Walnut Wood Flooring, A Love Affair or NOT!

Walnut wood flooring is truly a fashion statement today. We have seen 7 years in the floor fashion industry emphasize clear and light woods like bamboo and hard maple but the last year has seen a great return to dark rich stain tones in red oak, intensely red and orange exotic hardwood floors, and naturally dark American woods like a walnut wood floor. But we must always ask, "What is the right flooring for you?

Customers most often want to talk about the aesthetics of their floor purchase with little conversation about the details in construction or physical characteristics of a wood that will make or break a perfect installation and creation of a durable floor finish. Rarely do they think about the what if's?

When Johnny drops the tin of soup on the floor or the pet poodle pee's in the corner, what then? Will your floor installation hold its own? Its great to have a hardwood floor that looks beautiful the day it is installed but it is even more important to have one that looks fantastic 10 years later, so here's a few thoughts.

The wood needs to be dense to offer good durability in a wood floor. Walnut is not the best in this regard. The Janka scale is a quantitative way to compare one type of wood to another, as a means to understand how dent resistant each species might appear under normal wear. The higher the 'Janka' number, the higher its resistance to denting and the greater its density.

It relates to wood used for furniture as easily as a wood floor. Walnut has a Janka rating of 1010... sounds not too bad, but let me give you a comparison. Red oak is 1290 and hard maple clicks in at 1450. Southern yellow pine on the other hand has a rating of 690. Where does this put walnut wood flooring?

Well I'd say about the middle. Walnut wood flooring is certainly not as soft as a pine flooring, thus certainly won't ding or dent as significantly as pine, but on the other hand is certainly NOT as durable as a hard maple floor. Thus consider your wear factor.

Do you have young children in the home? Do you leave your shoes on while walking on your hardwood floor? Do you have wild parties with women in stiletto heels? If your answer to any of theses questions is 'yes' you may want to consider an equally beautiful albeit harder wood species, maybe even brazilian walnut flooring. This isn't really walnut at all, but rather a type of exotic wood from south America with an incredible janka rating of 3680 .. so be sure not to confuse the two.

Bottom line is to know what you are purchasing and don't expect a walnut wood flooring to last like a brazilian walnut floor. Walnut, the 'American black' variety is a beautiful rich chocolate coloured wood that creates a distinct hardwood floor. Choose it because you love the colours and rich wood patterns, but understand that it needs a little respect and will last a lifetime if you ignore the occasional wrinkle.