Birch Wood
Although Birch wood is not a very hard wood and is unsuitable for flooring it is sometimes sold as maple, by rogue dealers, it lacks the durability of an oak or walnut floor, but has still been a choice for some schools for sports flooring especially those strapped for cash and used as substitute for Maple.
The wood is mostly white but as it nears the heartwood at the core of the tree it can be sometimes be tan or pinkish. The grain tends to be similar to oak very straight on one piece but lots of character on the next, it was a target for some furniture manufacturers after the second world war, but soon died off after they found out how soft it was, being very susceptible to impressions or marking.
Birch like beech does not stain very well, in fact you can only colour this by using a colourised lacquer, if you put stain on first it will go very dark in colour, sometimes purple, due to its closed pore structure it will give you an almost identical appearance to maple.
Birch is probably the cheapest of all the domestic hardwoods next to beech, and whilst being easy to work with most dealers tend to steer clear of it due to its softness, and in our opinion is unsuitable for flooring.
However we do sell laminated flooring in Birch pattern.
Positively Birch is a very stable wood and makes fantastic uses in marine ply or used as a backer base board for some of the better quality engineered woods used in the form of three ply excellent for under-floor heating in concrete screeds, or multi ply construction with old properties with poor quality sub floors like listed buildings.
Click here to view our solid wood flooring.
Click here to view our engineered wood flooring.
Click here to view our Laminated flooring.
Click here to view our floor cleaning products.
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