Oak Flooring Grades

Oak wood is an excellent hardwood flooring grade due to its inherent properties. Oak wood both red or white are quite sturdy, water-resistant, stiff, dense and has coarse grains. This wood thus, is an excellent hardwood flooring material as it is durable, magnificent to have in the house, charismatic, provides a great feel to the room and also to you bare feet. On the whole it's a great flooring material. There are three primary variants of oak wood that are used in hardwood flooring, these include White oak, Northern red oak and Tasmanian oak. Out of these the white and red oak are used commonly for flooring. There are individual characteristics of each variant of wood such as the hardness scale which is determined by the Janka hardness test hardness scale. As per the scale, Northern red oak is the softest or rather the lest hard with a hardness grade of 1290, then comes the Tasmanian oak which has a hardness of 1350, and lastly, the White oak which is the hardest with a grade of 1360.

Parameters of Grading Oak Flooring

There are several parameters of wood which are taken into consideration while grading it. The National Wood Flooring Association (NOFMA) has defined certain grades and wood flooring types which are conventionally adopted in the United States. The common parameter on the basis of which the grade of the flooring is decided include:

• The first important parameter on the basis of which the grade is decided is the color and grain. The plan of flooring is cut out from a tree trunk. The innermost wood, which has a very dark color and dense and sturdy properties is known as the heartwood. This wood is dense and the best by the virtue of strength and durability. In contrast with the outer wood, which is known as the sapwood is not that dense and strong and is also not that costly. On the whole wood which is towards the center of the trunk is expensive than the wood that goes on out towards the bark of the tree.
• The cut of the wood plank also pays a crucial role in the determination of the grade of the wood. The three common methods in which the wood plank is sawn off from the trunk include, tangent to the center, perpendicular or quarter to the center and lastly through the center. Every saw has a specialty of its own. The strength of every cut differs and the center sawed wood is the costliest as it has the maximum strength.
• The last factor that determines the grade is the age and composition of the grain of wood. A healthy and old tree which has been well weathered usually has the best grain and composition.

There are several other different characteristics of the wood and trunk with the help of which the quality, strength and the overall grade of hardwood flooring wood can be assessed.

NOFMA Oak Flooring Grades

Now the National Wood Flooring Association has provided the following grades for oak wood flooring. The classifications of the grades of oak flooring woods is done based upon the level of finishing or tuning.

Unfinished Wood/Flooring
Unfinished wood is the cheapest and the least treated of all the wood flooring. Such a kind of wood plank is merely sawed off from the trunk. No treatment such as a paint, seasoning and staining is done on such woods. There are 4 grades of unfinished wood.

• Clear: The clear grade of wood is made up of heartwood and is defect free, though there are some minor imperfections. It has a smooth and disturbed and continuous surface and length. This wood has a dark grain with a highly durable structure.
• Select: Select is one grade lower than clear and has a bit lighter and a bit softer wood surface. Though there are no major flaws in this grade, there are some knots and cathedrals and color differences in the structure.
• No. 1 and 2 Common Wood: The number of knots and lightness of shade and strength of this grade is higher than the first two and as the quality of the wood grain and fiber diminishes, the grade goes on progressing such as 1,2,3, etc.

Finished Wood/Flooring
The prefinished hardwood flooring is principally based upon the quality and depth of the finished wood flooring planks.

• The first grade for factory finished goods is the Prime finish. This is the best grade for finishing and the wood also has most consistent grain and the most even surface. A prime finished wood plank has the best cured in-formalities in the wood grain. This plan is usually 3 ¼' long and is made from clear and select unfinished wood grades.
• The second is the Standard pre finished wood grade, which is made form Select grade wood, No 1 and No 2. Seasonal blemishes small irregularities and inconsistencies in the wood grain texture are observed.
• The last grade is the Tarven finished wood. Some unfilled characteristics, inconsistencies and small blemishes are found in this wood variant.

The type of grade of wood that is recommended for use depends upon several factors such as climate, the size of your room and also the finishing that is to be done after you install the flooring.