When you decide to install hardwood floors, you have a host of decisions to make. Colors, textures, finishes, hardwood species, and so much more options. Among the selections you have includes the grading. While you are shopping around, you are likely to notice the different grades of hardwood flooring. To help you better understand your options, we at Mike’s Custom Flooring would like to discuss the hardwood floor grading options.

What are Hardwood Flooring Grades?

As a seemingly daunting task, shopping for hardwood flooring for your home can be challenging. It is important to do your research, as you do with any other investment. Once you begin your research and shopping around for the right fit, you are likely to see that there are different grades of hardwood flooring. Keep in mind that the quality of the product is not necessarily reflected in a particular grade the floor has. Manufacturers can know how strong the wood’s natural characteristics are in the flooring and in addition to how much the color varies from board to board. Below are a few examples of the different grades.

Clear Hardwood Floor Grade

There will be very little character marks on the grade flooring. Throughout the entire floor, the color will be very uniform. It is usually far easier to get engineered clear grade hardwood since solid hardwood can be somewhat hard to find in clear grade.

Select Grade of Hardwood Floors

There are very few imperfections on select grade, unlike clear grade. There tends to be some more variation in the color of the board since the difference is that select grade is milled from heartwood and sapwood. Within the grain of the wood, there may be slightly more variation as well. Being that it usually accounts for no more than 15% of a given tree, select grade hardwood is still not all that easy to come by and is very rare. Because of the rarity, manufacturers will frequently bundle clear grade and select grade together.

#1 Common Grade

The wood’s characteristics really shine through with this grade. Although the prominence of these characteristics will still be pretty limited, you will notice swirls, knots, and streaks throughout these boards. Because the natural wood characteristics tend to mask the small dings and scratches that are common in a lively home, the common grades of hardwood are usually best for high traffic areas and homes with pets and/or children.

#2 Common Grade

Though very similar to #1 common grade, #2 common grade the wood’s natural characteristics is far more dominant. This makes this grade wood a beautiful focal point of any room with the abundance of natural character marks and variation in color.

Cabin Grade Hardwood Flooring

If you can picture a rustic theme, you can see the cabin grade. By the natural characteristics of the wood, the cabin grade hardwood is heavily marked. Cabin grade wood flooring is made extremely charming from the very seldom of any consistency in grain or pattern.

Hardwood Flooring Installation & More in Charles Town & Eastern Panhandle of Berkeley & Jefferson Counties in WV | Winchester & Frederick County | Round Hill & Loudoun County | Berryville & Clarke County | Herndon & Fairfax County VA

Ultimately, no matter which wood floor type, grade, or other details, you want a professional from Mike’s Custom Flooring performing the installation to ensure high-quality results. Call us today to get started!