Why is wood so good for Flooring?

Here at the Solid Wood Flooring Company we believe wood is the very best material to use for flooring suitable for both residential and commercial environments.

There are many wide-ranging benefits of wood flooring – from being an renewable, environmentally friendly material that needs low energy content for production to having a very high specific strength due to its low density and reasonable strength.

Also wood as a material is not electrically conductive, non-toxic and low in thermal conductivity – so it is perfect for most environments from the leisure centre’s sports hall to a busy restaurant kitchen.

When growing, the tree is pre-stressed. The centre of tree trunk is getting compressed, compared to the tension in the outer layers. The stressing is achieved as the inner sapwood shrinks as it dries and becomes heartwood. As the heartwood has lower moisture content it is better able to resist compression.

This process allows the timber to become a strong and flexible engineering material. It may not be the most hi-tech material but it truly is perfect for flooring.

During tree growth, new cells grow at the edge of the tree. At the beginning of the growing season, in spring, the cells that grow are large due to the greater amount of moisture available.

Throughout summer, the moisture decreases and the cells begin to get smaller as a result. By winter, the cells no longer grow, and cells at the edge of the sapwood region near the central heartwood dry out and die.

This sequence is evident as annual growth rings. In a good growing year, the growth ring will be wider than that in a bad growing year.

By working out the sequence of good and bad years it is possible to match this sequence to the tree, as long as it is more than fifty years old when felled, and hence find the age of the tree.

Close examination of the last growth ring then pinpoints the actual season that the tree was cut down.

This technique was used to date the oldest-known timber track-way in the world, Sweet Track in the Somerset levels, to the winter of 3807 to 3806 BC.

The pre-stressing and difference in growth cycles across all different wood types mean our floors are each completely unique, and each tell a very different story.

So when considering your next floor, take a look at our sustainable range of wood floors.