Birch Wood Flooring Chicago IL

Birch Wood Flooring
A Good Hardwood With Unique Character

Looking for an alternative to oak or maple floors? Try birch wood flooring. It has the benefits of the other hardwoods while offering a unique and attractive appearance.

What's Special About Birch?

Several attributes make birch a worthwhile option for hardwood floors:

• Hardness and durability that comes with a hardwood floor
• Color variation from lights to darks to suit varied decorating tastes
• Natural 'highlights' that provide interesting visual appeal
• Pricing comparable with other common hardwoods

There are numerous species within the birch family but several varieties make up the bulk of what's used for birch wood flooring. Each has their own characteristics that make them different from one another.

Editor's Note -- One thing to keep in mind when dealing with wood species is that there are both common names and botanical names for each species of wood. Common names can be misleading because there's usually more than one for a particular species of wood. Sometimes these common names are the same as other species despite the fact there's no relation between the two. "Brazilian Cherry" is a prime example because it's not related to the cherry family at all (the North American cherry being of the Prunus genus). Brazilian Cherry is actually Hymenaea courbaril, also known by it's other common name of "Jatoba". But enough of the Latin tongue twisters. Suffice to say that it helps to know the genus of the wood species you're dealing with. That way you can compare apples to apples between flooring manufacturers in case they use different common names for their wood and you'll avoid being mislead. See the wood flooring page of this website to get more familiar with wood floors and terms like "heartwood", "sapwood" and "Janka harndess test" that you'll come across on this page too. When looking for birch wood floors these are the names (types of wood) that you'll most often see: Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera) Paper birch is the softest of the birch wood floor types. It's hardness is about 910 on the Janka scale, a little bit softer than Black Cherry and Red Maple. Yellow Birch (Betula alleghaniensis) Yellow birch is harder than paper birch at about 1260 on the hardness scale, roughly equivalent to some oaks and green ash. Sweet Birch (Betula lenta) Sweet birch is the hardest of the typical birch woods used for flooring. It's Janka hardness rating is 1470 which is harder than sugar maple as well as red and white oak. Birch generally has a lighter sapwood and a darker contrasting heartwood. Boards that have both often display an attractive combination of lighter creamy shades mixed with darker red and brown tones. If you like this type of action and color variation, you'll find it with certain varieties of birch wood floors. Editor's Comment This aspect of birch wood flooring happens to be one of my favo...