Prime grade or AB-grade wood flooring is the highest quality of hardwood flooring that you can find. The wood in this grade has been carefully selected, and it features a minimal amount of natural defects like knots, sapwood, and grain irregularities.
Apply “The Rule of Three” to Home Flooring
This rule says you should use three flooring types at maximum throughout the whole home. For example, you might use hardwood in public areas of the house, except the kitchen and bathroom, where you use vinyl linoleum.
3 common oak. Also known as cabin grade is a great budget-friendly material with very high degree of color variation from board to board, large knots, open hole knots, as well as pocket knots. Large mineral streaks throughout the material. Some boards will have broken tongue & grooves, cracks on the ends.
There is very little difference in cost between 1/2″ thick and 3/4″ thick because you start with the same raw material when you make the flooring. So making a floor 1/2″ thick actually produces more waste than making a floor that is 3/4″ thick. Engineered flooring also comes in a variety of thicknesses.
Builder grade flooring is a mix of 70% Natural and 30% Rustic grades.
Put a mark on the board at the 3 feet point. Now, measure the adjacent board from the same corner to 4 feet and put a mark there. Then, measure the distance between the two marks. If it is 5 feet, then you have a perfectly square corner.
While mixing and matching different types of flooring is a perfect way to add variety to your home's interior design, it's crucial to limit the number of different types of flooring that you use. Having too many types of flooring in one space can make the room feel cluttered and overwhelming.
The key to staggering the seams of your floor is mixing up the lengths of the planks you use. This is easy if your wood flooring comes in different sizes. If it doesn't, you'll have to cut planks to create your stagger effect. The first board of each row will set the foundation for your stagger pattern.
White oak is one of the more durable domestic hardwoods available. On the Janka scale, white oak is rated at 1360, behind only hickory and maple. But durability is more than just hardness. White oak accepts finishes and stains quite well, which further protect it.
Like #1 Common Grade, #2 Common Grade continues to move away from the uniform appearance of Clear and Select grades. It has more knots, wormholes, and other natural character markings than the #1 Common Grade. Grain swirls and mineral streaks also become darker and more prominent in the #2 Common Grade.
Our list of 10 types of wood is in order starting with the most popular – Oak. Following is Maple and Hickory. These are the top 3. The next 2, American Cherry & Walnut are also quite popular.
For example, Brazilian Walnut owns a Janka rating of 3684. That makes it an exceptionally durable material for hardwood flooring. Brazilian Cherry is another durable exotic species with a 2350 rating. Among domestic hardwood species, hickory tops the charts with an 1820 rating.
Bruce hardwood flooring at Lowe's is available in three grades: select, premium and common. Each grade has its own select features, such as knots, colors and grain variations. Plus, each hardwood species incorporates these three hardwood grades.
Typically, solid hardwood flooring is between 5/16 and ¾ inches thick. Those are pretty standard thicknesses that serve most needs. Engineered hardwood can come in different thicknesses but generally, it's about the same offerings as solid hardwood.
Wooden flooring is a type of flooring that never goes out of style. After all, the planks bring nature's beauty to the inside of your home. That being said, thousands of wood species can be used to create hardwood floors.
Choosing the same flooring for all the rooms creates a unified and harmonious environment, and creates a visual effect that expands its dimensions, which allows us to better plan a reform. However, in open-plan dwellings such as studios or lofts, the flooring can help to delimit areas in an organic way.
Sanding your hardwood floors can restore their beauty, remove stains, scratches, and imperfections, and provide a fresh, clean slate for staining and sealing. The result is a beautifully refreshed floor that can significantly enhance the look of your home.
#1 Common Grade - Character Grade:
#1 Common grade hardwood flooring is the most popular and widely used grade in the US market. This grade of wood has more visible knots, mineral streaks, and color variations than clear or select grade, giving it a more natural and slightly rustic look.
“Higher quality choices are more current looking, and the materials used are better quality, leading to a longer life expectancy.” Agent Jeremy Kamm of Coldwell Banker Warburg describes builder-grade as “lower but passable quality.” “Builder-grade refers to the most simplistic of materials,” he says.