What is the right wood type for your stairs?
Whether you are planning to build a new home or remodel your present one, selecting the right wood type can create an attractive set of stairs that will add a touch of elegance to your interior. There is a list of things that you need to take into consideration when selecting a particular staircase for your house. How to make the staircase work with rest of the house? Which material to use to construct the staircase? If you are opting for hardwood, which type would be ideal? And let’s not forget, the ideal hardwood installation format.
Staircase designs are basically the boards across the top of the staircase that your feet step on as you climb up or down. The vertical kick plates between stairs are known as risers and stringers are the saw-tooth shaped pieces that are supporting the stairs along the sides.
Many people use different types of combinations when they are planning on installing stairs, varying from a natural finish to stringers that are painted and the treads and the risers left natural. Depending on the style of the staircase, you can choose more than one type of wood type for different aspects of the stairs. Following are the types of wood with their own unique beauty that can light up your entire decor, if the hardwood floor installation is done right.
Types Of Wood To Use
- Poplar: It is lightweight and also a little soft for a hardwood, poplar is very fine-grained in white to yellowish-brown in color. It can be painted well and is easy to cut in shapes.
- Beech: Stronger than oak or even maple, beech comes in a typical reddish-brown wood that is fairly straight and nicely grained.
- Ash: Very strong, ash is a grayish-brown wood which grows all over the USA and Canada. In spite of that, it is very difficult to find this wood because its trees are dying day by day due to the Emerald Ash Bore beetle.
- White Oak: It is hard and strong. White oak has open-grain feature, but not as pronounced as the red oak. It strongly resists shrinking and warping. This oak has a golden color, and great finishes can be done on it.
- Hickory: It is a very strong type, hickory is well known for its distinctive look and its beautiful sharp contrast in both light and dark color.
- Red oak: It is hard, rigid, and strong with a pronounced open grain. This oak resists warping, its reddish color gives a great finish, but its hardness makes it very hard to cut.
- Birch: It is hard, strong and very fine-grained, it resists shrinking and warping easily. It is very similar in color with maple and it also finishes fairly well.
- Hard Maple: Extremely hard, it has the added feature that you can get pieces with the bird’s-eye or wavy grain feature, which are highly prized. Hard maple color ranges from pretty reddish to nearly white in color, and it has a great finish.
- Cherry: The gorgeous markings on cherry wood flooring has long fascinated woodworkers. This hardwood varies from light brownish to a reddish brown. The cherry wood gradually darkens over time with exposure to light.
- Walnut: It is hard, heavy, and extra strong along with a fairly pronounced, straight grain. Walnut wood resists warping as well as shrinking. It shades from light to dark brown.
Luxury Hardwood Stair Treads
- Mahogany: This wood is durable and fine-grained. It strongly resists shrinking, warping and even swelling. Mahogany finishes well and is very easy to cut.
- Teak: This yellowish brown wood has a very good grain and awesome texture. Teak can easily be cut, it can also dull blades quickly because of presence of silica in the wood itself. Teak’s natural oils help to make it pest proof and is very durable even when it is not treated with any oil or varnish.
If you wish to give your home a unique flair, then opt for cherry, walnut, hickory or maple for your staircase. Some species of the wood are so stunning and beautiful in their natural form that you wouldn’t want to add any color to it. But you need the talented wood floor installers at Denver Dustless for your hardwood floor installation and an awesome finish to your stairs. You can compare hickory, cherry and walnut stair treads in order to get a sense of the possibilities.
You may want to choose to stain any of these wood types to tone it into the color that works best for you and the house. A solid wooden set of stairs will make a wonderful addition to your home, and for many it is even the focal point of the house as you step in. Choosing the right wood for your staircase will make a big difference.
