What Kind of Wood Is My Wood Floor?
Finding out what kind of wood floor you have can be somewhat tricky. Time and finishes placed onto a floor can change the appearance of the natural wood, obscuring the defining features. Before trying to identify wood, you must clean the wood of all finishes and stains to achieve maximum identification potential. Does this Spark an idea?
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Color
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You can use the color of the base, non-finished wood as one of the best indicators. Pines are often yellow or peach in color. Ash has a golden color. Maple is peach and white. Oak is a medium-brown. Walnut is dark brown and almost black. Cherry wood is a deep red-brown. Hickory or pecan wood has an uneven color, varying between light brown and almost white.
Grain
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The grain of the wood can aid greatly in identifying it. Pine is one of the easiest to identify. Pines have a narrow grain with long, oval loops. Pine also has dark spots scattered throughout the wood. Oak has a wider grain that looks rough. Cherry has an uneven grain that is broken up by dark spots. Walnut has a very dark natural color, and can have wide or close-set grains. The grain swirls are long, and it can be difficult to find the curves in the grain.
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Hardness and Features
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Check the hardness of the wood. Oak, maple, beech and walnut are all very hard. You can test the hardness of the wood by stepping on an unfinished portion with a pointed heel. If the heel makes a dent, then the floor is likely made from a softwood such as pine, fur or cedar. Check other features of the wood as well, such as the base color. Pines and softwoods gray with age, while hardwoods can be brown, red or gray. Look at patterns of wood online and see if any match the patterns on your floors.
Age
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Knowing when your house was built can help identify the kind of wood used for your floor. Colonial wood floors were typically made from pine. Colonial pine floors didn't have stains on them, and should look like untreated wood. In the 1800s wood floors were still predominantly pine, but they stained it. In the 1900s oak flooring became popular. These wood floors typically have thick boards and are very hard. Floors built since 1980 can have a variety of woods, from pine to oak to even maple or beech.
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References
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