Great to see the variety and variances within the species. Your willingness to share your expertise is appreciated! And thanks again for the assistance last year - loving my new white oak floors and not missing the Brazilian Cherry (and just found the receipt for that mistake when doing some cleaning up).

Great video. Opinions from a "wood guy" that isn't a floor guy. Engineered with a thick wear layer is better than solid. Avoid factory finished solid or engineered. That site applied continuous film finish is important for protection. I leaned this by a spilled glass of red wine on a factory finished maple floor. Stop staining wood to make it look like something it is not. Why have a maple floor and stain it walnut? Keep it the way nature intended it to look. Many woods significantly change "color/tone" over time, Like women, the older they get the more beautiful they become. Stop buying perfectly clear wood and put it on a floor. Wood in "real life" isn't perfect, embrace the natural scars. Some of us woodworkers die a little inside every time we see clear riff or quarter sawn white oak on a floor. Maybe average home owners today that doesn't really appreciate "natural wood" should really look into the bamboo, farmed type woods. The most beautiful floor I have ever seen was a Heart Pine floor about an inch thick installed in the early 1800's and covered with carpet since the 50's. Obviously these are only my opinions and folks should buy what they like and not what trends tell them to like. Staining wood dark is "in" right now, it was also "in" in the 80's. I'm waiting for the golden oak from the 90's to come back.

In New Brunswick , Canada ,Eastern yellow birch was a very versatile and durable wood . Given that summers there are hot and humid and winters long and cold , therefore dry ,especially with forced air heating , I would recommend 21/4 "inch if it was acceptable . This narrowness ameliorated the effects of a large seasonal humidity differential and the narrower wood also looked good in that shorts looked less short the narrower the wood. A somewhat character grade ( whiter ,plain birch, especially quick growing second growth ,was frankly pretty ugly ) had one more advantage- its grain was a great chameleon- stain it cherry , it looked like cherry ,stain it special walnut , it looked like walnut and the same for mahogany. Within reason anyway. A very versatile wood.Not as hard as oak or maple but nonetheless durable and reasonably stable. For that matter ,durability is in some ways overrated - drop the steam iron on any wood and you've got a dent. Have a paved driveway, take your shoes off at the door and have your installer - finisher in occasionally to recoat if necessary. That was also in the days of oil based DuraSeal ,which without stain also gave you a beautiful floor .And if you came across a good supply of red birch with a lot of flame figure , you got a glorious colour and a well sanded and finished floor made those curls and flame figure look like a deep,rich shimmering liquid. 2 cents worth from an old retired floor guy. Addendum: Never much cared for select and better maple - it would yellow in an ugly way compared to the rest of the floor if exposed to a lot flight-next to south facing patio doors for instance.

I love those samples, those look awesome!

And there is Ash and Larch and Pine, and many others that can be used as flooring. Would love to see a video on many of these others as well. Interesting.

This video would be so helpful if I had any idea what a square foot is ,😊

the dog was the highlight of this video!

Can you tell something about the exotic wood, as ipe sap Brazilian walnut?

I know its not as common to see, but what is your opinion on using black locust for flooring?

I like the first one. What pattern is it called?

our home has some sort of unfinished engineered flooring which means that it gets very easily damaged (especially water damage) - is there some way that we can protect it until we can afford to replace it?

The best hardwood floor is one that doesn’t get wet.

Hello, Thanks to your videos we have learnt a lot on flooring. Extremely informative videos. I have some queries regarding flooring. Is there a way to reach you through email ?

That’s so weird you say you don’t see hickory going in a lot these days. We do hickory all the time. Usually prefinished. Chelsea 3”4”5”. I would say our most common prefinished is hickory. Most common raw is red oak. Then white oak, maple, least common is walnut and cherry

Question about walnut? We currently pay $16 a board-foot for woodworking walnut. Normal, flat-sawn 5” wide. How can flooring go down to $8 a square foot? Engineered? 5/8” thick?

I'm surprised at how much more per sqft these woods cost than the cost per boardfoot available at a decent hardwood lumberyard.

Hi , Its difficult to hear the volume on you video's.

lol. your mic is so not working at all.

I’m putting in an ebony floor as we speak