Hardwood Flooring Species

Selecting the right hardwood for your flooring home improvement project can be a complex decision. Wood has a number of components that make each species different. Some are difficult to cut, others are difficult to finish, while others have grain and color variations that make matching the boards very difficult. The following tables should aid you in making the right decision for your application and home improvement project.

The information for each hardwood flooring species is divided into four tables:

Table 1A

Color, Grain, Variance

Table 1B

Stability, Origin, Availability

Table 2A

Milling, Sanding, Nailing

Table 2B

Finishing, Comments

Where a number is used within a category: 1 is poor or low and 5 is excellent or high.

Table 1A

Species	Appearance
Species	Color	Grain	Variance
Ash White	Heartwood - light tan to dark brown. Sapwood - dirty white.	Generally straight, open grain with some wavy figuring. Plain-sawn boards will have a strong grain contrast.	Moderate to high color variations between boards.
Bamboo	Typically available in light (manila/yellow tones) or dark (tannish brown) shades. Colors vary between manufacturers.	Distinctive grain pattern shows nodes from the bamboo stalks.	Available either horizontally or vertically laminated. Horizontal construction tends to show nodes more prominently.
Beech	Heartwood - reddish brown. Sapwood - pale white.	Closed, straight grain; fine with a uniform texture.	Moderate to high color variations between boards.
Birch	Heartwood - light reddish brown tinged with red. Sapwood - creamy yellow pale.	Closed, straight grain even texture. Some boards may display a curved pattern in grain.	Significant color variation between boards.
Brazilian Cherry	Sapwood is gray-white; heartwood is salmon red to orange-brown when fresh, and becomes russet or reddish brown when seasoned; often marked with dark streaks.	Mostly interlocked; texture is medium to rather coarse.	Moderate to high color variation.
Cherry (Black)	Heartwood - light to dark reddish brown. Sapwood - pale to light brown with pinkish tone.	Fine, wavy, uniform texture. Flake pattern on true quarter-sawn surfaces. Satin texture with resin pockets.	Significant color variation between boards.
Cypress (Australian)	Cream-colored sapwood; heartwood is honey-gold to brown with darker knots throughout.	Closed.	High degree of color variability.
Douglas Fir	Heartwood - yellowish tan to light brown. Sapwood is tan to white.	Normally straight, with occasional wavy or spiral texture. Nearly all fir flooring is vertical-grain or rift sawn clear-grade material.	Wood varies greatly in weight and strength. Young trees of moderate to rapid growth have reddish heartwood and are called red fir. The narrow-ringed wood of old trees may be yellowish-brown and is known as yellow fir.
Hickory	Hickory heartwood is tan or reddish; sapwood is white to cream, with fine brown lines.	Hickory is closed, with moderate definition; somewhat rough-textured.	There are often pronounced differentiations in color between spring wood and summer wood.
Mahogany (Santos)	Dark reddish brown.	Striped figuring in quarter-sawn selections; texture is even and very fine. Moderate color variation.	Moderate color variation.
Maple Sugar/Hard	Heartwood is creamy white to light reddish brown. Sapwood is pale to creamy white.	Closed, subdued grain, with medium figuring and uniform texture. Occasionally shows quilted, curly or bird's-eye figuring. Figured boards often culled during grading and sold at a premium.	Black maple is also hard; other species are classified as soft.
Merbau	Heartwood is yellowish to orange-brown when freshly cut, turning brown or dark red-brown upon exposure.	Straight to interlocked or wavy; coarse texture.	Moderate to high variation in color.
Mesquite	Light brown to dark reddish brown.	High in character, with ingrown bark and mineral streaks. Most commonly used in flooring as end-grain block, which has small irregular cracks radiating across the grain.	One grade; moderate color variations.
Oak (Red)	Heartwood and sapwood are similar, with sapwood lighter in color; most pieces have a reddish tone. Slightly redder than white oak.	Open, slightly coarser (more porous) than white oak. Plain-sawn boards have a plumed or flared grain appearance; rift-sawn has a tighter grain pattern, low figuring; quarter-sawn has a flake pattern, sometimes called tiger rays or butterflies.	Over 200 subspecies in North America; great variation in color and grain, depending on the origin of the wood and differences in growing seasons. Northern, Southern and Appalachian red oak can all be divided into upland and lowland species.
Oak (White)	Heartwood is light brown; some boards may have a pinkish tint or a slight grayish cast. Sapwood is white to cream.	Open, with longer rays than red oak. Occasional crotches, swirls and burls. Plain-sawn boards have a plumed or flared grain appearance; rift-sawn has a tighter grain pattern, low figuring; quarter-sawn has a flake pattern, sometimes called tiger rays or butt	Considerable variation among boards in color and grain texture, but variations not as pronounced as in red oak.
Pecan	Pecan heartwood is reddish brown with dark brown stripes; sapwood is white or creamy white with pinkish tones.	Pecan is open, occasionally wavy or irregular.	There are often pronounced differentiations in color between spring wood and summer wood. The sapwood is usually graded higher than darker heartwood.
Pine, Antique Heart	Heartwood is yellow after cutting & turns deep pinkish tan to warm reddish brown within weeks due to high resin content. Sapwood remains yellow, with occasional blue-black sap stain.	Dense, with high figuring. Plain-sawn is swirled; rift- or quarter-sawn is primarily pinstriped. Curly or burl grain is rare.	Moderate color variation.
Pine, Southern Yellow	Heartwood varies from light yellow/orange to reddish brown or yellowish brown; sapwood is light tan to yellowish white.	Closed, with high figuring; patterns range from clear to knotty.	Longleaf pine, shortleaf pine, loblolly pine, slash pine. All have many of the same characteristics as Douglas fir.
Teak, Brazilian	At first, red-brown or purple-brown with light yellow-brown or purple streaks; after exposure, uniform light brown or yellow-brown.	Fine texture, interlocked, waxy or oily feel.	Dramatic shading that mellows with age.
Walnut, American Black	Heartwood ranges from a deep, rich dark brown to a purplish black. Sapwood is nearly white to tan. Difference between heartwood and sapwood color is great; some flooring manufacturers steam lumber to bleed the darker heartwood color into the sapwood.	Mostly straight and open, but some boards have burled or curly grain. Arrangements of pores is similar to hickories and persimmon, but pores are smaller in size.	Great variety of color and figure within species, as well as variation in color among boards, especially in lower grades and from material that isn't steamed prior to kiln-drying.
Wenge	Heartwood is yellow-brown when freshly cut, turning dark-brown to almost black with alternate layers of light and dark. Sapwood is yellowish-white and clearly demarcated from heartwood.	Straight when quarter-sawn; coarse texture.	Moderate variations in color.

Table 1B

Species	Stability	Origin	Availability
Ash White	4	North America	5
Bamboo	Note 3	Asia	5
Beech	2	North America	3
Birch	3	North America	3
Brazilian Cherry	3	South America	5
Cherry (Black)	3	North America	5
Cypress (Australian)	5	Australia	5
Douglas Fir	4	North America	5
Hickory	3	North America	5
Mahogany (Santos)	4	South America	5
Maple Sugar/Hard	3	North America	5
Mesquite	5	North America	1
Merbau	5	Southeast Asia	3
Oak (Red)	3	North America	5
Oak (White)	3	North America	5
Pecan	3	North America	5
Pine, Antique Heart	Note 1	Note 2	1
Pine, Southern Yellow	4	North America	5
Teak, Brazilian	3	South America	3
Walnut, American Black	3	North America	3
Wenge	5	Africa	1

Note 1: Values can vary greatly due to the variety of species and ages used.

Note 2: North America. Often recovered from structural timers in pre-1900 warehouses & factories, or as sunken logs from river bottoms.

Note 3: Engineered construction

Table 1A

Species

Appearance

Color

Grain

Variance

Table 1B

Species

Stability

Origin

Availability