Hardwood tends to be heavier and more expensive than softwood. Softwood is also used to make garden furniture, but has to be treated in order to protect it from the elements. In general it is more commonly used than hardwood due to its lower cost and ease to work with. Softwood is widely used in construction. Softwood flooring is usually manufactured with tongue and groove so that the floor can be installed with a smooth surface and no gaps. The wood may be purchased already finished (sanded and stained) or in a natural state with the finishing to be done by the installer.
Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as conifers, as well as Amborella. The term is opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from angiosperm trees.
Characteristics[edit]
Softwood flooring choices include spruce, fir, and pine flooring. Softwoods are just as beautiful as the hardwoods for flooring and, in most cases, costs much less (pine flooring averages $5 per square foot.) Pine flooring will continue to harden over the years with additional use and the refinishing process is as easy as refining hardwoods floors. Softwood Flooring. Many people like the look of softwood flooring that provides a down-home country style to a room. The most common softwoods used in homes are pine, cedar, fir, and beech which can be stained in colors that look like more expensive options.
What Is Softwood Flooring Good
Softwood is usually wood from gymnosperm trees such as pines and spruces. Softwoods are not necessarily softer than hardwoods.[1] In both groups there is an enormous variation in actual wood hardness, the range of density in hardwoods completely including that of softwoods. Some hardwoods (e.g. balsa) are softer than most softwoods, while the hardest hardwoods are much harder than any softwood. The woods of longleaf pine, Douglas fir, and yew are much harder in the mechanical sense than several hardwoods.
Softwoods are generally most used by the construction industry and are also used to produce paper pulp, and card products.[2] In many of these applications, there is a constant need for density and thickness monitoring and gamma-ray sensors have shown good performance in this case.[3]
Certain species of softwood are more resistant to insect attack from woodworm, as certain insects prefer damp hardwood.
Softwood reproduces using cones and occasionally nuts.
Known softwood trees and uses[edit]
- Douglas fir - joinery, doors and heavy construction
- Eastern white pine - furniture
- European spruce - used throughout construction, panelling and cladding
- Larch - used for cladding and boats
- Lodgepole pine - roofing, flooring and in making chipboard and particle board[4]
- Parana pine - stair treads and joinery
- Scots pine - construction industry, mostly for interior work
- Sitka spruce - [5]
- Southern yellow pine - joinery, flooring and decking
- Western hemlock - doors, joinery and furniture
- Western red cedar (or red cedar) - furniture, decking, cladding, and roof shingles
- Yew - interior and exterior furniture e.g. chairs, gate posts and wood turning
Applications[edit]
Softwood is the source of about 80% of the world's production of timber,[6] with traditional centres of production being the Baltic region (including Scandinavia and Russia), North America and China. Softwood is typically used in construction as structural carcassing timber, as well as finishing timber.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Buckley, Michael (2005). 'A basic guide to softwoods and hardwoods'(PDF). worldhardwoods.com. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
- ^Ryan, V. (2012). 'REVISION CARDS - SOFTWOODS'. technologystudent.com. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
- ^Beigzadeh, A.M. (2019). 'Design, modelling and construction of a continuous nuclear gauge for measuring the fluid levels'. Measurement. 138: 157–161. doi:10.1016/j.measurement.2019.02.017.
- ^'Things we make from softwood trees'. forestry.gov.uk. 11 July 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
- ^Harding, T. (1988). 'British Softwoods:Properties and Uses'(PDF). forestry.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
- ^United Nations Forest Products Annual Market Review 2007-2008, p. 46, at Google Books
If you're in the market for a wood floor in a low-traffic room, don't ignore the rustic charm and extremely low cost of softwoods like pine.
Trees are classified as either hardwood or softwood according to the structure of their seeds. And while almost all hardwoods are, in fact, hard, softwoods are not really soft; they’re simply more susceptible to dents and dings. Impervious to such incidental damage, durable hardwoods have become virtually synonymous with wood flooring. And it’s undeniable that for high-traffic rooms, particularly in homes with children or pets, hardwood makes the superior floor choice. But due to their low cost and rustic look, there are certain situations in which softwoods—pine, spruce, and fir, for example—might be used effectively as flooring.
What Is Softwood Flooring Safe
Take Your Pick
While the many varieties of hardwoods spoil homeowners with choice, softwoods encompass a category unto themselves. Pine is probably the softwood most frequently used in flooring, but it’s not the only one. Fir, cypress, cedar, spruce, and hemlock are other commonly available softwoods, and you will find additional options that are unique to your geographical region. Best of all, no matter which softwood you choose, it’s bound to cost less than any hardwood. For example, you can typically get pine for half the cost of oak, perhaps the most ubiquitous hardwood flooring material. And many cases, pine costs even less than vinyl flooring!
Besides affordability, another reason to like softwoods is that they’re more environmentally friendly than slower-growing hardwoods. Because many types of softwood grow quite quickly, they lend themselves to sustainable farming and harvesting. Like bamboo, softwoods can be considered a renewable resource.
Photo: frankshirleyarchitects.com
The Cons
There are degrees of resiliency among softwoods, but it can be generally stated that in comparison with hardwoods, softwoods are more vulnerable to dents, dings, and scratches. In a kitchen where canned goods might fall from a countertop, or in a living room where the floor might be subject to a guest’s high heels, softwoods would inevitably—and sooner rather than later—begin to show wear.
That said, the durability of a floor depends not only the species of wood from which it’s made, but also on its finish. If you stain a softwood floor and then seal it properly with a few applications of polyurethane, chances are it’s going to stand up fairly well. In a room with only a modest amount of activity—a finished attic, for example—softwood flooring could be expected to last for many years.
Some folks don’t even see dents and dings as imperfections, but rather as valuable contributions to the character of a floor. Such homeowners might even purposely distress or antique a new floor, wanting it to look older than it really is. Those whose style preferences run to the rough and rugged may very well find pine more desirable than a highly resilient hardwood like hickory.
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Know Your Knots
If you walk into the flooring section of your local home center, you might not actually find any softwood floors for sale. Except for certain types of pine, softwoods are rarely marketed as flooring products.
For the best deals, inquire at a nearby sawmill or lumberyard. Know that for any softwood species, there are different grades of quality. Grades 1 and 2 are most suitable for flooring, though you can save even more money by choosing a lower-grade wood, if you can live with, and love, the knottier material. If you want to conceal the nails that secure the floor, purchase boards with tongue-and-groove edges.
Finishing
Whereas hardwood floors often come prefinished, softwood hardly ever does. That can be a good thing, though, since it affords you the opportunity to finish the wood exactly as you’d like.
There are lots of options when it comes to finishing, including stains, varnish, and tung oil. Or, if you like the natural look, you can always leave the wood unfinished—after all, that’s how people did it for hundreds of years. To avoid problems with moisture, however, it’s recommended that you apply multiple coats of polyurethane, lightly sanding between each coat. After all, even though you’re paying considerably less for a softwood floor, you’re not going to save any money if you need to replace it right away!