Wood Flooring Natural Variations in Appearance

Why doesn't my wood flooring look like the showroom sample?

Unlike factory made, artificial materials, each hardwood board has a unique life story. During the approximate 50 years or so that it takes for a hardwood tree to mature, each tree develops a one-of-a-kind grain pattern and texture.

Natural hardwood products are never as uniform as plastic laminate or wallpaper from a catalogue and there lies the individual beauty for each buyer. You will have a unique product in your home

Solid hardwood products, like silks, leather and precious stones, are shaped by natural forces and they may display a variety of character markings.

Even boards from the same hardwood tree will show significant variation in color. For instance, "younger" wood closer to the bark (sapwood) will be lighter than that which comes from the central portion (Heartwood). You can also see the effects of the minerals and other essential elements that the trees absorbed as they grew. For example the yellow flecks that are evident in Merbau.

Even the way the tree is cut will vary and will add individuality to your wood floor.

Boards can be cut from a hardwood log in several directions: tangent to the annual rings (plain-sawn or flat-sawn), or radially, across the rings (quarter-sawn and rift-sawn).

Arched or flame-shaped markings, evident in bold-grained hardwoods such as oak, characterise plain-sawn wood, while rift-sawn and quarter-sawn or "quartered" boards show a pattern of roughly parallel lines.

No two pieces of hardwood are alike and because of this, your particular item of wood flooring looks like no other in the world... including those in the showroom.