Prime grade or AB-grade wood flooring is the highest quality of hardwood flooring that you can find. The wood in this grade has been carefully selected, and it features a minimal amount of natural defects like knots, sapwood, and grain irregularities.
The grading of solid hardwood flooring revolves around Australian Standard AS 2796 - Timber – Hardwood – Sawn and milled products. Grading rules have two specific purposes. The first is to address aspects of strength and serviceability when flooring is to be laid in structural applications such as over joists.
Look for a High-Quality Core
In fact, the plywood core is one of the key factors in determining the quality of wood flooring. The highest quality hardwood flooring uses a multi-layer hardwood ply. Lower quality flooring uses block board, which tends to be less stable and less reliable.
Grade 3. Grade 3 floors have very noticeable color variations and prominent character traits like knots, worm holes, and open checks.
Engineered wood is considered the most durable type of hardwood floor because it is made up of several layers of wood, plywood, and other materials that are pressed and glued together. This makes it much more resistant to moisture, temperature changes, and even denting or scratching.
An engineered hardwood flooring like Nydree's Hardwoof will resist dog scratches and has a finish that goes beyond the floor's surface. This finish is paired with a top layer that is 1/10-inch thick and infused with liquid acrylic to make it longer wearing and less prone to abrasions.
Tile flooring made from har material such as ceramic or porcelain are among the most scratch-resistant flooring you can find. Tile flooring is also one of the most versatile, customizable flooring options with a multitude of shapes, sizes, colors, patterns and styles.
A 3mm wear layer can withstand three to four refinishes and has an estimated lifespan of 40 to 50 years. The thickest available wear layer, 4mm, can take three to four refinishes and has an estimated lifespan of anywhere between 50 to 100 years as a result.
#2 Common or Rustic grade is very rustic in appearance, with great variation in color from board to board, visible mineral streaks, prominent, larger-sized knots and worm holes, and lots of shorter boards.
Lighter colors help brighten up a room, making it feel bigger. The amount of natural light in the room: If you love natural light, and your home gets plenty of it, you may want to opt for a darker wood floor as it tends to fade less quickly than lighter flooring options.
While the current popular choice in flooring tends to be wide plank light wood floors like white oak, there is something timeless and traditional about the warmth and depth of darker hardwood floors. They are the perfect contrast to lighter colors elsewhere in your home.
If you're shopping for solid hardwood floors, you'll find three thicknesses of boards. The best and most common thickness of solid hardwood is 3/4 inch (19 mm).
Spotted Gum
As one of the most common Australian hardwoods, it is highly recognised and valued. It occurs in a broad range of colours from maroons to straw to light brown tones.
There are 3 primary measures that you can customise: Total Thickness – thickness of the entire board, generally between 12 and 21mm. Thicker floorboards feel more solid underfoot. Timber Veneer Thickness – the layer of real timber on the surface, generally between 0.6mm and 6mm.
6-mm can provide a host of problems, from poor acoustics to low impact resistance and visible subfloor imperfections. That improves as thickness increases, with 8-mm being commonly selected for durability, comfort, and affordability.
Premium Grade/Clear Grade
are uniform in appearance with natural color variations per each species. There is a very small number of character marks and little if any discoloration.
Quality is affected by the number and/or size of characteristics and the way these characteristics affect strength and appearance. Most lumber used in house building is a No. 2 grade or better.
The most expensive and highest quality lumber, FAS is characterized as boards wider than 6″ and longer than 8′. To qualify as FAS grade lumber, boards must yield 83-⅓ percent clear face cuttings on both sides of the board.
In short, when it comes to engineered hardwood flooring, the best standard thickness option ranges between 3/4 and 5/8 of an inch. Engineered hardwood features a “wear” layer and a “backing” layer beneath it. So the wear layer can measure out to 3/16 of an inch, and the backing layer can measure to 9- or 11-ply.
The 4mm wear layer is a thickness used with high quality engineered hardwood flooring. Engineered flooring's wear layer can be as thin as 1mm and gets as thick as 5mm. A very popular thickness for a high quality engineered hardwood floor is 4mm.
Best Hardwood Floor Color for Hiding Wear and Tear
Light-colored hardwood floors. This is probably no surprise either. Because scratches and other minor nicks are often light colored, they blend in well with light-colored hardwood floors.
“Tile is the highest-rated flooring among the categories we test,” says Enrique de Paz, who leads flooring testing at Consumer Reports. “It doesn't wear out, scratch, or stain. Its color doesn't fade, it's waterproof, and it is surprisingly slip-resistant, even when wet.
Polyurethane is the most popular finish for floors. It's tough enough to handle constant traffic and is resistant to almost everything. There are two types of polyurethane finish: oil-based (solvent borne) and water-based (waterborne). Each type has its strengths, and neither is a poor choice.