Category: Species

Species Profile: Beech

The Beech tree, a type of deciduous tree with the genus Fagaceae, flourishes in Europe, Asia, and North America. We break it into two subgenera: Engleriana, which is found exclusively in East Asia, and Fagus, which encompasses the rest. In North America, the “American Beech” or Fagus grandifolia grows in central and southeastern states (as far down as east Texas), as well as states bordering the Great Lakes. Distinctive characteristics include low-hanging branches with yellow-green leaves in spring and small, triangular “beechnuts” in winter.

Appearance

The beech tree has a distinctive, silvery bark, and tends to grow very tall, up to 80 feet. Inside, its wood is dense and robust, with evenly textured stock and a straight grain. The light color of the sapwood echoes that of the yellow birch, although beech is more reddish in the heartwood. Growth rings develop surrounded by slightly darker latewood. Beech wood’s distinctive rays branch out short, yet unusually broad.

Its natural light color easily can be changed. Beech’s fine grain helps it to take well to varnish and staining (except for the heartwood).

Uses

Beech wood’s versatility demonstrated itself early– in ancient Germanic cultures, they utilized beech to make primitive tablets before paper was invented. The German word for book, “Buch,” comes from their word for beech, “Buche.”

Though beech wood doesn’t take well to drying, it excels in turning and bending. Beech resists breaks and compression and sticks well with glue. It also bends exceptionally well with steam, and so it functions frequently as chair backs and legs. With beech wood, woodworkers create materials as wide-ranging as delicate goblets since it bends and wooden spoons since it holds up to wear and tear. People also use harvested beech wood for flooring, containers, and railroad tracks.

Compared to other lighter-colored wood such as pine, beech withstands more abuse without denting or scratching; in fact, beech wood may grow smoother the more it is used. It also has only a very mild wood smell. However, beech wood is susceptible to moisture and particularly rot. Because of this, it endures best in a dry environment.

Cost and Availability

Until the invention of the modern chainsaw, beech trees were not harvested in mass quantities because of their density. For this reason, some unusually large groves of old beech trees remain. Now, they are regularly cut down but still quite plentiful.

Those looking for a hard, high-density wood should consider beech wood as a top option. The NHLA has graded the underappreciated beech “standard,” and it costs much less than other woods of comparable hardness. Demand for it in recent years has not increased, yet supply continues to be readily available. Many people utilize beech wood as a cheaper option to hard maple or oak.

It is well known that Oak is far and away the most commonly used species for hardwood floors, especially in the United States. It was recommended nearly three times as often as other species by the designers who participated in our annual design survey this year, Red and White Oak combined consistently make up more than 60% of total hardwood flooring sales, and Oak trees account for more than half of our national hardwood forests. But what about the other “mosts” in the hardwood world? Read on and find out.

The Most Expensive Hardwoods

As it stands to reason, the most expensive hardwoods are also the rarest.  Most of these are rare enough that they are seldom, if ever, used for flooring, and when they are, it is usually only as an inlay or accent.  The winners of this special distinction?

Gabon Ebony (Diospyros dendo) from Central West Africa, Madagascar Ebony (Diospyros perrieri) from Madagascar, and Macassar Ebony (Diospyros celebica) from Indonesia, can all be found in the U.S. market, though one must be very careful to ensure that these highly endangered species have been legally and sustainability sourced.  For years, the wood from these trees has been hihgly valued for its almost stone-like qualities: uncommon hardness and dimensional stability, minimal to indiscernible grain, and a consistency of color (practically black at the heartwood) that is all but unmatched.  Current prices for Ebony run as high as $150/ square foot, so an ebony floor falls well outside the budget of most home improvement products.  A more realistic option?  Choose a close-grained domestic wood like Maple and finish it with an ebony stain.

African Blackwood, also called Mpingo, is widely regarded as the most expensive commercially available hardwood.  Its scientific name is Dalbergia melanoxylon and it is native to the dryer regions of southern Africa.  Once regarded as a kind of Ebony, Mpingo now holds its own place as one of the most valuable woods in the world.  Its dark, almost black heartwood is uncommonly dense and hard and offers remarkable dimensional stability, making it popular for woodwind instruments like clarinets and oboes.  However, this denseness makes it a very difficult wood to work with, a quality which, combined with its relative rarity and consequent high price (upwards of $130/ square foot) make it an unrealistic option for flooring.

The Hardest Hardwoods

Typically, the hardness of wood is measured by subjecting it to the Janka hardness test.  This yields a Janka rating expressed in pounds of force that allows for relatively uniform comparison of the hardness of various species of wood.  As a standard of comparison, consider that Northern Red Oak, an excellent flooring choice, has a Janka rating of 1220-1290, depending on the variety. Hickory, the hardest domestic hardwood, has a rating of 1820.  As it happens, Ebony and African Blackwood rate at 3080 and am incredibly hard 3670, respectively.

The hardest known wood, meanwhile, rates at a tool-destroying 4570.  In fact, its name, Quebracho, comes from the Spanish “quebrar hacha”, which literally translates to “axe breaker”.  Though it is used as lumber in its native South America, it is rarely available in the United States.  The generally accepted winner of the hardest commercially available wood contest, then, tends to be a species called  Lignum Vitae, which has a Janka rating of 4390.  Unfortunately, this remarkable quality has led to its being harvested almost to extinction.  Of course, a wood this hard would be almost impossible to mill for flooring, even if it were abundant enough to be used as such.  A better option is to choose a harder wood like Hickory or Brazilian Cherry (Janka rating 2350) with a factory applied finish for increased durability.

The Most Abundant Hardwoods

North America

Well, we already know that Oak accounts for some 52% of the hardwood forests in North America, with Red Oak (Quercus rubra) the most abundant.  The next most common in Poplar, but this species makes up only about 1/10th of North America’s hardwood forests, followed distantly by Maple at about 5%.

Worldwide

While Brazilian Cherry is probably the most commonly used exotic species when it comes to flooring (it generally makes up between 3 and 5% of hardwood flooring sales each year), it is not necessarily the most abundant species.   So what is?  This is a difficult question to answer.  Efforts to log tree species across the planet are few as the challenges to doing so are many and complex.  It involves travel to remote areas as well as the cooperation of governments and landowners, many of which have more pressing concerns and some of whom would rather not have logging activity and forest health looked at too closely.  Add to this the lack of a universal authoritative database of the world’s trees, and it becomes difficult to get an accurate read on global species distribution.  What is known with relative certainty is that about a third of all the world’s trees can be classified into five species groups: pines, oaks, spruces, firs, and beeches.  Of these, only two – oak and beech – yield hardwood, though pine, technically a softwood, is often used in flooring as it is as hard as many hardwood species.

Special Trees

Though many of the most remarkable trees are not hardwoods and would not generally be recommended for flooring, we though we would mention some here, to honor the magnificence of trees in general.

Tallest living tree

Sequoias, and in particular Sequoia sempervirens, or Coastal Redwoods, are thought to be the tallest trees in the world.  The tallest of these?  Hyperion, a resident of Redwood National Park, measuring almost 380 ft tall and thought to be something like 700-800 years old.

Biggest living tree

The biggest known tree by volume is another Sequoia, a Giant Sequoia in Sequoia National Park called General Sherman, whose trunk volume has been estimated at more than 52,500 cubic feet. For reference, the volume of an average Red Oak would probably be about 1300-1500 cubic feet.  Now this title only applies to single-stem growth.  Aspen trees, for example, grow in colonies, with hundreds of trunks stemming from what is technically a single tree, making trunk volume rather difficult to calculate.

Widest living tree

The Montezuma Cypress in Oaxaca, Mexico, is thought to be the tree with the greatest girth, boasting a diameter of more than 38 feet.  Some argue, however, that Sunland Baobab‘s namesake tree is better deserving of the title, since the 38 foot measurement of the Cypress includes empty space between the tree’s natural buttresses.  The Baobob in question has a diameter of 35 feet, enough to house a bar an wine cellar in its hollow trunk.

Oldest living tree

This is, again, a category up for debate.  Typically, the age of a tree is determined by measuring its growth rings or taking a sample from its core that can be dated.  However, growth rings only appear in trees that experience seasonal changes and the cores of very old trees often become hollow as their lifeless heartwood decays.  Consequently, aging very old trees can be an imprecise business.  Nevertheless, there seems to be some consensus that the oldest living single-stem tree is the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, thought to be more than 5,000 years old.  Again, though, the Aspen raises another difficulty as some argue that its age should be recorded according to the age of the colony.  In that case, the oldest living “tree” becomes the Pando colony on Utah, thought to be some 80,000 years old.

General Sherman and Pando Colony By Famartin (Own work) CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Black Walnuts are some of the most prized trees grown in North America. Not only is their timber beautiful, strong, and easy to work with, the walnut fruit is popular for healthy snacks and gourmet meals.  The seeds can be pressed to make walnut oil, and the trees’ sprawling limbs make for great climbing and swinging.  A moderately sized Walnut can be 100 feet tall, with a trunk more than 5 feet in diameter. One of the largest known Black Walnuts in North America lives on an island in Oregon. Its trunk is 8 ½ feet across and its limbs spread further than 70 feet in either direction.

Though Walnut trees grow throughout much of the eastern half of the U.S., they are harvested commercially primarily in the Central states. Walnut is also one few species in North America that is planted as well as naturally regenerated, though most commercially planted trees are harvested for fruit rather than lumber. In fact, Walnut makes up only about 2% of available domestic hardwood. Its relatively limited availability combined with its general desirability make it one of the more valuable (and more expensive) domestic woods. This has sometimes led individuals to poach wild Black Walnut trees, and the forestry service has developed a number of methods, including DNA testing, to prosecute those guilty of this crime. For this reason, it is important to purchase Walnut only from reputable dealers who can confirm that it has been harvested legally and responsibly.

Appearance

Black Walnut heartwood is generally dark to chocolate brown, sometimes with streaks of purple, reddish, or greenish hue. The sapwood, on the other hand, tends to be a fairly light yellow and the contrast, made stark by the trees’ very distinct growth rings, and is often taken advantage of by woodworkers to beautiful effect.

Walnut wood also features a wider variety of figured grain patterns than most any other wood. These patterns, which include curl, crotch, burl, and more, give Walnut a striking character that its mostly straight, even grain would otherwise not display. This unique hardwood also tends to develop a rich patina over time and grows more lustrous, rather than duller, with age.

Because of its natural beauty, Walnut is rarely stained, and it is an excellent candidate for natural oil finishes, which bring out its unique qualities and enrich its hues. Especially in homes with lighter furniture or cabinetry, Walnut will create a beautiful contrast with the other wood in your home.

Durability

Though Black Walnut is not among the hardest species, rating 1010 on the Janka Hardness scale, it is considered a very durable wood. It shows an excellent resistance to decay and an appreciable stability, experiencing less seasonal movement than many of its counterparts.

Image credit:
Sauvie Island Oak photo by Ascending the Giants (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0] via Wikimedia Commons

Hickory’s density and toughness have made it an icon of domestic wood, used by the westward-bound pioneers in their wagon wheels, for the frames of early airplanes, in baseball bats, golf clubs, skis, tools – anything that needed a strong, reliable material that could take some serious abuse.

Hickory trees produce some of the hardest and toughest wood in North America.  Though more than a dozen species grow throughout the Northeastern and Southern United States, as well as areas of Canada and Mexico, only 8 are typically used in flooring.  The most popular of these is called Shagbark Hickory, or Carya ovata.  It is considered one of several “True Hickory” species (along with Pignut Shellbark, and Mockernut), which are somewhat denser and harder than their “Pecan Hickory” cousins (these include common Pecan as well as Water, Bitternut, and Nutmeg Hickory).  However, most of the Carya species are almost indistinguishable from one another in appearance once milled.

Hickory is one of very few species in North America to have survived the disastrous Glacial Epoch.  This puts it on the continent at least 50 million years ago, making it likely the very first North American hardwood species.  This is a good thing, since a Hickory tree can take as long as two centuries to fully mature.

Color

One of Hickory’s most distinguishing features is its widely variant coloring.  The sapwood of Hickory tends to be very pale, almost white, while the heartwood is relatively dark, usually reddish brown.  Though it is possible to get Hickory in one or the other tone, it is most often cut to display both tones in a single board.  For this reason, wider planks are often preferred for Hickory, to display the beautiful colors and to avoid creating too busy an effect.

Grade

The grade and cut of your Hickory boards will make a big difference – bigger than with most woods – in its appearance.  Hickory must be carefully milled, not only because its density makes it difficult to cut, but because each cut must be made to best display the wood’s character.

If you are interested in Hickory primarily for its hardness and want a more consistent color, you will want to look for Select Grade.  #1 and 2 Common Grade Hickory will display more of the natural color variation, sometimes referred to as “calico”, as well as some knots and unique mineral streaking that give the wood its unique, rustic character.

Of all the woods out there, Hickory is one that shines the most in Character, or Country, Grade. This is because its coloring lends itself well to a rural, rustic look and the “flaws” in what is normally a lower grade wood, only serve to enhance this effect.   For this reason Country Grade Hickory is often used in place of antique wood flooring, which can be quite expensive and less durable.

Durability

As we mentioned, Hickory, particularly True Hickory, is one of the densest and hardest domestic woods.  With a Janka hardness rating of 1820 (Hard Maple comes in at 1450 and White Oak at 1360), it can withstand a great deal of wear and tear and is uncommonly resistant to typical dings and scratches.  This makes it an outstanding option for commercial spaces and for homes with families or pets, even large dogs.

However, this toughness comes at a price.  Hickory is not an ideal wood for the do-it-yourselfer.  It can be very difficult to cut and has been known to damage and break tools during installation.  Further, boards will tend to show sanding marks if this is not done just right.  Consequently, if you wish to have your Hickory floors finished onsite, you should definitely plan for the added expense of professional installation.

Stain

Experience seems to vary when it comes to staining Hickory.  Because its natural color variations are so appealing, people often choose to finish it without a stain.  Some, however, will use a light stain to help highlight this feature while others will try a darker stain to tone it down.

Hickory’s density can make staining tricky, though, and those desirable color variations can make the results unpredictable and uneven for all but the most experienced.  It takes a seasoned professional to apply stain in a way that will cause it to penetrate more than the very surface of the wood and to get an even stain across much older heartwood and less dense sapwood.

There is, of course, a simple solution to both staining a finishing difficulties – prefinished Hickory.  Though it may cost a little more initially, it will save time, trouble, and ultimately money to buy Hickory planks that have been cut and finished in the factory.

Stability

One of the few areas where Hickory can fall short is stability.  It has a higher tendency toward movement than many of its domestic counterparts and must be kiln-dried after milling.  For this reason, it is crucial to purchase Hickory only from reputable dealers and manufacturers who can guarantee that the boards have been dried properly.  Once delivered, the acclimation period recommended for any hardwood flooring is especially important in order to avoid warping.  If these precautions are taken, however, Hickory will prove plenty stable once installed.

Hickory at a Glance

• Very hard (Janka 1820)
• Great for pets and families
• Distinctive color variation
• Great for rustic or antique looks
• Best purchased pre-finished, not DIY-friendly

When it comes to hardwood flooring in the U.S., Oak has been the go-to species not just for decades, but for well over two centuries.  Part of Oak’s popularity is due to its prevalence on the North American continent—Oaks account for more than half of all domestic hardwood trees.  Their wood is also uncommonly dense and hard, so very durable, and is high in tannins, which help it to resist fungus and repel insects, making it an ideal material for flooring.

In a recent survey of professional designers from around the country, nearly half of the respondents chose Oak as the species they recommend most—and more than half made this their recommendation for pet owners.  Modern harvesting and milling techniques allow for more customization of Oak than ever before, making it at once a classic and a contemporary favorite.

Here, we take a closer look at America’s hardwood sweetheart.

Hundreds of species

Oak trees make up the genus Quercus, of which there are some 600 different species.  Here in the States, the most popular species for flooring are the native Quercus alba, White Oak, and Quercus rubra or Borealis, Northern Red Oak.  However, there are species whose qualities are so similar to Quercus alba that they are also sometimes sold as White Oak.

White Oak

White Oak trees tend to be shorter and squatter than Red Oaks and can live for several hundred years.   These are some of the Oaks you see with sprawling limbs, ideal for climbing and tire swings.  This picturesque tree has earned a place as the state tree of Illinois, Connecticut and Maryland and is even the symbol of Connecticut minted on that state’s quarter.  It grows throughout the eastern half of the U.S. and in much of southern Canada and remains abundant thanks to sustainable harvesting and careful forest management.

White Oak wood has a closed cellular structure, which helps to make it water- and rot-resistant. Because of this trait, white oak has long been used to make barrels for fermenting wine and whiskey and in shipbuilding.  Rating at 1360 on the Janka hardness scale, the lumber is prized particularly for its strength, stability, and resiliency.

Not only is White Oak a durable hardwood, it is also a versatile flooring choice.  Its grain is generally straight, but with a coarse, uneven texture that gives it a little character.  Its natural color ranges from very pale (almost white) to light yellow or brown with slightly gray undertones, except at the heart, where it is more of a light to medium brown.  It takes stains and finishes well, opening up a world of aesthetic possibilities.   Because of the prevalence of these trees and their relatively large size, it is usually available in almost any cut—plainsawn or quartersawn (which display an interesting fleck pattern), narrow boards or wide planks, and traditional or longer lengths.

White Oak is usually a little more expensive than similar cuts of Red Oak, but the additional cost (not generally more than $1 or 2 per square foot) will be worth it if you need added stability or are looking for a harder, more durable wood.

Red Oak

Red Oak, or more accurately, Northern Red Oak, grows in many of the same parts of North America as White Oak, though it is somewhat wider spread due to its tolerance of different soil types and growing conditions.  In forests, Red Oaks tend to be taller and narrower than White Oaks and, under the right circumstances, can grow very quickly, reaching 15-20 feet in just 10 years.  They also have a relatively long lifespan, getting as old as 500 years, though their acorns take sometimes more than 3 times as long to germinate.  Like the White Oak, the Red Oak has become the symbol of many of the areas in which it grows, including the state of New Jersey and the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island.

Often cited as the most popular domestic wood species for hardwood flooring, Northern Red Oak is extremely valuable for timber production for many purposes.  While the best cuts are used for flooring, trim, and furniture, even lower quality Red Oak finds its way to market, as firewood, fence posts, railroad ties, and more.

Unlike White Oak, Red Oak has an open grain, so much so that smoke can be blown through from one end of a plainsawn board to the other.  While this can be a neat trick, it unfortunately means that it is more subject to moisture infiltration and is less stable than White Oak.  It is also less dense, and consequently not as hard, rating 1290 on the Janka scale (by no means a poor score in terms of hardness).

The heartwood of Red Oak is light to medium brown, but with a reddish instead of an olive cast.  Sapwood, like that of White Oak, tends to be closer to white or light brown, but also has a pinkish tint, true to its name.  This wood is especially well-known for its ability to take stains, lending it a great deal of versatility.  Like other Oak species, quartersawn sections display prominent ray fleck patterns while plainsawn boards have a straight, coarse grain.

While Red Oak is not as resistant to insect and rot damage as its hardier cousin, modern finishes will generally serve to protect against these things.  And, though it may not be as strong as White Oak, it is a very durable wood and displays remarkable shock resistance, fending off signs of wear more adeptly than other woods might.

Choosing Red Oak or White Oak

• Because of its remarkable durability and resistance to everything from moisture to bugs, White Oak tends to be a little pricier than Red Oak, though the cost of both will fluctuate.
• The natural color of the woods is, of course different, but either can be stained easily to suit your liking.   Red Oak may continue to display a slightly redder tint, though, even through the stain.
• Both are widely available in practically any cut you might choose.
• Red Oak’s grain is sometimes a bit stronger than that of White Oak, giving White Oak a slightly smoother look.
• White Oak is notably harder than Red Oak, but Red Oak’s resiliency can leave it looking less worn over time.
• White Oak is much more water resistant and therefore has greater dimensional stability.
• If you are expanding existing Oak flooring into other areas of the house, you will want to make sure to determine whether your current floors are Red Oak or White Oak, as this will make a difference in matching the stain and general appearance of the floor.

Image credit:  tree: northern red oak. [Photograph]. In Britannica Online for Kids. Retrieved from http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art-126764