Grey elm is a unique material and yields beautiful results in flooring! In Canada grey elm has been used in furniture for centuries. In the world, elm has been used for thousands of years but it has not been used for flooring in homes until recently. As we continue to see, it’s a great material to install for flooring.
Grey elm flooring has a very unique grain. It doesn’t look like any other wood! It is set apart by its gnarly irregular growth rings, and details in between the growth rings. Grey elm flooring is beautiful in its natural colour, although we mostly stain it. If grey elm is stained, a plethora of detail becomes evident. Grey elm is not a common hardwood anymore. A few decades ago, elms were abundant in southern and central Ontario. Now, due to the Dutch elm disease, grey, red, and other elms are getting harder and harder to find. Having a Grey elm hardwood floor is somewhat of a rarity. With our finishing techniques, the possibilities are bespoke.
Grey elm flooring can be stained many colours to fit a desired look. It can take on just about any stain such as brown tones, white washing, grey washing, white/grey washing, ebony, Jacobean and other stains. Grey elm is a beautiful option in lower grades that are not perfectly clear, as well as select grades. It is common for it to have mineral streaks or marks, smaller knots including pin knots, burls, colour variation, and details not seen in other woods. Grey elm is a great option for those who want a truly unique floor
This flooring is tough! It ranks high on the Janka scale making it one of the harder domestic woods to use for flooring. This means it has good dent resistance. Grey elm flooring is a great option for dogs, children, active lifestyles, and for those who don’t want to needlessly worry about their floors. It’s suitable just about anywhere and can be installed in your place of business, home or condo.
This type of flooring does well with texture. We can mill it to have a flat top. We can also mill it to have sawn marks in the top. This gives a more rustic appearance. With a more rustic appearance, Grey elm flooring becomes even more forgiving. Dents, scratches, scraps, wear and tear, and abuse are no match for grey elm that has textured saw marks. There are even options with regards to the appearance of a textured top floor. The saw marks can be sanded so that they aren’t rough, yet they are still visible. Another option is to fill the saw marks. What this does is give the illusion of a textured floor but in reality, it’s nearly flat as the filler has filled in the saw marks. The filler can be stained to blend into the wood, or it can be tinted to give a contrasting appearance.
Would you like texture but you don’t want the saw marks? There are options! Initially, we install the grey elm plank flooring with a flat top. After installation and during the finishing phase, we can add more subtle texture. With this process, texture is added and makes the grey elm flooring more forgiving to live with, and adds to the unique beauty.
