Hardwood Species

The more you know about the unique characteristics of wood and its source, the better equipped you are to choose a species which will fulfil your specific individual hardwood flooring requirements. Floors, walls and ceilings made of wood are truly unique for, like fingerprints, every single tree features a unique grain pattern.
Strictly speaking, the classification hardwood does not actually mean that the wood is hard, it means that it comes from a leaf bearing tree; soft wood come from a cone bearing tree. In fact, some leaf bearing trees produce very soft wood, whilst some cone bearing trees have very hard woods. Hardness is actually measured by the Janka test, which was designed primarily to ascertain the suitability of a given wood for use in flooring. It measures the resistance of the wood to denting and wear by measuring the force, in pounds, required to embed an 11.28mm steel ball into the wood to a depth of half of the ball’s diameter.

Oak Hardwood

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus (/ˈkwɜːrkəs/;Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, There are approximately 600 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus. The genus is native to the Northern Hemisphere, and includes deciduous and evergreen species extending from cool temperate to tropical latitudes in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and North Africa. North America contains the largest number of oak species, with approximately 90 occurring in the United States. Mexico has 160 species, of which 109 are endemic. The second greatest center of oak diversity is China, which contains approximately 100 species.
Oak wood has a density of about 0.75 g/cm3 (0.43 oz/cu in) creating great strength and hardness which make good material for Solid wood flooring, Engineered wood flooring or Parquet flooring. White oak measures 1360 on the Janka scale. 

Ash Hardwood

Ash is a member of the Fraxinus genus of which there are around 60 different species, including the olive and lilac families, growing throughout Europe, North America, north Africa and many parts of Asia. European Ash is a large, deciduous tree which grows freely throughout the continent. It is resilient and grows rapidly and, as such, was an important resource for smallholders and farmers who would often coppice the trees on a ten-year cycle to provide a sustainable source of timber for fuel, building and woodworking.
The colour of ash wood ranges from creamy white through light brown, whilst the heart wood may be a darker olive-brown. The timber is hard (white ash measures 1320 on the Janka scale), tough, highly flexible, shock-resistant and also resistant to splitting, all of which makes ash suitable for solid or engineered woods floors. Solid ash flooring is strong and flexible; engineered ash flooring benefits from the same attributes; both are prized for their colour and attractive, coarse, open, fairly straight grain which resembles that of oak.