Is Heart Pine Flooring ~ Hardwood Flooring?
Yes and No.
Trees are typically categorized into two major families: hardwoods and softwoods. Hardwoods have broad leaves that usually drop off the tree in winter such as oak, poplar, maple, walnut, etc. Softwoods have needle-like leaves all year round and are considered "evergreen" and include pine, spruce, hemlock and fir.
Generally, wood from hardwood trees has a higher density and hardness than that of softwoods but there is considerable variation in actual wood hardness in both groups, and wood from some softwoods species may be considerably harder than that of some hardwoods.
It CAN be confusing, but according the National Wood Floor Association, the softwood pine from the aristocratic Long-Leaf Pine, commonly called Heart Pine, possesses a hardness comparable to the standard-bearer of hardness - red oak. It is also extremely stable, and wears like iron on floors. So, although pine is not considered a hardwood - a heart pine floor is as tough and as stable as any hardwood floor. This is why some people use the term "hardwood pine." Next we'll discuss the differences between pine flooring, and heart pine flooring.
There's Pine Flooring, and Then There's Heart Pine Flooring!
But the most superior quality pine floor of all is Antique Heart Pine Flooring !
Beware of imitations!
There's a lot of misunderstanding about what distinguishes common pine flooring from heart pine flooring, and more specifically, what the difference is between a floor that can generally be called heart pine or heart-of-pine flooring, and the true queen of hardwood floors which is actually – Antique heart pine flooring.
Any pine, or any tree for that matter, that is old enough and large enough, will produce "heartwood" within its centermost part. The wood here is generally of a deeper coloration, and truly more rot and disease resistant than the sapwood, which is lighter and more blond in color around the outer edges, or on either side of the heart. Depending on the type of pine and its growth rate, tighter or looser growth rings are easily observed, and give us a clue as to whether we're working with common Pine or a true heart pine floor. It could very well be "new" heart pine, with 6–8 growth rings per inch and a percentage below 70% of the red-amber heartwood coloration.
True heart pine flooring, whether new heartpine or antique heart pine flooring, comes from a unique pine species, Pinus Palustris, which is 1 of 3 of the "long leaf" pines, and are themselves a type of southern yellow pine. They still grow today, but younger, newer trees just cannot attain the maturity before being harvested for the attributes of those that came from the virgin forest. Those gigantic slow growing first generation trees had all been cut down by 1900 and were 300-500 years old at that time. The "heartwood" inside the massive timbers and beams that literally served as the backbones for the factories and buildings that were built, was thoroughly dense and red-amber colored with as many as 25 and more, tight growth rings per inch.
Antique heart pine flooring is the superior choice among pine flooring options and not enough can be said for the superior quality and reliability of a floor composed of "hardwood" antique heart pine. Discriminating buyers that understand the subtleties and visually compare the differences, appreciate the warm character of the wood grain of the antique heart pine and its rich coloration that grows more beautiful with age.
Heart Pine Flooring Offers Versatile Design Choices
Hardwood floors of heart pine can support any one of several design characteristics, depending on how it is milled, or sawn, and prepared according to customer tastes.
Since there is no national grading system for reclaimed wood or antique wood floors, each supplier sets their own grades and description for their products, yet heart pine has unique and divergent attributes that transcend barriers of either formal or rustic design traditions.
The most elite and prime class of antique heart pine flooring, sometimes call "museum-grade," has a high heartwood content of 95% or better, has been milled "quarter-sawn" to reveal impeccable tight vertical grain patterns and honey-amber hued coloration, and exudes a warm elegance in even the most austere setting.
What might be perceived as a more casual heart pine floor effect is produced by a "flat-sawn" milling process which reveals the combination of the straight or vertical grain pattern described above, along with "cathedral" grain effects, within the context of a high percent of heartwood.
Additional grades of heart pine flooring, often referred to as cabin-grade or cottage-grade, or perhaps select grade, are lively hardwood floors that possess varying degrees of heartwood and sapwood and therefore more variation of blonde to amber coloration and more "character" marks as well.
"Character" is the word that best describes the floors embraced by rustic and shabby chic design trends, and heart pine floors fill that rustic wood floor niche as well. Whereas planed floors (those described above) have an original surface of reclaimed wood removed and present a finished new wood surface after it's planed; an original patina heart pine floor is cleaned and sanded to specs and often includes the original saw marks or hand-scraped marks created by laborer hands, possibly a century ago. Techniques are many, and depending on the look desired, and character marks available, unique rustic wood floors of heart pine come forth.
Heart Pine Flooring Popularity
Heart pine flooring is popular for many reasons, including its appearance, uniqueness, the fact that it's a "green" building material, the history or stories often associated with it, and its quality, strength and stability.
For more information on how you can use heart pine, antique heart pine flooring, or reclaimed wood or rustic wood flooring in your next project, contact Whole Log Lumber at 866-912-WOOD.
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