How To Choose Quality Hardwood Flooring: Choosing The Right Wood Floor

I have been in the flooring business for over 45 years. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that choosing the right wood floor is about more than just picking a color you like. It depends on your home's foundation, your local climate, and the "traffic" (kids, pets, and boots) of the family living there.

I’m going to break down the solid hardwood options and engineered hardwood options to get us started. Once you know their features, you'll have a much better idea of what you need for your home. Is one objectively better than the other? Let's find out.

Is There a "Best" Hardwood Flooring?

There isn't a single "perfect" floor, but there is a perfect floor for your project. Each type has different finishes, grades, species, prices, and installation methods. After you read this post, I'll bet you can tell me exactly what the best floor is for you!

1. Will You Choose Solid Or Engineered?

Your first decision is whether to use solid or engineered hardwood flooring.

Solid is the go-to product for most hardwood that is installed over a plywood or OSB (oriented strand board) subfloor. Almost all installations of wood flooring over a concrete subfloor will use an engineered wood. That is because when you have a wood subfloor it is relatively easy to control the moisture that is present, either in the air from relative humidity, or from moisture traveling up from underneath.

Moisture when added to wood will cause the wood to expand, which in turn can cause warping, buckling, and cupping. This is bad. We don't want that. If we are installing over a concrete slab we have a more difficult time controlling the moisture so we use the engineered floor.

Engineered hardwood flooring is made by stacking multiple plys  or layers of wood on top of each other. Each ply is rotated 90 from the previous ply. This make the finished plywood core much more stable and less susceptible to expansion. A final layer of veneer, or lamelo, is added to the top. It is this wearlayer that determines what species the floor is listed under.

The quality of an engineered floor is determined by a couple of different attributes:

• Number of Plys. More is better.
• Density of a wood species used in the core. The denser a floor is, the less it will dent from usage.

• Overall thickness. Thicker is better, if all other specifications are equal.

Solid hardwood floors are milled from a solid piece of lumber. Domestic hardwoods tend to be much harder than imported products. Other than the quality that may be associated with grading, there are no measurable quality specifications about solid wood, unless you count species. We will discuss grading and species later in the blog.

2. Hardwood Flooring Grades?

Hardwood grading can get very technical. I won't go really deep into the grading criteria and definitions here, but if you really want to know more about them you can read my blog about hardwood grading here:

When we talk about grades of prefinished hardwood flooring there are 4 common grades: Standard, or first quality, Builder, Cabin, and Utility.

Oddly enough, Standard is the hardest one to define. Unfinished grading rules are set by an industry group. Prefinished grading rules are set and maintained by each manufacturer because they choose what unfinished wood is acceptable for a prefinished collection. This is because each manufacturer is responsible for making and marketing his products as efficiently as possible. If Manufacturer A wants to make a standard floor that uses nothing but Select Red Oak, then he is welcome to do that, while Manufacturer B wants to make a standard product using all #1 Common lumber. He too is free to do what he wishes. Both products are first quality, but vastly different in their appearance. And value.

So how do we sell these products? We have to use samples most of the time, but we prefer to always show an open box, either in a photo or in our showroom. I cannot stress how important it is to see what an open box of hardwood flooring looks like. We send out a lot of free samples, but the only thing a sample is good for is to see the color of a stain. And with engineered you can tell the quality of construction. But because a wood floor is a mosaic, using one piece of wood to see what your floor will look like is like picking a piece of carrot out of a salad and assuming that that is what a salad will taste like.

Standard grades will always have a long warranty, which frankly doesn't matter much. If I can get a warranty that covers a floor until the day after installation I would be happy. There is almost nothing that can legitimately go wrong after a floor is installed. Almost all defects should be caught during installation.

Standard graded floors will also have the longest average board length. They should contain no manufacturing defects, and a minimal amount of natural defects. However, all grades of hardwood flooring are allowed to have up to 5% of flooring in the box that does not match the grade. This is a loophole for a manufacturer to avoid the responsibility of sending out an occasional bad board, as they can blame the installer if a bad board gets installed. "It is the responsibility of the flooring installer to make the final decision regarding any defective boards." Not really fair, but that is how the industry works.

Builder grade is usually a standard batch of flooring that was downgraded due to an aesthetic issue such as being off-gloss of it missed a dye lot. That means maybe a floor was supposed to be a 40% gloss but because of a humidity change in the factory or something else, the gloss came out to be 50%. That run of flooring cannot be mixed with the previously made lot so instead of downgrading it to seconds the market it as Builder grade. I think our Builder grade floors are the best value in the store, as they are the same as Standard but at half the price.

Cabin grade floors will contain a lot more natural defects, as well as have a short average board length. Being as this is the lowest grade that some companies make it can contain manufacturing defects as well. In the low-graded floors like Cabin and Utility, the stained SKUs will look much cleaner than the light- or natural-finished floors. That is because the low grades will have a  great deal of color contrast between the different boards. Floors that are stained will cover up most of that contrast.

Utility grade is the lowest of the grades, and can contain any type of defect, but it has to be 90% usable. That just means that it has to have a finished face and at least half of the tongue!  Utility grade can be a great value, but don't buy 20-30% waste thinking you can cull it and get a better floor. If you want a better floor, buy a better floor. Otherwise you will just waste your money buying wood that you will have to burn or haul off.

3. Picking The Right Species Type For Your Home?

Here is the fun part! When choosing the other attributes we have to be rational. When it comes time to pick out a species we can be a little emotional. What do you like? Maybe the even coloration and straight grain of a Hard Maple? Or the unpredictable peaks and valleys of a Red Oak? The neutral color of a White Oak? Or maybe you wanna throw discretion to the winds and install a Hickory floor? Each species has it's own characteristics. Finding the one that makes you happy is your job!

• Hard Maple (Janka 1450): Straight grain and consistent color. Perfect for modern looks. Maple Info link
• Red Oak (Janka 1260): The gold standard for value and versatility. Red Oak Info link
• White Oak (Janka 1320): Highly popular and neutral-toned. White Oak Info link
• Hickory (Janka 1820): Hickory is the hardest domestic species commonly used. If you have a busy house, you might be asking, is hickory good for flooring? It is incredibly durable, but because it is so dense, it is sensitive to moisture. We don't recommend 5" wide Hickory planks unless you keep your home's humidity under 60%. Hickory Info link

Right now we are offering what is possibly the best deal on a Standard grade solid wood floor that we have ever offered and it happens to be the Hickory, which is usually much more expensive. Our American Home Collection from Bruce is offered in 2 colors, Natural and Prairie, and 2 widths, 2 1/4" strip and 3 1/4" plank. The best part? They are priced at $2.49 and $3.19 per square foot, respectively. To the best of my knowledge there is not another first quality sold hardwood in the USA at this price.

4. Saving Money When Choosing A Hardwood Floor Is A Big Deal

You want to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to affordable hardwood floors, and we completely understand! That’s why we strive to provide quality wood flooring for our customers that won’t break the bank. You want a quality product at a good price, and we can offer you the best prices around! All of our hardwoods are made locally in the United States which cuts down on shipping costs so that we can give you a better deal on the affordable hardwood floors you have chosen.

You want the look you are envisioning,at the price you can afford, when you pick hardwood floors. We get that, and we want to help you get the perfect look for your house! To get started, check out our inventory of hardwood floors.We can’t wait to help you make your home look even better with our affordable hardwood floors!