Maple Wood Flooring Hardness

A common use of janka hardness ratings is to determine whether a species is suitable for use as flooring.

Maple wood flooring hardness.

The janka hardness test from the austrian born emigrant gabriel janka 1864 1932 measures the resistance of a sample of wood to denting and wear. Cali hardwoods odyssey 5 5 in spartan maple wirebrushed engineered hardwood flooring 30 74 sq ft. Phone calls and emails tell the story with hardness being very near the top of the list. While the complete janka hardness listings will reveal that there are some fairly hard softwoods and some relatively soft hardwoods in the species most commonly used in flooring the identifiers hold true.

It is one of the best measures of the ability of a wood species to withstand denting and wear. The janka hardness test measures the force required to embed a 444 inch steel ball to half its diameter in wood. Maple hardness and durability. This means that maple flooring is quite hard less prone to dents and is very durable it s a popular choice for bowling alleys for this very reason.

The scale used in the table is pounds force. Poplar ranks 540 on the low end of the scale. Hard maple ranks 1 450 while red oak ranks 1 290. Wood hardness chart species alphabetical hardness species by hardness hardness mahogany honduran 800 padauk 1725 mahogany santos 2200 tabaccowood 1750 maple hard north american 1450 rosewood bolivian 1780 maple ivory 1500 bamboo carbonized 1800 maple soft 999 hickory 1820 merbau 1925 pecan 1820 mesquite 2345 yellowheart 1820.

Also note that black maple not pictured isn t quite as hard as its close relative hard maple and ranks in the mid range with a hardness of 1 180 lb f. Woods with a higher rating are harder than woods with a lower rating. Having seen changes in the wood flooring business over the years i never realized how many people were ill advised of how to actually go about buying wood floors. Grain patterns also indicate the wood s hardness.

On the janka hardness scale a scale that ranks wood for hardness hickory is the hardest of all domestic hardwoods ranking at 1 820. The janka scale is used to determine the relative hardness of particular domestic or exotic wood species. Americana floors english tavern 7 5 in cambridge brown old world look maple handscraped engineered hardwood flooring 26 sq ft item 1329325. For pricing and availability.

Maple flooring has a jenka hardness ranking of 1450 which is a good bit harder than oak flooring the industry standard for hardwood. It measures the force required to embed an 11 28 millimetres 0 444 in diameter steel ball halfway into a sample of wood. Taking the hardness data within context of other hardwoods soft maple may be used as a valid substitute for hard maple in most situations where a hardwood of moderate density is called for. Solid hardwood flooring will always be stronger than hardwood veneer engineered flooring.

The higher the number the harder the wood is this should be used as a general guide when comparing various species of wood flooring.