Have you ever encountered gorgeous hardwood flooring or browsed through the floating wood floor aisles at your local building supply store wondering how hardwood flooring is made?
Quality wood floors undergo a rigid selection and preparation process that provides superior appearance and durability for years to come.
Solid Hardwood Plank Selection
Hardwood flooring is made from solid pieces or planks of wood, cut from various species of trees using one of three methods:
- Plain-sawn – provides more variations than other methods
- Quarter-sawn – logs are cut into quarters before planks are cut for flooring
- Rift-sawn – logs are cut at different angles before planks are cut for flooring
Rift-sawn tends to be the rarest cut and provides premium strength for a premium price. Most widely available hardwood brands are plain or quarter-sawn and offer excellent levels of durability over years of use. Once the wood flooring planks have been cut (generally 1 inch thick and 3 inches wide) they are graded for appearance.
Engineered Wood Floor Selection
Engineered wood flooring is made from solid hardwood veneer adhered to a plywood core. Selecting materials for the plywood core is fairly straightforward, but hardwood veneer selection is essential to appearance, quality, and dependability.
Thicker veneers provide greater flexibility and a longer lifespan but also carry a higher price tag. You’ll find a wide range of thicknesses available, from 0.6mm (lower quality, shorter lifespan) to 6mm (high quality, lifespan similar to hardwood).
Hardwood veneer comes from the tree, much like solid hardwood. But the veneer can be cut from the log in several different ways, including:
- Dry Sawn – logs are dried out slowly at low levels of humidity to retain quality and reduce cupping before the veneer is sliced directly from the log
- Rotary Peel – logs are boiled down for preparation before the outer edge is peeled away using a specialty saw – produces a grain similar to plywood.
- Sliced Peel – logs are boiled down for preparation before the veneer is cut directly from the log (similar to dry sawn)
Dry-sawn hardwood veneers experience less cupping and warping, but this method generates the most waste and the lowest yields. Rotary peel veneers, on the other hand, are less stable than dry-sawn veneers and often have irregular grain patterns. Sliced peel veneers offer a middle ground, with a relatively strong grain structure (similar to dry-sawn), but they can still warp and cup-like rotary peel veneers. Before being applied to the plywood core, veneers go through a grading process.
In the next post, we will cover the grading and milling of hardwood planks and veneers, continuing our exploration of how hardwood flooring is made.