Maple Flooring Information – Gaylord Flooring

Maple Flooring Information

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Maple Flooring

Maple hardwood flooring is unique, as it can take on so many colors and styles. The minimal maple grain is popular for customers who do not like the "busy" look of Oak. Since natural maple wood is quite light, maple is has one of the largest available color ranges, of all wood floors.

Maple Flooring Pros and Cons

Maple wood has a Janka hardness factor of 1450, which is harder than Red Oak, but softer than Hickory. On the pro side, maple flooring goes very well with modern home decor. On the con side, maple flooring, with a dark stain is suspect to visible scratches, due to the lighter natural wood color.

Maple Flooring Grades

Our Maple hardwood flooring comes in three grades: prime grade, country grade, and clear grade.

Maple Flooring vs Oak

Comparing maple and oak is almost like comparing apples and oranges. Although maple and oak are very similar in Janka hardness, they have completely different appearances. Red Oak has very prominent open grain, where maple has a very minimal grain.

Maple Hardwood Flooring Details

Maple has minimal grain and is popular for consumers looking to steer away from the heavy grain of ash and oak. It is the second hardest North American species we manufacture next to Hickory. The clear maple is light, almost white in colour. The natural colours have colour variations from white sapwood to dark brown heartwood, to some dark mineral streaks. The Gaylord brushing process brings out the natural characteristics in the wood such as “tiger tail” and “birds eye”.

Like black maple (B. nigrum), sugar maple is classified as a hardwood (other species of maple are considered soft). And like teak and white oak, it has a high crushing strength. It is stiff, strong, dense, and extremely tough, with excellent shock resistance. It is notably resistant to abrasive wear; and for this reason, it is the hardwood flooring of choice for such high-traffic/hard-use locations as bowling alleys, basketball courts, and other sports facilities.

Janka Hardness: 1450

Hard maple is a harder and more durable variety of wood flooring. It is over twice as hard as Douglas fir, roughly six percent harder than white oak, about eighty-nine percent as hard as wenge, twenty-four percent softer than jarrah, and close to two thirds that of santos mahogany’s ranking of 2200. In comparison, black sugar maple has a ranking of 1180.