Timber Grades in Flooring - General Comments

Grades and timber flooring.

Within Australia there are usually 3 grades of timber flooring. These are Select, Standard & Better & Feature grades. In the last few years [at 2013] other grades have slipped in. Standard, Feature & Better & Low Feature. Essentially mills must decide how best to capitalise on the timber that they produce to value add the logs that they receive.

All of these grades apply to the aesthetic area of the timber [how the face looks.] All of the grades are sound, suitable for use in flooring and all are quality offerings. One is not inferior to the other, they are simply different to look at.

In order to produce select and standard and better grades there is some waste produced as gum marks at the ends of boards may be docked off and the timber discarded. The labour components and the wasted timber adds cost to the production and therefore these timbers attract a premium.

At times a mill may have a lot of feature grade but also some shorter clear boards. This may be supplied as a feature and better grade of flooring.

Grades and Timber Flooring European & US Markets

Overseas the grades often follow different lines. Instead of gum marks the timbers may have knots and other pin holes, birds eye etc. Knots are not an issue as long as they are sound. Again the grading follows aesthetics going from rustic-feature-standard-standard plus & prime. The most popular grade is usually standard grade as this allows for better overall lengths of timber. Each mill offers their reasons or allowing knots in various sizes. Several of the better mills pre-fill the knots to ensure quality.