Hardwood flooring is the preferred type of flooring for homes in the New York as well as Northeast and Mid Atlantic areas. Below outlines the most popular flooring species that are grown in the United States.
Oak flooring - Oak is by far the most popular hardwood flooring in the US. Since it's abundant and locally grown, it's generally less expensive. It's easy to sand and refinish with different stain colors, and it's currently found in most homes...so when it's time to add hardwood to additional areas, most people would like to match what they already have since it will make their space look larger and more integrated. Oak has a traditional look and tends to work with most decor styles.
Oak flooring is very practical. First, it is economical and readily available. Second, due to its strong graining, oak helps hide the scratches and dents better than most other hardwoods. Third, oak absorbs stain very well, so it is easy to change the color when you are refinishing the floors. You can go from very light (natural) to very dark (ebony) and everywhere in between - including red tones and brown tones. There are even options now to do specialized gray stains as well as unusual water colored stains (e.g. blues, greens, burgundy, etc.). And, of course, the floors can be refinished and restained many times, so if you want to change your color scheme after 7-10 yrs (or if a new buyers has different taste preferences), oak is easy to sand and refinish. These two pictures show the range of oak colors from light to dark.
Above is a sampling of the minwax stain colors to show the diversity of colors you can stain oak.
There are actually 2 main species of oak - red oak and white oak flooring, and you can read more about the difference here: What's the difference between red oak and white oak?
On the Janka hardness scale, red oak is 1290 and white oak is 1360.
Maple Hardwood flooring
Maple hardwood: Maple flooring is also very popular. Maple is slightly harder than oak (1450 on the Janka scale) and it's a little bit lighter. The graining is smoother than oak. Oak has a more traditional look; maple looks a bit more modern and northern European. Most maples are grown in the US and Canada.
Maple is a closed pore wood, so it is rather challenging to stain it as it doesn't absorb the stain as well. Typically, you add a conditioner to open up the pores, but nonetheless, when maple is stained, it often looks blotchy. This is a characteristic is a factor or the wood, and some people prefer this look. Maple absorbs stains differently than oak, and some of the dark stains appear gray for a very stylish and contemporary look.
Maple tends to darken and yellow more than oak. Usually, when refinishing maple on-site and going natural, it's usually best to to use a water based polyurethane (rather than oil based). While oil based poly is stronger/lasts longer, the reaction on maple turns very yellow over time, and many customers are not happy with this look.
Maple is more expensive than oak, and the pricing on maple can vary greatly depending on the grade. Clear is the most expensive grade and is the lightest and most consistent in color. There is also select grade and then varying combos going all the way down to cabin grade. The lower the grade, the more color variation and knots.
maple character grade maple with gray stain
Hickory
Hickory - Hickory is one of the hardest American hardwood species. It's a 1820 on the janka hardness scale, and this makes it a great option for busy households and families with dogs as it seems to hold up better. The graining is strong (and similar to oak), and for this reason, it also tends to hide scratches and dents better.
Hickory has a lot of color variation, so it has a more rustic look. This can be a bit polarizing as some love the rustic and natural look, while other prefer a more traditional look. Hickory is generally more expensive than oak flooring.
Birch
Birch - Birch hardwood is also native to the US. It looks similar to maple, but it's a big softer than oak and maple. It's a 1260 on the hardness scale. Birch is often mistaken for maple and it does stain similar (it has the same challenges that maple does when it comes to staining). Birch is often used as a filler wood in engineered hardwoods and some plywoods.
American Cherry
American Cherry- American cherry is a beautiful wood that reddens with age. While it's beautiful (and expensive), it's rather soft and dents rather easily. It's only 995 on the Janka hardness scale. Many get Brazilian Cherry and American Cherry mixed up. Brazilian cherry is rather hard and is darker/redder. Both American Cherry and Brazilian Cherry have a lot of color variation and they tend to darken and redden over time. They are much more photo-sensitive than oak (sensitive to both natural and artificial light). Be careful with area rugs - it's ideal to wait 6 months before putting these on top of American Cherry. Please note that American Cherry gets redder than the sample at the right shows.
American Walnut
American Walnut - This is another US hardwood, that is beautiful and tends to be more expensive. Sometimes, it's called Black walnut, or simply walnut. Like American Cherry, American Walnut is rather soft - only 1010 on the hardness scale and many get this confused with Brazilian Walnut which is one of the hardest hardwoods. American Walnut is also very photosensitive, and often gets lighter over time. Be careful with area rugs - it's ideal to wait 6 months before putting these on top of American Walnut. Walnut is often used in older, more traditional homes of Westchester that have borders.
Douglas Fir
Douglas Fir - This is a beautiful soft wood. It's a type of pine, and it's also known as Oregon Pine or Douglas Spruce. On the janka hardness scale, Douglas Fir is only 660, so it dents very easily. Douglas fir beautiful with radiant gold an red undertones, and it's usually with a vertical grain. We typically find Douglas fir in older homes in Westchester County, especially on higher floors. They've often been there for 80-100+ years.
Douglas fir is grown in the coast regions of the US, especially the Western US from California to Washington. They are also grown as far up the coast as British Columbia. It used to be a very popular wood because it yields more timber than any other North American tree. In older homes, most of the planks are very long, and longer than what is typically milled today.
Douglas fir tends to darken a bit more than oak, and because the wood has often been in place for over 100 years. When repair is needed, it's a bit more challenging as fir is cut in different widths nowadays (so it needs to be custom milled down to size) and the new wood is lighter as it hasn't aged for 100+ years.
If you have Douglas Fir or other types of pine flooring in your home, you may find this article helpful: Can you refinish pine flooring?
Heart Pine
Heart pine - Heart pine is the hardest of the pines, and it's hardness (1225) approaches that of red oak (1290). Heart pine has a lot of character and knots, and it tends to come in long and often wide planks for a rustic look. While it is slightly softer than oak, the character nature of the knots and grain helps hide the dents. This is a very stylized and rustic look. The floor has a lot of beautiful character. Because of that, it can be the center focal point, and it's important to make sure the room does not have too many other distractions in it so that it doesn't look too busy.
There are many other species of hardwood flooring, but these are the most popular American hardwoods. They are all locally grown in the United States.
Debbie Gartner aka The Flooring Girl
