What Is Heartwood And What Is Sapwood?
When selecting wood for flooring, an important consideration in determining the best price for wood flooring is comparing the total heartwood content to the total sapwood content. This is usually expressed as “percentage (%) of heartwood content” which may be any designated percentage, and will vary greatly. It’s important to know the percentage of heartwood in your floor as some benchmark of value and for price comparison. Sapwood, is the lighter, yellow colored or blonde wood, which was just inside the tree bark when the tree was cut. It’s aptly named because it carried sap from the roots to the needles. It represented the more active part in the life of the growing tree, compared to the older, denser inactive Heartwood, which is reddish to brown in color, more resinous and super resistant to decay . The inherent beauty of heartwood focuses on the rich coloration and interplay of the red/brown/amber/yellow woodtones of the rings and the sides of them, compared to the yellowish blond/
