Grade Of Wood Flooring

In our last blog post we explained about wood flooring types, which is your first consideration when it comes to choosing wood flooring. In this post, we are going to talk about flooring grade and finish, two more considerations to take into account.

Grade Of Wood Flooring:

Wood flooring grade will determine the decorative side of the wood. The higher the grade is, the less colour variations there are between the flooring planks and limited number of infrequent knots. Do not mistake grade for ‘quality’, is it merely the visual side of each plank. Whether you choose engineered or solid floors, each comes in different grades.

Prime Grade – As the name will suggest, prime is the highest grade. The floor will display minimal colour variation between the boards and minimal small knots.

Select Grade – Each board will display the odd infrequent knots, some colour variations and mineral streaking to be expected in select grade.

Natural Grade – The natural grade boards will display scattering of sound knots and some variation between the boards. Natural grade has a lot of character that helps explain its popularity.

Rustic Grade – The most popular grade due to its price and due to the ageing look of the board. Each board will display heavy grain markings and figuring, frequent colour variations and frequent knots of varying sizes.

Finish Of The Wood:

After deciding between solid or engineered floors and between the various grades, comes the final stage of deciding on the finish of the wood. The finish plays an important part in the visual side of the floor, but also plays an important part in protecting the floor from minor damage. We will cover wood flooring coatings and finish in more detail later on.