Wood Species

There are hundreds of wood species in the world.  To give some quantification to the issue of wood species hardness, the lumber industry created the Janka hardness scale—a standard now widely accepted as the best means of ranking a wood’s hardness. The Janka test measures the amount of force needed to drive a 0.444-inch steel ball into wood to a depth equal to half its diameter. The higher the rating, the harder the wood. While there are other elements that go into how a wood species performs as a flooring material, the Janka scale will give you a good idea of whether your wood floor will last for decades to come or will quickly surrender to the onslaught of dog claws and foot traffic. The Janka rating system has classified all or most of these woods from the hardest to the softest. Therefore, it is easier to know what functions suit a certain wood tree species. Red oak is the most popular flooring option in the flooring industry. It is used as a standard of comparison with other woods because it has a median Janka rating of 1290. Red oak is used as an industry standard because it is neither too soft nor too hard, but just right. It is also abundant throughout the US.

For wood floors, any Janka rating higher than 950 is suitable for flooring. But again, you have to consider other factors when choosing a flooring wood species. You can compare red oak hardness with other tree species. Below is the Janka Hardness rating for some popular wood species.