While hardwood flooring is highly sought after, it’s often relatively expensive compared to other types of flooring materials. This is especially true if you plan to use hardwood somewhere other than your primary place of residence, such as a workshop, cottage, cabin or high traffic entryway. For places such as these you might not want to use the more expensive natural grade hardwood flooring. Rustic grade hardwood flooring might be more appropriate. That said, rustic grade hardwood is different from simply-named rustic hardwood. So, what is rustic hardwood flooring compared with rustic grade hardwood flooring? In this article we’ll find out.
What Is Rustic Hardwood Flooring?
Rustic hardwood flooring typically refers to a type of appearance of hardwood, not its actual composition. Rustic can also refer to the appearance of other types of flooring materials such as luxury vinyl, laminates or engineered hardwoods. Rustic often means the flooring material looks used, distressed or aged, whether it actually is or not. Many types of rustic flooring materials are simply manufactured to look that way even though they’re brand new.
What Is Rustic Grade Hardwood Flooring?
Rustic grade hardwood flooring is an industry classification ranking that is one level below natural grade hardwood flooring. The classification is dependent on the composition of the hardwood rather than simply its general appearance. The surface of rustic grade hardwood flooring has many more imperfections compared to natural grade hardwood flooring. This may include knots, scuffs, holes, watermarks and more. Rustic grade hardwood flooring may also have structural imperfections such as being warped or cupped or having broken tongues or grooves. Rustic grade hardwood flooring is quite often also found in random, rather than uniform, lengths.
How Do You Use Rustic Grade Hardwood Flooring?
As mentioned previously, because of the inferior qualities of rustic grade hardwood flooring, it’s rarely used in the main areas of a primary residence. This means it’s more appropriate for places where proper footwear is being worn and aesthetic imperfections can be overlooked. So, if you’re looking to install a hardwood floor at an economical price where evenness, uniformity and aesthetic perfection isn’t a priority, rustic grade hardwood flooring might be ideal. Think of places such as an outbuilding, an art or craft studio or a utility room. It can save you money and provide a different sort of aesthetic appeal.
