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 However although red oak, white oak,
maple and birch all sell well at Canoak Flooring Ltd., Eva says in
his opinion white oak is the best hardwood flooring to buy.
Currently his store sells more white-oak hardwood flooring than
anything else, even though Canoak also sells exotic imported woods
like Santa Maria as well as more exotic domestic flooring made of
hickory, cherry or walnut.
"White oak is among the hardest
woods, right up there with maple," Eva says. "But it is by far the
most stable, meaning it will expand and contract the least with
humidity changes. So that makes it the best material, really, for
making a floor.
"And it looks very nice," Eva says. "It's
got a nice golden-brown tone to it."
Solid-plank
As for the size of boards currently used for solid-plank
hardwood floors, Knight says the standard depth for planks is now
3/4-inches deep while the standard width of planks is currently two
to 2 1/4 inches to 3 1/4 inches wide.
 "The maximum board length is usually
about eight feet, maximum," Knight says. "But your average board
length is 27 inches. So you'll have boards as short as 18 inches and
you'll have boards as long as 96 or 84 inches. But it averages out."
Knight, Eva and Johner also all say although hardwood floors
made with wider boards 5 1/2 inches to seven inches wide may look
esthetically pleasing to many people, there is one possible
disadvantage in installing them.
"Generally, the wider the
board the more expansion and contraction you can have in terms of
width," Johner says. "And there is a greater possibility for gaps to
form between the boards because of shrinkage."
Pre-finished
At present, the majority of
unfinished and pre-finished hardwood flooring Windsor Plywood sells
is about $4 to $5 per square foot (not installed), Johner says. Eva
says Canoak Flooring Ltd. can sell and install a a pre-finished
white-oak hardwood floor in a 500-square-foot room in a typical
house for about $7.10 per square foot.
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