The right flooring in the right place

Resistance against damage

Each wood species has a different degree of hardness, which means that it’s more or less resilient to mechanical damage.

Very hard woods such as Canadian maple (47 MPa in the Brinell's scale), merbau (48 MPa in the Brinell's scale), jatoba (71 MPa in the Brinell's scale), doussie (41 MPa in the Brinell's scale), tali (62 MPa in the Brinell's scale), badi (54 MPa in the Brinell's scale) and wenge (61 MPa in the Brinell's scale) are the most durable and so recommended for high-traffic areas, children’s playrooms and places where pets are kept.

Softer woods, which are less resistant to mechanical damage, should be used in rooms of average traffic, e.g. houses, apartments.

The floor of medium hardness (e.g. birch (25 MPa in the Brinell's scale) or European maple (29 MPa in the Brinell's scale)) will look particularly appealing in spaces of very little traffic, e.g. bedrooms or households with few members.

Resistance to change effected by sunshine

In the course of time and as a result of sunshine (particularly,
UV radiation), wood products begin to change colour. Though it is
a completely natural process, not all wood species react in the same way. Some woods change colour fairly quicly, others need years for that.

That’s why, while choosing a floor, one should pay attention to the way the sunshine penetrates the interior.

The wood species that easily change colour should not be used in rooms of intense sun exposure, because the places particularly exposed will become discoloured to a greater degree than those shaded (e.g. under furniture, behind a door, under carpets).

The floors that are particularly sensitive to discoloration are those made of exotic woods and so it is recommended that once the flooring has been laid, all of it gets the same amount of sun exposure.