Exotic Hardwood Flooring Information

*EXOTIC FLOORING -- DISCONTINUED*

Why they are discontinued:

Although these products are stunning and offer a unique colour and grain pattern, we have made the decision to discontinue the manufacturing and production of exotic wood species. This allows us to continue our approach of being environmentally friendly & sustainable. Our focus is to source and manufacture all hardwood flooring products within a 300 mile radius of Tweed, Ontario. In the shift to minimize our carbon footprint, we are unable to continue to offer exotic wood species as the distance does not align with our manufuacturing radius. 

Did you know: The largest 16 container ships pollute more than all of the cars in the world. If you are looking at buying exotic flooring, consider the environmental impact you may be causing (even bamboo has to travel on these container ships -- is it really green?). 

Exotic Wood Flooring Species

At Gaylord Hardwood Flooring, we offer four exotic wood flooring species. These include Sucupira, also known as Brazillian Walnut; Tigerwood, also known as Brazillian Koa; Cumaru, also known as Brazilian Teak; and Jatoba, also known as Brazilian Cherry. Over the years, we have found these Brazilian woods work with our climate, whereas, others cannot handle the season changes in North America.

Exotic Flooring Pros and Cons

Pros: The Brazilian woods can be much harder than the domestic hardwood flooring options. Cumaru has a Janka hardness of 3540, which is over two times denser than Maple. 

Cons: Since exotic floors are so hard, they tend to be a little harder to work with, requiring shorter nails and a high quality saw. They will often chip on the ends of the boards, which doesn't look great. There are less regulations in many of these international forests, so the products themselves could be illegally harvested. In addition, these floors need to travel across seas to get to their final destination causing all kinds of pollution along the way. 

Exotic Flooring Grades

Brazilian floors come in a broad range of grades. Since these wood floors are imported, they can only come in lengths up to 7 feet, since that's the largest size that will fit in the container ships.