Engineered Quartersawn Walnut Flooring | Wide Width 2024

quartersawn walnut lumber engineered flooring
6" Rift & Quarter Walnut All Heart

Guide to Quarter Sawn Wide Width Engineered Walnut Flooring

Quartersawn Engineered Walnut custom milled wide plank flooring is rare. In fact, handcrafted wide width quarter sawn walnut wood is uncommon  in either solid wide plank floors or engineered flooring.  Typically, plain-sawn or flat-sawn walnut wood is processed into flooring. 

Our niche is ultra-wide width engineered Quartersawn Walnut flooringWith 20+ years of hardwood lumber buying experience,  I believe wide width all heart QS walnut wood is among the most difficult woods to consistently source.
 
Although we also make rift/quartered white oak, there are hundreds of competitors for that specie. Maybe a few dozen in the US that make really nice wide width engineered Quartersawn White Oak.
 
However, very few companies make quartersawn walnut flooring in any width. Almost none will entertain an inquiry for widths over 6″.
 

What is Engineered Quarter Sawn Walnut Wood?

Quartersawn Walnut is simply Black Walnut lumber cut in a quarter-sawn grain orientation.  In our case, we primarily use American Black Walnut.

Juglans nigra, the eastern American black walnut, is a species of deciduous tree in the walnut family, Juglandaceae, native to North America. It grows mostly in riparian zones, from southern Ontario, west to southeast South Dakota, south to Georgia, northern Florida and southwest to central Texas. Wild trees in the upper Ottawa Valley may be an isolated native population or may have derived from planted trees.

Black walnut is an important tree commercially, as the wood is a deep brown color and easily worked.

source: Juglans nigra (Wikipedia)

Thus, the walnut logs are cut into four separate quarters.  It follows that the radial angles create mostly vertical grain lines on each board face, along with occasional chatoyance. Additionally, the log quarter process exposes medullary rays. However, these rays appear very slight in walnut wood due its dark color tone.

 

What is Engineered Flooring? 

Engineered wood flooring is a composite wood floor made by combining a solid wood top layer (or lamella) with a lower platform (or substrate or core) to make a composite wood floor. 

Engineered flooring  combines the visual qualities of solid wood with the stability of a plywood platform.

Why is the Engineered Quartersawn Walnut Flooring Platform Plywood?

In truth, the engineered flooring core is not always plywood. Cork, CDX, particleboard, finger-joint pine or virtually anything can be used. 

However, there are 3 important reasons why Baltic Birch plywood is the platform of choice for most reputable custom engineered flooring manufacturers.

  1. The platform is critically important to stability. Accordingly, Baltic Birch is generally well manufactured with multiple precision cut layers. The platform is consistently of high integrity construction.
  2. The core choice adds little to no visual value to the engineered wood floor. Accordingly, it needs to be solid and reliable but also inexpensive. Again, Baltic Birch meets this requirement.
  3. The platform represents a small percentage of the total manufacturing cost.  Thus, replacing Baltic Birch with an inferior core saves little at the expense of stability. 

 

Why use Quartersawn Wide Width Engineered Walnut Flooring?

In 2021, tract housing projects commonly feature  cheap vinyl flooring designed to mimic distressed expensive European Oak.
 
However, designers, architects, contractors and homeowners who seek Quarter Sawn Walnut wood often do so primarily because it is extremely difficult to source. Accordingly, these floors are unique and are extremely difficult to replicate. Having it puts the homeowner in an exclusive club. 
 
In our opinion, engineered walnut flooring stability is roughly comparable between plain-sawn and quartersawn walnut. Thus, there’s no point in specifying wide width rift/quartered engineered walnut floors if stability is your goal.
 

How Wide is Our Quartersawn Engineered Walnut Flooring?

We make face widths of 5-10″ in rift/quartersawn engineered Walnut. Yes, 10″. 

 

Is Wide Width QS Walnut Flooring Expensive?

Sort of.

However, because we do engineered flooring, the labor and platform costs are relatively fixed. Accordingly, using really expensive lumber only impacts a fraction of the cost. Whereas, with solid walnut flooring, there is a very direct relationship between lumber cost and floor price. 

Additionally, we are the manufacturer and have very good walnut wood sourcing. As a result, we are surprisingly competitive on extremely difficult specifications like 7″ face Quartersawn Black Walnut all heartwood.  Or maybe it’s because we’re the only manufacturer willing to make it.  

How Rare is Wide Width QS Walnut flooring?

Extremely rare.
 
QS Walnut almost always requires a custom run. Most flooring  manufacturers do not have access to quartered walnut. The few that do typically offer 2 1/4-4″ widths only.
 
Many flooring companies claim a 7″ quartersawn walnut floor is not possible, especially with additional specifications.
 
Pro Tip: There are always additional specifications. No one who requests an 8″ face QS Walnut floor wants 1-3′ length planks unless it’s parquet. Thus, we expect additional specs like:
  • all long length,
  • heartwood
  • really clean   
It comes with the territory.
 

Why is Wide Rift/Quartered Walnut Flooring Rare?

It is primarily a function of sourcing the quarter-sawn walnut wood. There are 5 reasons why most large walnut logs are plain-sawn rather than instead of quartersawn:
  1. It takes large walnut logs to yield wide width lumber boards. Plain-sawing those expensive big logs yields better than quarter-sawing. 
  2. There is a relatively small demand for quartersawn walnut lumber.  Plain-sawn walnut turns faster than QS. 
  3. The price difference between FAS grade plain-sawn and FAS quartersawn walnut is small. Accordingly, for many sawmills quartersawing walnut gives a poor return on investment.
  4. Demand for rift/quartered Walnut is primarily in Select/better grade. Thus, developing lower grade r&q walnut is unlikely to fetch a premium. 
  5. Many designers and contractors consider walnut sapwood a defect. Quartersawn boards are likely to contain sapwood on the outer edge. Therefore sawyers are left with two options: remove the sap and reduce the board width or leave the sap in. 

 

Do We Make Solid Rift/Quartered Wide Width Walnut Flooring? 

Yes. However, it’s not really our niche.

One reason we prefer engineered is that it is a much more efficient use of a scarce resource.

For us, it’s a depressing waste when really expensive wood performs the function of Baltic Birch plywood. In truth, the Baltic Birch is a significantly better platform. Accordingly, the engineered product is functionally and ecologically superior, in our opinion.  

Contact us with your crazy quartersawn walnut project.custom

5 thoughts on “Engineered Quartersawn Walnut Flooring | Wide Width 2024”

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  2. My name is Joyce Gonzales. I live in Santa Fe, NM 87508 and I am going to be redoing my bedroom and short hallway with an engineered wood flooring. I would like to use walnut if it is affordable for me. I don’t mind some sapwood. I need approx. 270 sq. ft. including 7% waste. My room is fairly square. I love you quarter sawn. I prefer a wider width, maybe 7-8 inches, but that is negotiable. What price would I be looking at including shipping.

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  4. Pingback: 10 Best Hardwoods For Woodworking By A Hardwood Lumber Pro - Commercial Forest Products

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