living room cherry wood floor

What to Know About Cherry Wood Floor

A category of hardwood, normally known as cherry wood floor, was used as flooring in numerous houses from 2000 to 2005. In certainty, this wood is not a member of the cherry family whatsoever but is instead a legume species, Hymenaeacourbaril. It is also called jatoba, locust, or courbaril. The general name cherry wood was an advertising ploy used to play off the wood’s radiating deep red color. Cherry wood floor signified over-the-top vanity at one time, but while its fame has a bit faded, this stunning wood is still a practical choice for flooring. It is available in numerous forms, ranging from solid hardwood planks to look-alike plastic laminates.

Dining area cherry wood floor

Cherry Wood Floor Origins

Cherry wood (Jatoba) hails from the rainforests of Brazil. It is a very hard wood; with a Janka hardwood ranking of 2350 (white oak has a Janka rating of 1360). While hard to work, Jatoba accepts stains and finishes inside out, which is why it has been such a trendy choice for flooring. Trees naturally grow 100 to 130 feet high.

As a Flooring Material

This red or salmon-colored wood frequently has gorgeous streaks of darker strips. Solid hardwood planks are not easy to install except by professionals, but engineered wood varieties are on hand, which are easier for DIYers to install. While the wood’s fame among furniture builders and woodworkers has waned, cherry wood is still regarded as a very strong and tough flooring material.

Cherry wood is measured by some to be a rare tree species given that it comes from heavily-logged Amazon areas. On the other hand, FSC-certified (Forest Stewardship Council) cherry wood floor can be purchased. And the type is not listed in the CITES Appendices; it and is listed by the IUCN as being a type of least worry.

Cherry Wood Floor Laminate

Cherry wood coat looks incredible from a distance, although it is not actual wood, but somewhat a plastic laminate. And it costs just a few dollars per square foot. To enjoy further savings, you can steer clear of the high installation charges of professional installers and install cherry wood coat yourself.

The downside is that the cherry wood appearance is the result of a convincing photographic rendition applied to a fiberboard core. And like all laminate flooring, it doesn’t feel as solid underfoot as authentic wood.

Engineered Cherry Wood Floor

A floor finished of engineered cherry wood is a good compromise between the laminate and the solid hardwood versions.

In an engineered wood floor, a thin veneer of real wood is applied to a layer (or multiple layers) of dimensionally steady plywood-type substance. These products are not only less expensive, but more economically responsible, since less actual rainforest hardwood is used. Engineered wood merchandise is also friendlier to DIY fitting than solid hardwood.

cherry wood floor

Prefinished Flooring

There are some advantages to buying your cherry wood floor prefinished:

They can contain up to seven coats of aluminum oxide-based finish, with one or two top wear layers, saving you substantial time on staining and finishing.

Finishing happens off-site in a factory, not in your home. So there is no smell or untidiness
There is no waiting for the finish to cure—you can walk on it immediately.

One consequence of buying it prefinished flooring is that it is more vulnerable to damage during the fitting process. Incomplete flooring can also be damaged, but it can be remedied through the finishing procedure

Unfinished Cherry Wood Flooring

Cherry wood changes dramatically during the finishing process. Unfinished, the hardwood has a velvety pinkish-red color that becomes a warm and rich reddish brown with patterned tones after discoloration and finishing.

Hand scraped Flooring

The “hand-scraped flooring” trend has migrated to cherry wood, as well. As you can most likely guess, no hands do the real scraping. For this huge residential flooring market, the hardwood flooring is machine-textured to replicate thin grooves seen in traditional hand-scraped floors. In this example, the inset obviously shows the type of ridges naturally found in hand-scraped flooring.

Whilst cherry wood sounds unusual, the prices in fact are not all that exotic. In the last decade or so, the Amazon hardwood marketplace has exploded, sending mass quantities of flooring to the US, China, Canada, and Europe at prices that stay inching lower. Distinctive prices per square foot:

Engineered wood: $6.20 per square foot
Prefinished: $5.50 per square foot
Unfinished: $4.75 to $5.00 per square foot
Laminate look-alike: $2.00 per square foot
Prices vary, but this gives you a broad idea of ranges and differences. Coat will always be the cheapest type, with engineered wood hardly nosing out solid hardwood for the feature of being the most costly.