Understanding the different grades of wood flooring

If you’re thinking of investing in solid wood flooring, there are several decisions you’ll need to make such as the kind of hardwood you want, the finish that will work best for your home and the grade of wood that will work best for your floors.

Budget will also be a consideration, but the overall look of your floor will really be dictated by the grade of wood.

The grade of wood doesn’t refer to its quality or hardness on the Janka scale, but simply to its appearance from flaw-free prime grade to full-of-character rustic grade.

The best way to see which grade would best suit your floors is to get some free samples from an online flooring company like http://www.ukflooringdirect.co.uk and lay them out in the space you intend to use them. This should give you a good idea of how the colour and look work for your home.

Prime grade for pristine floors

Prime grade wood flooring is as good as it gets, with no flaws at all, just completely clean boards. This grade is extremely popular in Europe but used very rarely in the UK. Prime grade achieves a perfectly minimal look.

Select grade for a more relaxed feel

Though there are still large areas of clean board, these are broken up by the occasional knot that stops the floor from looking absolutely perfect. These tiny imperfections can add just enough character to a floor to stop it looking too perfect. There’s slightly more variation in colour too.

Natural grade for the middle ground

Natural grade falls somewhere between the perfect planks of the prime and select grades and the very characterful planks of the rustic grade. You’ll notice more flaws and more colour difference in this grade, but when laid by a professional it can create an extremely attractive floor.

Rustic grade for character

The most popular choice in the UK, rustic grade flooring, produces a completely unique effect thanks to the huge variations between the boards which may have knots in varying sizes, splits in the wood, colour variations and other flaws which give each plank an absolutely unique character. These endless variations are what some people find so attractive and why these floors can be far more popular than the much more pristine grades with very few flaws.