I'm looking at putting in new pre-finished hardwood floors (3/4 inch), and from one company they advise that American Cherry is the softest wood and shouldn't be used in high traffic area. Anyone have experience with this installed in their homes? Any problems related to the American Cherry to comment on? Thanks!
American Cherry is almost as hard as Oak. If you want one of the hardest and most beautuiful woods available, get Brazilian Cherry, it's twice as hard as Oak on the Brinell scale for wood hardness. From the company I bought my floor from, B.C. is the hardest wood they sell. On a scale of 8, Oak is about 4.1, B.C. is in the high 7's.
If I could do mine again, I would go with Kahrs Brazilian Cherry floating floor.
Cherry (if it's real cherry) is pretty well up on the hardness...something sounds fishy to me.
It is soft, relatively speaking.
or a graphical view:
Thanks to Travis and everyone for posting.
I'm a newbie. I admit, I never had a wood floor before, so I don't know what to expect what this means if it is soft. I was told by the salesman that you can see the dents more easily in American Cherry. But what size dents are we talking about? Is this something really easy to see and looks really bad? I'm thinking that if it was that bad, no one would be offering American Cherry for flooring. Anyone care to share a digital photo of an American Cherry floor that has been dented or scratched so I could see what this is all about?
I was also warned that it would turn a deep red over time, up to > Travis Jordan wrote:
How come? What is it about your American Cherry you don't like? Thanks!
Utter nonsense. With the single exception of the southern red oak, *all* native North American oaks are a *lot* harder than cherry -- and the southern red oak is still harder by nearly twelve percent.
You know there all gona get dents sooner or later. But if you want something real hard There is one called Tile from the Quarry Tree
"eastcoastguyz" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:
Cherry also darkens over time. Really darkens.
According to eastcoastguyz :
Cherry isn't the softest wood. It may be that company's softest wood, but there's much that's softer.
Too soft? Some people think white pine is hard enough (white pine is usually much softer than cherry), so it depends on a lot of factors.
It's probably a mistake to expect a high gloss cherry installation to stand up to heavy traffic. It won't do as well as oak or maple. But they aren't perfect either.
Brazillian Cherry looks quite a bit like American Cherry, but it ain't a member of the same family. If you want the appearance of high gloss American Cherry in a high traffic area, BC is probably the right choice.
I personally think American Cherry is the best looking of all woods, but I wouldn't use it for flooring in a high traffic area, unless I was interested in the slightly distressed look.
Cherry darkens dramatically when exposed to light. That's part of it's beauty (artificially staining it dark is blasphemy, and looks fake). But it can lead to wierdities in flooring (or furniture) for the first couple years until it equalizes.
replying to twice_redeemed, Utahred wrote: I have brazillian cherry and they are the softest wood floors I have ever had. I hate them. I drop a quarter on the floor and it leaves a dent (not kidding). They can't handle much abuse.
Need to determine what species it is they're calling Brazilian cherry. The usual name for that is jatoba and its Janka hardness is 2690. For comparison, red and white oak are 1220 and 1330, respectively.
American black cherry is quite soft in comparison at 950
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