Wood types for wooden floors

Oak is by far the most popular type of wood used for wooden floors. There are several reasons why oak is so popular. The appearance of the wood is fairly neutral/calm and timeless. Additionally, one can choose a rustic oak floor, which gives the wood more knots and makes it slightly livelier. Fewer knots make the oak wood calmer. Oak wood is also characterized by a flame pattern in the grain.

Treating an Oak Floor

The biggest advantage of oak wood is that it is easy to treat. You can apply literally any Osmo color to the wood; for example, you can give the wood a beautiful classic look or apply a White Wash effect. Of course, you can also keep it simple by giving the oak wood an "untreated" look. In this case, the light oak wood remains light in color.

Another popular type of wood is beech. This wood has a uniform grain structure with a fine texture and little pattern. The color of the wood varies from a light color to a yellow/brown color.

Treating a Beech Floor

Just like oak, beech can be treated in various ways. You can choose a colorless treatment, or a treatment with a transparent color to make the wood slightly lighter or darker. With this treatment, the grain and structure of the wood remain visible. You can also choose to color the grain of the wood; this creates a Wash effect.

It is clear that beech wood comes from a beech tree and that oak wood originates from an oak. However, with pine wood, things are a bit more complicated. Pine wood actually comes from a Scots pine. To make matters even more complicated, fir wood does not come from a Scots pine, but from a silver fir.
A pine floor has the characteristic of being a soft wood type, even softer than an oak floor. Pine wood also has more knots than, for example, oak or beech. These knots are reddish-brown in color, which contrasts beautifully with the light color of the wood. Thanks to the various color shades, the pine wood creates a lively appearance.

Treating a Pine Floor

Pine wood is often naturally somewhat oilier when compared to oak wood. As a result, it sometimes absorbs Osmo slightly less effectively. Therefore, it is advisable to first perform a test with the desired products. The pine wood can be treated with various Osmo products to create the desired look.

Spruce wood comes from the Norway spruce and is a soft wood species. The color of the wood is pale to whitish yellow, so spruce wood is very light in color. The patterns in the spruce wood resemble “flames”. This creates a beautiful and lively atmosphere on the floor. When untreated wood is exposed to light, it turns yellowish-brown; to preserve the light color, it is therefore advisable to treat the wood.

Treating a Spruce Floor

Thanks to the light color of the spruce wood, it can be treated in various ways. Just like with oak, the light color of the wood can be preserved. However, the spruce wood can also be stained darker.

In theory, bamboo does not belong in this blog about wood types. Bamboo is actually a type of grass, not a type of wood. However, because bamboo is widely used to make floors and furniture, this "wood type" is included in this list. Thanks to its hardness, stability, shape, grain, and color nuances, bamboo is very suitable for use in flooring. Another major advantage of using bamboo is that it is good for the environment. Bamboo grows so fast that it is almost impossible to keep up with harvesting.

Treating a Bamboo Floor

A bamboo floor can be finished in many ways. Many bamboo floors are already treated with Osmo. However, because bamboo is not a true wood type, a test regarding adhesion must always be performed. This way, you always know whether the appearance of the Osmo product meets your expectations and whether the adhesion works.

In addition to softwoods, there are a number of hardwoods that are widely used for wooden floors. Tropical hardwoods are characterized by their dark color.

Merbau floor

A Merbau floor is characterized by its calm appearance. The wood stands out thanks to its red and brown colors, but not because of the wood's structure.

Jatoba floor

A Jatoba floor, on the other hand, features beautiful dark grain. The color of the wood is often dark red/brown, and the grain stands out. Read all about Jatoba floors in this blog.

Wenge Floor

Wenge floors are darker than floors made of Jatoba and Merbau wood. The color of Wenge wood is therefore dark brown. The wood has a pattern of black and brown stripes.

Treating tropical hardwood

Tropical hardwoods can be treated with the colorless Osmo Clear Wax. This product has been specially developed to treat hardwoods. Because tropical hardwoods are oilier than softwoods, these wood types cannot be treated with other Osmo products.

Watch the YouTube videos for all tips and tricks on applying Osmo to floors.