Z.Z.Daily Construction

Hardwood floors provide an elegant and luxurious warmth to your home. Among the many choices for hardwood flooring that range in quality, durability and price, coconut wood flooring is an interesting alternative that you may not have considered.

In addition to quality and price, another key consideration with hardwood flooring is sustainability. Many of the popular hardwoods used for flooring come from exotic woods that are harvested from our diminishing rain forests around the world.

With the growing interest around sustainable building materials, coconut wood flooring provides a luxurious hardwood flooring solution that is also environmentally friendly.

Coconut wood comes from the palm family. Coconut palms are some of the fastest growing trees in the world. They rejuvenate much faster than most hardwood species, growing to full maturity in 5 to 6 years. This makes the Coconut Palm a sustainable resource.

Coconut wood for flooring is harvested from coconut palm plantations at the end of the tree’s coconut bearing years. Typically, coconut palms produce nuts (coconuts) for up to 80 years. At the end of their coconut bearing life span, the palm trees are then harvested for their wood, and replaced with new palms.

It’s interesting to note that the coconut timber byproduct from felled coconut palms that have reached the end of their effective nut producing years, has had no developed secondary market. This useful and renewable hardwood resource has frequently gone unused prior to more recent trends to leverage the wood for coconut flooring products and other palmwood applications.

Coconut wood can vary widely in density and hardness. The hardest coconut wood is found at the perimeter or outer ring of the palm trunk. The closer you get to the center of the Palm stem, the softer the wood. For durability, it’s important that you find a coconut flooring manufacturer that uses only the hardest wood from the outer perimeter of the palm stem.

Coconut wood flooring products are manufactured in a similar manner to bamboo flooring. Coconut wood is naturally a light tan color, and the darker honey-brown colors are achieved through “carbonized” coloring processes. The flooring is offered in vertical, horizontal or strand configurations, also similar to the bamboo flooring products.

Durapalm®, a palmwood flooring product from Smith & Fong, is manufactured from plantation grown coconut palms, which are abundant throughout the world.

Coconut palm lumber can vary greatly in color and density. Smith & Fong uses only the hard, dark palm for a luxurious look and superior durable surface.

Better quality palmwood can range in price up to $9.00 per square foot or more.

Compared to other traditional hardwood flooring solutions, high quality coconut wood flooring may be better suited for the more expensive home remodeling projects.

For more hardwood flooring ideas, contact Z.Z. Daily Construction about your next home remodeling project.

Tags: coconut flooring, coconut wood, green home improvement, green home remodeling, green remodel, Green Remodeling