Exotic Wood Floors...The "Wow" Factor!

Chris Hubbard

North America is blessed with wonderful trees for hardwood floors. But there’s also a wide world of exotic woods to choose from when selecting the species for your finished hardwood flooring.

Exotic wood floors, however, are typically more expensive than domestic species—in large part because of transportation cost, but also because of the relatively low supply of exotic woods.

So why would anyone pay more for an exotic wood when there are so many great species for custom hardwood floors here?

A Look All Your Own

Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys give great performance for their cost, which is why they’re all over the road. But if you’re the type of person who wouldn’t want to drive one of those cars just because so many people have them, you might also be the type of person who’s attracted to exotic wood floors.

Things that are out of the ordinary command attention, and there’s a definite “wow factor” to exotic wood floors. And because of their uniqueness, they are a strong expression of your personal aesthetic.

Distinctive Beauty

Exotic wood floors also expand the “palette” of looks you can choose from. Perhaps you have a particular piece of furniture, window, or wall you’re trying to match with your finished wood flooring. An exotic species might be complementary in a way that no domestic species is.

Brazilian Walnut

Photo by C & C Custom Builders

In a broader sense, your entire interior design can be built around the distinctive appearance of an exotic wood floor. This distinction comes not just from the rarity of exotic woods, but also from their distinguishing visual characteristics. If the characteristics of an exotic wood are just what you’re looking for in your interior design, then you might very well decide its worth any extra cost.

Hardness

From a functional perspective, if you expect your floors to have a lot of traffic or otherwise take a lot of abuse, you may be attracted to exotic wood floors because of their hardness. Not all exotic woods are harder than domestic species, but most of the top exotic woods are harder than any domestic species.

To illustrate, just look at the Janka wood hardness scale. Brazilian Walnut (3684 on the scale), Cumaru (3540), Brazilian Cherry (2350), and Santos Mahogany (2200) all rank as harder than the hardest of common domestic species, Hickory (1820). White Oak (1360) and Red Oak (1290)—the most popular domestic hardwoods—are considerably softer than most exotic wood floors, even though they’re fairly hard by domestic standards.

Takeaway

Exotic wood floors aren’t for everyone, but for some people, they are just the right choice for their custom hardwood floors. Talk to a well-respected hardwood flooring company to fully explore the costs, benefits, and options involved.

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