Talk Like a Pro - Wide Plank Flooring Terminology
Some days it seems like our industry has a language of its own. There are many terms we commonly use that may be sort of obscure if you are just starting your wide plank flooring research. To make things easier, we’ve compiled a glossary of different wide plank flooring terms and their meanings. If you would like a further explanation on a topic, or if there’s a word that should be added to the list, please let us know in the comments below! An extended version of this glossary can be found in our Resource Library.
A
Acclimation Period: A period of time in which the hardwood’s moisture content becomes at equilibrium with the environment in which it will be installed. Unfinished hardwoods should typically acclimate for 7 – 10 days while prefinished hardwoods should typically acclimate 10 – 14 days.
Antique Hardwood Flooring: Hardwood flooring manufactured from reclaimed hardwoods from structures such as agricultural or industrial buildings that were typically built between the late 1800s and early 1900s constructed with timber from Old-Growth Forests.
Appearance Grade: Hardwood flooring that has the coloring of a specific species of wood, but may contain different variations of that species. For example, appearance grade white oak hardwood flooring may contain white oak boards, but may also contain red oak boards that are very light in color.
B
Barn Wood: Hardwood reclaimed from an agricultural structure.
C
Cerusing : A process for wide plank flooring in which the wood is stained, wirebrushed, sanded, and stained a final time to give the grain patterns more definition.
Crowning: A condition in which the center of individual hardwood planks rise higher than the edges of the planks.
Cupping: A condition in which the edges of individual hardwood planks rise higher than the center of the planks. This is the opposite of crowning.
D
Distressed: An adjective to describe hardwood flooring that has a rough surface with evidence of the wood being scraped or sawed.
E
End-matching: A special milling process that puts tongue and groove on the boards’ ends.
Engineered wide plank flooring: Engineered wide plank flooring is manufactured with a 4 mm wear layer of our solid hardwood flooring atop an 8-ply Baltic Birch core. Please see this page for more details .
F
Filler: A substance used to fill larger open natural characteristics in planed or sanded surfaces before the finish is applied.
H
Hand-Scraping : A milling technique used to make it appear as if the hardwood’s surface has been scraped by hand.
Hit-skip: Milling process by which some of the board’s original surface texture is removed, revealing a smooth texture underneath, and some of the board’s original surface texture is left remaining.
I
Insect holes/tracks: A visible marking in the wood caused by insects that bore holes in trees.
K
Kiln: A chamber with controlled air flow, temperature, and humidity for drying wood.
Kiln-dried: Wood is placed in the kiln to dry. This process eliminates possible infestation concerns or mold in the wood and brings its moisture levels down to an optimal 6 – 8%.
Knot: A characteristic that can be found in wood. Knots are formed in trees at the spot of growth, such as branches or dormant buds.
L
Lead times: The estimated time it will take for an order to be manufactured. This time frame does not include transit time.
Live-sawn: A milling technique that is the most efficient way to cut a log into flooring planks, where each plank is cut straight off of the log in one direction, without changing the orientation of the log.
M
Moisture Content Level: The amount of moisture in the wood as expressed by a percentage of the weight of kiln-dried wood.
N
Nail holes: A characteristic of reclaimed wood where the wood used to be fastened.
O
Old-Growth Forests : Forests that have grown for hundreds of years without significant disturbance. These forests covered North America when settlers arrived, but were virtually extinct by the early 1900s. Those that remain are highly protected.
Olde Wood Ltd.: That’s us! We are one of the nation’s leading manufacturers of custom wide plank flooring, including our Reclaimed Antique, Traditional Plank, and Mustang Collection lines. We also manufacture other unique reclaimed building materials such as barn siding, beams + timbers, fireplace mantels, stair parts, and more.
P
Patina: Degree of a board’s color due to environmental exposure.
Plank: Solid or engineered hardwood boards that are 3” or wider and designed to be used as flooring and wall or ceiling treatments.
Prefinished: Flooring that is factory-finished and only requires installation.
R
Reclaim: The process of harvesting wood from an existing structure.
Reclaimed Antique Wide Plank Flooring: Hardwood flooring with widths that range from 3” to 12” that is made from the prized virgin timber that is reclaimed from centuries-old agricultural and industrial wooden structures.
Random Widths: Hardwood flooring board widths vary between different dimensions. Common combinations include 3” – 6”, 4” – 8”, or 6” – 10”. This is also referred to as mixed-widths.
S
Saw kerf marks: Characteristic on the surface texture of the board meant to replicate characteristics of early pioneer milling techniques with an old-fashioned girth mill.
Sound checking: A characteristic of reclaimed flooring where separation occurred throughout the board, but it is structurally sound.
Sound cracks: A characteristic of reclaimed flooring where a board separated at its end, but the separation is structurally sound.
Specified widths: A special request by the customer where they request certain board widths. This can include boards that are all the same width, or combinations of widths such as 4”/6”/8” or 3”/5”/7”.
Square foot: A unit of area measurement that is defined as the area of a square with sides 1 ft in length.
Surface patina: Original facing of the board that was exposed to the environment while the board was in use in its centuries-old structure.
T
Traditionally Milled: Hardwood flooring that is manufactured from mature, fallen, or standing dead trees. The boards are live-sawn, meaning the whole log is utilized. This keeps characteristics that would be removed by modern lumber grading practices and replicates early pioneer sawing practices. Our product line of traditionally milled hardwoods is our Traditional Plank Collection.
Tongue & Groove: A system in which adjacent flooring boards are joined by interlocking ridges and grooves on their sides.
U
Unfinished: No finish coating has been applied to the wood.
V
Virgin Timber: Wood from the original Old-Growth Forests. Reclaimed lumber is the only way to obtain virgin timber as logging in the remaining Old-Growth forests is highly prohibited.
W
Warping: Any distortion of flooring.
Wear-layer: The 4mm solid hardwood layer in engineered hardwood flooring that is adhered to a plywood core.
Wire-brushing: A milling process where the boards are brushed with a hard wire brush, which scrapes off the softer wood from the surface of each board, leaving only the hardest wood and emphasizing the grain patterns.
Wide Plank Flooring: Hardwood flooring with widths from 3” to 12”.