One thing Gaylord Hardwood Flooring is known for is our long board lengths. Our standard hardwood flooring comes in lengths up to 8 feet and our wide plank and engineered flooring comes in lengths up to 10 feet.
Wide Plank White Oak - Cognac Stain
If you compare our flooring to most quality North American hardwood flooring manufacturers, you will find our average board lengths are almost double industry norms. We bought boxes of red oak flooring from 4 of the largest North American hardwood flooring manufacturers and found the average board lengths for each to be somewhere between 27 to 29 inches. The average board length in our red oak is 48-54”. This is a significant difference. Longer lengths provide more visual continuity and a nicer look, whereas short boards look very choppy. The reason for our long board lengths is quite simple. We use better lumber. Before we started making hardwood flooring our sole business was selling rough kiln dried lumber. Our clients consisted of kitchen cabinet, furniture, and hardwood flooring manufacturers. We knew what lumber was typically used in what industry. The select and better (FAS) lumber was used to make mouldings and trim because long clear boards were required. The #1 common lumber was used to make kitchen cabinets, and 2-3 common lumber was used to make hardwood flooring. This means hardwood flooring manufacturers needed to cut between the knots in the boards to get clear pieces, giving them very short lengths. We use select and better and #1 common lumber to make our flooring which have fewer knots to be cut out giving us longer lengths. We knew what grade of lumber other flooring manufacturers were using, since we were selling it to them. We decided that to set us apart we would use a higher grade to give us longer lengths.
Long boards are especially important in wide plank floors.
The wider the boards, the choppier a floor with short lengths will look. You may think this would be common sense but the majority of wide plank floors on the market come in 8-6 or even 4’ boxes. Our wide plank flooring comes in lengths up to 10 feet with an average length between 6 and 7 feet. These lengths give you a beautiful flowing look you would expect from a rustic wide plank floor. Below on the left is a competitors wide plank floor and below on the right is a Gaylord Wide Plank Floor. Do you notice the difference in board lengths. If you are shopping around for hardwood flooring, you will notice that virtually no manufacturers will post what their average board lengths are. Does this maybe mean they are hiding something? It is up to you to find out. If you are in a flooring store and the salesperson can’t tell you definitively what the average board length will be, ask them to open a box for you to see for yourself.
Question: We are remodeling – and our designer brought me floor samples. It was for wide plank engineered and hardwood floors – but I noticed that the plank length on the back said 3’ -8’ . That seems, according to your article and video – that it would look choppy? We are looking for a a wirebrushed, darker floor for a traditional east coast Hampton style home . if we are using 8" wide planks – what’s the minimum that the planks should be in length. And who represents you in Los Angeles?