"Artop Wood Flooring is committed to providing a unique, high-quality wood flooring solution for both commercial and residential applications. We offer artistic and stylish designs, solid construction, and durable finishes. We are committed to finding and using forest products from certified renewable sources. Our pledge to excellence makes us the select choice of Architects and Designers throughout North America."
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Wood selection
Not all wood floors are created equal. Artop only uses the best quality hardwoods selected renewable and sustainable forests. Understanding the characteristics of each species of wood will help you choose the right floor for your needs.
Appearance:
The sapwood of white ash is creamy white, while the heartwood ranges from light tan to dark brown. The grain is bold and straight, with an occasional wavy pattern; and in plain-sawn boards it can have a strong contrast. The wood has a lustrous appearance, and the texture is rather coarse.
Properties:
White ash is elastic and hard, and it has excellent shock-resistance. The wood remains smooth under friction.
Janka Hardness: 1320
Workability:
White ash has good machining qualities, and it sands satisfactorily. When nailed, it has good holding ability, and it resists splitting. The wood responds well to staining and preservative treatment.
Principal Uses:
Because ash wood is so hard, strong, and flexible, it is among the most valuable hardwood species. It is best known for baseball bats (e.g., the legendary "Louisville Slugger"). It is also used for fine flooring, furniture, tool handles, and sports equipment.
The type of birch most commonly used for wood flooring is yellow birch (betula alleghaniensis). However, sweet birch (betula lenta) and paper birch (betula papyrifera) are also frequently used for this purpose.
Sweet birch is sometimes called "black birch" or "cherry birch." Paper birch also goes by the names "white birch," "canoe birch," and "silver birch."
Appearance:
The sapwood of yellow birch ranges from pale white to creamy yellow, while the heartwood tends to be a light-reddish brown with a red tinge. By contrast, the sapwood of sweet birch is light-colored, whereas the heartwood is dark brown with a red tinge. Birch wood has an even texture with a straight, closed grain. Occasionally, boards may show curliness in the grain as well as some wavy figuring. It is among the most featureless of all North American hardwoods; but with its natural, pleasing figure, it makes for very attractive furniture and flooring. Birch has a small degree of luster, making it seem almost dull in appearance.
Properties:
Birch is a very heavy, strong, durable wood. It is hard and stiff, with excellent shock-resistance.
Workability:
With its good machining qualities, birch wood sands satisfactorily and has excellent holding ability when nailed.
Principal Uses:
In addition to wood flooring, birch is commonly used in furniture, veneers, interior finishing, windowsills, cutting surfaces, drumsticks, violin bows, and wooden novelties.
Appearance:
There is a distinct difference in color between the nearly white sapwood of walnut and the heartwood, which ranges in color from a deep, rich dark, almost chocolate brown to a purplish black. The wood often has a purplish cast with dark streaks. However, there is a wide variation of color, figure, and grade within the species. The grain of walnut is mostly straight and open, though some boards may have a grain pattern that is burled or curly. In fact, the wood is especially valued for its wavy, curly, and mottled figures. The wood surface is generally fairly dull, though it may develop a lustrous patina after many years in use.
Properties:
This is one of the most prized of North American hardwoods. Although American black walnut is somewhat softer than northern red oak, the wood is heavy, hard, and stiff and has excellent dimensional stability. It is moderatly dense, but very strong, with good shock resistance. Walnut is one of the most durable of the domestic commercial woods, even under conditions favorable to decay.
Janka Hardness: 1010
Workability:
The machining qualities of walnut are excellent, but it is also easily worked with hand tools. This wood has a distinctive sweet aroma when worked. It is fairly resistant to splitting and has good holding ability. It sands and finishes beautifully and holds both paint and stain exceptionally well.
Principal Uses:
Frequently used as a highlight material for borders and other inlay techniques, this familiar domestic wood has many commercial applications. It is typically found in wood flooring, veneer, paneling, fixtures, furniture, cabinets, and novelty items. In addition, it is superior to all other woods for gunstocks because of the way it keeps its shape.
Appearance:
Prized for its rich color and fine graining, black cherry is commonly seen in American cabinetry and furniture. The fine, satiny texture of the wood is uniform and frequently wavy, with distinctive gum veins and pockets. The lustrous heartwood ranges from light to dark reddish brown, constrasting sharply with the sapwood, which may be light brown to pale with a light pinkish tone; however, between boards there may be significant color variations. Black cherry is extremely light-sensitive, so there is a strong color change and darkening over a short period time when the wood is first exposed to light.
Properties:
A strong but moderately hard wood with excellent shock resistance; commonly found in borders and accents.
Janka Hardness: 950
Workability:
Black cherry has good machining, sanding, and holding ability, and is high in bending strength.
Principal Uses:
Second only to black walnut in value as a fine hardwood species, black cherry is commonly found in fine furniture, veneers, and wood flooring borders and accents. It is also used for printing and engraving blocks, professional and scientific instruments, and decorative items.
Appearance:
The heartwood of hickory is reddish brown in color with dark brown stripes, while the sapwood tends toward a creamy white with pinkish tones and fine brown lines
Properties:
Hickory wood is very hard, stiff, dense, and shock resistant, and is difficult to carve.
Janka Hardness: 1820
Workability:
Although a hardwood, hickory works with little difficulty with both hand and power tools. This wood holds screws well, and it glues, stains, and polishes to a very attractive finish. It can be somewhat difficult to sand with flooring equipment because of its hardness.
Principal Uses:
Besides flooring, hickory is used for tool handles, bows, wheel spokes, carts, drumsticks, lacrosse stick handles, golf club shafts, the bottom of skis, and walking sticks. Boat paddles are often made from hickory, and sometimes baseball bats as well.
Appearance:
The sapwood of maple is a lovely creamy white, while the heartwood ranges from creamy white to light reddish brown. This wood has a closed, subdued grain and a uniform texture, with medium figuring. The figuring is variously described as quilted, curly, "bird's-eye," and "fiddleback." During the grading process, interestingly figured boards are often culled from the group and sold at a premium. Due to its light color and durability, maple is a popular choice when a "contemporary" look is desired for a wood floor.
Properties:
Like black maple (B. nigrum), sugar maple is classified as a hardwood (other species of maple are considered soft). And like teak and white oak, it has a high crushing strength. It is stiff, strong, dense, and extremely tough, with excellent shock resistance. It is notably resistant to abrasive wear; and for this reason, it is the hardwood flooring of choice for such high-traffic/hard-use locations as bowling alleys, basketball courts, and other sports facilities.
Janka Hardness: 1450
Workability:
Sugar maple is so hard that machining of the wood can be difficult. Yet it does sand satisfactorily. However, because of its density and light color, sanding marks and finish lines will stand out more clearly than in darker woods, so extra care must be taken when sanding and finishing maple hardwood floors. It is fairly resistant to splitting and has good holding ability.
Principal Uses:
Sugar maple has been called "nature's perfect flooring," and it is known to have been used as a flooring for sports activities going back over 150 years. There is practically no limit to the uses that can be found for sugar maple. As flooring, it has been used to create a bright, cheerful, and elegant ambiance in countless homes, as well as providing a highly durable surface in gymnasiums, bowling alleys, and dance floors. In addition, this resilient wood is used for lumber, furniture, cabinetry, shoe lasts, tool handles, bowling pins, musical instruments, spools and bobbins, wooden novelties, piano frames, crates, and pulpwood. Last but not least, its sap provides a delicious, edible distillation in the form of pancake syrup.
American white oak is also known variously as Basket Oak, Chestnut Oak, and other names, including:
Cow Oak
Mountain Oak
Rock Oak
Swamp Oak
Tanbark Oak
Appearance:
The heartwood and sapwood of red oak are similar in appearance, which is light-colored with a reddish tone. It is slightly redder in color than white oak, which can have a white to cream to light brown color. The grain of red oak is open, and also somewhat coarser, and so more porous, than that of white oak, which tends to have longer rays. These distinctive rays are what make white oak so prized for construction of "Mission" style furniture and woodwork.
Depending on whether the wood is plainsawn, riftsawn, or quartersawn, the grain of both red and white oak can have a plumed or flared appearance, a lighter grain pattern with low figuring, or a "flake" pattern that is referred to as "tiger rays" or "butterflies." Red oak boards can show a pronounced variation in appearance, depending on subspecies group, origin, growing season, and other factors; white oak, however, shows much less variation.
Properties:
White oak is slightly harder than red oak, and also more durable. However, both types are notably stiff and dense, have high shock resistance, and resist wear. Because of the high concentration of tannic acid in white oak, it is particularly resistant to fungi and insects.
Janka Hardness: White oak: 1360 Red oak: 1290.
Workability:
Both red and white oak have good resistance to splitting and excellent holding ability. Red oak sands better than white; by contrast, white oak has better machining qualities. Because of its relatively high porosity and low concentration of tannin, red oak works better for bleached floors than white oak, which can turn green or brown when the surface comes in contact with bleach or water-based finishes.
Principal Uses:
Oak is practically synonymous with high-quality, durable, and distinctively attractive wood floors. In addition, it is widely used in ship building, furniture and veneers, kegs and casks, truck and trailer beds, caskets, paneling, and mining timbers.
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