A Guide To Wood Flooring Colours And Grades

Solid wood and engineered wood floors are made out of real wood, which makes them both natural products, even though the composition of the different floorboards follows a different concept. No matter if man-made or not, as completely natural wooden products, both of them possess certain variations in their natural colours and textures. Even though all real wood floors can be painted, coloured or treated another way, for the natural colour and texture to be changed completely, many prefer the maximum natural look of wood. This is why you can expect very unique and beautiful colouring, texture, and pattern.

The wood’s tint, as well as the number of knots and sapwood naturally, vary depending on its species, grade, and even the batch. Many people prefer wooden flooring exactly because of its one-of-a-kind appearance, which comes thanks to its natural beauty and varying natural patterns. There are no two hardwood floors that look the same! The wood’s grade is the element that is the most impactful (as far as colour variants are concerned), but it also impacts the number of knots, sap content, and others. The wood’s grades are used to represent a system of four main categories the materials are divided into, depending on the appearance and the above-mentioned elements.

Difference between the wood flooring grades

As already mentioned in this article, wood grades are normally divided into four main categories, and they are as follows: prime (also known as AB), select (ABC), natural (ABCD) and rustic (or CD). Reading the names, you might think that the different grades are somehow related to the quality of the wood, but this is not the truth. The different grades are linked to the natural wood pattern, sapwood, and many knots. So if you like the appearance of rustic wood, for example, this does not mean that you don’t have to buy it, because it is the lowest quality. As you may guess, prime grade wood is the one with the least knots, sapwood and variation of colour, which gives your floor a very clean, simple and effortless look, while rustic wood has the most knots, sapwood and colour variation, which adds a lot of character and distinctiveness to the appearance of your floor.

Different grades and wood colour

Speaking of the wood’s colour, when it comes to prime grade, it has the most consistent colouring. The colour variation is down to the minimum. Surprisingly, rustic grade offers the most of it, which ensures a very distinctive and eye-catching appearance. However, no matter the grade, one thing you should remember is that wood is naturally variable. Different wood species offer a different amount of colour variation in the different grade categories. As an example, tigerwood is a wood species with a noticeable variation in all four grade categories. The amount of colour diversity would depend on your preferences and the exact interior style and atmosphere you want to achieve.

Sap

As you may have already guessed, the amount of sap increases as you go down the scale of grades. Sapwood is the youngest part of the tree and it is located on the outside of the trunk. The wood that has less sap is usually located around the heart of the trunk, since the more the tree ages, the less sap it has. The higher the wood flooring grades are, the less sap they would have with prime grade having the lowest, and rustic grades having the highest amount.

Knots

Knots are an integral part of the appearance of natural wood. However, their number and size depend on the wood’s grade. The more knots there are on your floorboards, the lower its grade is. Rustic grade timber has the highest knot count, while prime grade distinguishes itself by having the most uniform and “clean” look. Some people tend to think that prime grade does not have knots at all, but this is not the truth. Prime-grade wood does indeed have knots, but they are usually very little, and not that noticeable. With select grade you can expect knots with a size roughly around 20mm, natural grade’s knots are around 30mm in size, while rustic grade provides the floorboards with knots with a size of up to 35mm.