Floors of any kind are probably abused more than any other décor feature in your home. Pets run across the floor to attract attention and bond with family members, and children respond with all kinds of toys in tow. And your floor, well, it’s expected to take it all in and still add beauty and class to any home environment. Can a mesquite hardwood floor meet this challenge?

Well, first it may be important to understand how all wood is tested for durability. Of course, durability itself can imply a lot of different things, from the expected impact resistance of a baseball bat to the environmental ability of the planks in a wooden slatted canoe to survive the elements, but in this case we are being very specific.

The durability of a wood used for a hardwood floor refers to its compression or dent resistance. It is a measure of the amount of force needed to push a 0.444-inch-diameter steel ball halfway through a piece of wood. It is known as the Janka Classification.

In simple terms, it is a way to measure the hardness of a particular wood. It gives the consumer an idea of ​​how easy it will be to scratch any particular floor while moving furniture or cornering children.

Hardwood Flooring Hardness Rating: Mesquite Hardwood Flooring?

Mesquite wood is unique in that it is the hardest of all typical North American woods. It has a Janka rating of 2345, which puts it far ahead of normal flooring species like red oak and hard maple with a Janka hardwood floor hardness rating of less than 1500. Mequite wood then has nearly the double the strength of the tooth.

To the consumer, this suggests that a mesquite hardwood floor will certainly withstand abuse without showing signs of wear as quickly as some of the more traditional woods.
If you want the most basic consumer test without having to rely on a set of lab-generated numbers, simply pick up a box from a hardwood floor. Mesquite will weigh more than three pounds per square foot of three-quarter-inch-thick hardwood flooring. Then pick up an equivalent box of oak or maple hardwood. The weight should give you an idea. The harder the wood, the more difficult it will be to damage it.

Keep in mind that when looking at the hardness rating of a hardwood floor, Mequite ranks harder than all of the North American species, but this is not meant to suggest that it is the hardest species of wood on the world market. floors. We can find wooden floors like IPE that are well above 3000, so keep in mind that this scale is relative!

This is just one of the advantages of mesquite hardwood flooring and you may want to do some further research to gain a fuller understanding of what you have in terms of design options and other attractive features of wood that make it an attractive choice. a great hardwood floor to survive the dog, cat and kids.