Do you sell old growth
flooring?
The Nonsense 
A
quick web search for “wide plank flooring” vendors locates several who
describe their product as ‘old growth’ in an effort to differentiate
it from others. What does old growth
mean?
The term “old growth”
is not a silvicultural or scientific term. One company that uses the term
suggests what is actually meant is “slow growth”. Others
say they actually mean their floors are made only from the oldest and
largest trees in the forest, leaving the younger trees to grow in their
place.
The implication that these
flooring vendors actually inspect each piece of lumber they buy to
determine growth rates of all the trees that were harvested to make their
floors and guarantee that each piece of flooring is grown slowly is
nonsense.
Other
nonsense
is the claim that these vendors actually know which trees in a
forest were cut to make their flooring when, in fact, much of the lumber
they use to make their floors is purchased from wholesalers who also have
no idea of the precise origin of the wood they sell or the conditions
under which it was grown or harvested.
Even
worse is the promotion of bad forestry practice by suggesting that cutting
only the big trees is a good idea. It
usually results in what professional foresters call HIGH GRADING, and,
done repeatedly, can contribute to the genetic decline of stands of trees,
because the largest trees in a group are not the oldest, but the ones best
suited to the conditions. To
read about this irresponsible practice click
here. Responsible
forestry sometimes means thinning among the smaller trees to allow the
larger ones to propagate through seed.
 The
Facts
In a healthy growing
forest in the Northeastern US, well-spaced trees can be expected to grow
on average, one-quarter inch in diameter each year, or eight growth rings
per inch of radius. A mature tree ready for harvest at 24 inches in
diameter will be approximately 100 years old.
With
very few exceptions this is true in every hardwood timber growing area in
the northeastern United States. The
exceptions are species which grow at the very northern limit of their
natural range, which in our area includes only Hickory and White Oak.
While some individual
trees in a forest stand will
grow faster and some slower, the quarter-inch-per-year is a good rule of
thumb. Lets call this “normal growth” or “healthy growth”.
Sustainable, responsible forestry means, among other things, that forests
are kept healthy and growing throughout their life cycle.
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OUR PLEDGE TO YOU
Timberfloor will never use high-toned terminology to convince you to buy
our flooring or convince you our product has unique qualities if it does
not.
Timberfloor will always strive to use trees from healthy well managed forests to make its product.
Timberfloor’s flitch sawn and bookmatched wide plank flooring actually
is unique and we clearly explain why.
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Some vendors suggest
that the wood from trees which grow too rapidly is unstable, which is
correct. The only time this occurs is in certain species grown
near the southern extent of their natural range.
It does not apply to any trees cut in the Northeastern US and is
not relevant here.
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