Different Than The Other Species? The biggest difference between Hickory and the other popular Appalachian species such as Maple, White Oak, and Red Oak, is the hardness or density of the wood. Hickory is the hardest domestic wood that is commonly used. In the wood flooring industry we use a scale called the Janka Hardness Scale to compare the density of different woods. The test for this scale measures how many foot pounds of pressure are required to drive a .444 caliber steel ball half of its diameter into a piece of wood. While this is not a phenomenon that your floor will face, it is a great way to compare species of lumber. The score for Hickory scores at 1820. Hard Maple is just under that at 1450. White Oak and Red Oak measure at 1320 and 1280, respectively. Interested in some other results? Walnut, 1010. Cherry, 950.
Why does Hardness Matter?
Hardness of your flooring directly affects how everyday usage and occasional boo-boos will leave an impression. In essence, hardness determines how long your floor will last. Certainly there are other criteria to consider, and we will address those in a moment, but a Hickory floor, due to its density, will dent and gouge less than any other domestic hardwood.
Another feature of Hickory that will impact its durability is the lack of clear grain. Imagine a dent or gouge in each of the floors that are shown below.
Bruce Kennedale Natural
Hartco Prime Harvest hickory Natural
Which of those floors will exhibit the most change in appearance due to the dent?
Change in appearance is an industry term to describe wear and abuse on a floor. It means if it starts looking bad, your floor is wearing out. And while there is no technical scale to measure this development over time, we are each issued eyes that are perfectly capable of handling this assignment.
How does your floor look? Now you realize that a Hickory hardwood floor, compared to the other species, will exhibit less change in appearance over time than the Maple, Red Oak, and White Oak. And that answers the question about if a Hickory hardwood floor is superior to the other options.
4. Is Hickory An Expensive Wood?
Yes, hickory is expensive due to the rules of supply and demand. The price of Hickory lumber is just a bit more expensive than the Red Oak and White Oak, while Maple will move around in proximity to Hickory pricing.
The reason for this is that is Hickory and Maple are used in many different applications like trim, furniture, cabinetry, etc. As the demand peaks and ebbs for these other markets, Maple prices go up and down in response. Hickory is not frequently used in a lot of other industries other than tools (handles) and sporting goods (bats, skis).
Occasionally we will see Hickory cabinets, which are in fact gorgeous, but Hickory is not as easy to mill as other species of lumber. Also, the visual characteristics of Hickory may not be fully appreciated in other uses.
But fear not! ReallyCheapFloors.com is here to make sure that you do not have to blow past your budget to get a Hickory hardwood floor. Be sure to look at our newest addition to our Hickory family, the Stoval Mill Collection. These 3 ¼ wide plank floors feature a handscraped texture that not only looks great, but precludes your floor from ever showing dents due to wear and abuse. These floors come pre-abused!
We will have our Stoval Mill Collection in stock soon and available in 2 great colors, Shellbark and Red-Heart. These first quality floors are priced at $3.99 sq ft.
5. Does Hickory Have A Downside?
We all have weaknesses. Superman has kryptonite. Samson’s was Delilah. Mine is…pretty much everything on a buffet. Remember that part about Hickory being really hard? Well, there is a downside to being a super-dense floor. Hang on, as we are going to get a little technical here. I promise, it won’t last long. Mostly because I don’t know enough to expound for long.
All hardwoods have channels, or pores, that run the length of the tree. Think of these as water lines and you will better understand how this works. The pores can contain sap, nutrients, water or even air, depending on where the tree or piece of lumber is in its life cycle.
Harder woods have smaller pores, while softer woods have greater porosity. When these trees are sawn and kiln-dried, the vast majority of the pores will be left empty. At this point the Janka score comes into play.
Now, we know that the Hickory floor has fewer pores, as well as smaller diameter pores, then compared to say a Red Oak piece of flooring. If we introduce moisture to both boards the Red Oak floor will be capable of absorbing more moisture without showing a response than the Hickory, because it has more available storage. So what happens if you add the same amount of moisture to both species of floor? The Hickory floor will be more likely to expand due to the added moisture than the Red Oak floor.
How Does The Expansion Due To Moisture Affect Hickory As Flooring?
Here in the South, we experience large swings in relative humidity between winter and, we;;, the rest of the year. While January the air will be so dry you can feel it, when that humidity climbs up past 90%, well, you can feel that as well.
When wood is milled into flooring the moisture level is near 6%. If you leave that board outside in the winter it might fall to 4 or 5%. No big deal. But if you leave that same board outside for the April showers that bring May flowers, or the July and August humidity that just bring angst and sweat, the moisture level in that board could shoot up to 20%
For every 1% of moisture gained by the board, it can be expected to expand up to 10/1000ths of an inch. So a floor that goes from the 6% when it was installed to 16% because someone likes their doors and windows left open to enjoy the fragrant blooms of May, may see each board in their floor grow 1/10th of an inch. That means an inch in every 10 boards.
While this is an extreme case, and we are assuming each board is sawn the same direction (hardwood lumber expands between the grain lines. A flatsawn board grows sideways while a quartersawn board gets taller) you can still see where expansion can be a problem with any hardwood floor. But Hickory, due to its high density, is the worst. It is for this reason that we do not recommend using 5” solid Hickory flooring for installation in your home unless you are incredibly diligent about keeping the moisture levels in your home constant throughout the year. No setting apple pies in an open window. No leaving doors open so the pup has free passage.
No, your home will have to be kept dry if you want to use wide solid Hickory hardwood flooring in your home. However, both the 2 ¼ inch strip and the 3 ¼ wide planks offer an option that is much more stable. It’s that 5” one that you gotta look out for!
6. Engineered Hickory Hardwood Flooring Can Save The Day
For those that love the look of Hickory but just have to have the wider boards we offer Somerset’s Country Hickory in an engineered hardwood floor. Somerset offer their SolidPlus engineered flooring with the exact same look as their solid version. How can they do this? The key is that they cut all of their veneers across the face of the log, the same way they cut the boards for a solid piece of hardwood flooring. Just thinner. This veneer is attached to the surface of a ½” thick, 7 layer core made up of hardwoods at least as dense as Red Oak. This results in a floor that looks and performs like a solid hardwood, but with the ability to withstand the moisture we experience here in the South.
Why Aren't All Engineered Floors Made Like This?
Because it is expensive. Face sawn lamelos, or veneers, cost a lot more to produce than the more common rotary peel process. In the rotary peel a log is peeled as it is turned, which produces a long sheet of thin wood that will be cut into sheets before being attached to a core. This way of cutting veneers will result in a toplayer that does not look like a facesawn piece of solid upon installation
Why Do People Love Hickory Hardwood Flooring?
As you can see there are several reasons. As to which of these reasons is most applicable to you, that is a question that only you can answer. Look at photos of Hickory floors, and maybe even see a floor that has been installed. Study the pros and cons. Read some reviews online and see what others say. Then, when you are ready to purchase a Hickory wood floor in either solid or engineered, smooth or handscraped, in whatever width you choose, give me a call. I will save you money on a Hickory hardwood floor.
