Is Hickory Flooring Harder Than Oak

Oak flooring in general is more expensive than most of the flooring materials.

Is hickory flooring harder than oak.

Apart from its fine looks one of the top qualities of hickory hardwood flooring is that it is the hardest domestic wood on the market with a jenka ranking of 1820 that s quite a lot harder than red oak which has a ranking of 1290. Hickory flooring is more stable than some woods like maple and red oak so it won t warp as quickly in humid climates if you take good care of it. The main reason for this is that oak grow slowly and take a long time to replace. Oak is the most stable of the three flooring options.

Knowing the traffic patterns of a growing family we opted for the harder hickory over other options in our price range. Maple and oak each offer several options to choose from. Hickory is somewhere in the middle but harder than both white and red oak. Its resiliency has made it a popular choice for handles on such things as axes shovels hammers rakes and baseball bats.

Oak is beautiful but more common in homes compared to maple and hickory. Hickory has a higher stress rating than red or white oak. Hickory is typically used less for cabinetry than are red or white oak due in part to its higher cost and it can be harder to find. Hickory flooring does relatively well in climates that can be hard on hardwood if you live in a humid climate hardwood can be prone to warping even when you try to keep it as dry as possible.

Hickory wood flooring scores 1 820 on the scale whereas douglas fir is only rated 660 yellow birch is rated 1 260 white oak is rated 1 360 maple is rated 1 450 and mesquite the only domestic hardwood that is harder than hickory is rated 2 345. If you do not know how to install the flooring yourself you will also have to call a contractor to install it which can cost you a great deal more.