From the late 1990s through the early 2000s, “exotic” wood floors were ubiquitous. Here in South Florida, exotics were the norm, and native species were mostly out of favor. There were many reasons for this, one being the design community’s favoring of darker species that looked like mahogany but were much more durable. In the beginning, exotic woods seemed to be readily available, affordable and a bit of a status symbol.
But over time, behind the scenes, trouble was brewing. In addition to legal cutting, organized illegal cutting in South America, Africa and Asia was beginning to decimate the forests, doing what had been done to genuine Teak in Burma, India and across Southeast Asia. Environmentalists documented (at significant risk) the indiscriminate cutting down of trees in rainforests. To a large degree, exotics fell both out of favor and out of fashion. (See the sidebar “What is CITES and IUCN?” at the end of this article for more on researching a species’ status today.)
Today there are millions of square feet of exotic flooring out there that will have to be refinished, repaired or added to over time, and some new exotic wood floors continue to be installed, although their market share is a fraction of what it once was. Let’s talk about some of the most common tropical exotics you might encounter out in the wild.
At left, Brazilian cherry being coated with poly by Glenn Harris. “Wear a respirator—that red dust is brutal,” he cautions. At right, Brazilian cherry stained with a traditional oil-based stain and coated with waterborne finish by Jorge Perez. The species is easy to stain, he says: “Nothing different than oak—it’s just wood.”
Brazilian cherry/Jatoba
Hymenaea courbaril | Janka: 2,350–2,690
Jatoba is the “oak” of the exotic family, as it is plentiful and still affordable compared with other exotic woods. Massive amounts were installed in the heyday of wood floor exotics, so it is the most commonly encountered tropical species when wood floor pros are working with existing floors.
CHARACTERISTICS:
Color/appearance: Jatoba’s heartwood varies from a light orangish brown to a darker reddish brown, sometimes with contrasting darker grayish brown streaks. Its sapwood is a light grayish yellow, clearly demarcated from the heartwood.
Mineral deposits that appear dark brown are occasionally present, as well as silica, which appears as white spots, and sap pockets, which appear as golden amoeba-shaped spots.
Its color darkens considerably upon exposure to light, so it is important to educate customers about the difference between a freshly sanded floor and one that has aged.
Workability: Jatoba is difficult to work with due to its density and hardness. It is also difficult to plane without tearout due to its interlocking grain. It is more forgiving than most exotics when sanding and finishing. It stains well and accepts most finishes.
Finishing: Jatoba sands and finishes well. As with all wood, take care not to breathe in the dust or get it on sweaty skin, as it can cause serious irritation. The silica (white spots) and the sap spots are not always noticeable until the wood is sanded. These can be touched up with a color-matched pen: Use a good alcohol-based color pen, blend the spots with your finger, then coat as usual. Obviously, cull out any boards with very noticeable discoloration.
A cumaru floor by McCullen’s Wood Flooring. “The milling was phenomenal, so it didn’t take much to get it tabletop flat,” Eli McCullen says. It was coated with Loba EasyFinish.
Cumaru
Dipteryx odorata | Janka: 3,200–3,540
Also known as Brazilian teak, almendrillo or Southern chestnut, cumaru is a highly dense, durable and rot-resistant South American hardwood. It is prized for outdoor applications like decking, docks and heavy construction.
CHARACTERISTICS:
Color/appearance: Golden tan to dark reddish-brown, with potential streaks. In direct sunlight (indoors or outdoors), cumaru will turn gray over time.
Texture: Medium texture with an interlocking grain and waxy feel.
Workability: Its density makes it hard to saw and plane; pre-drilling is essential for fasteners. It planes to a smooth finish where grain isn’t too interlocked. Its high oil content interferes with glue adhesion.
Finishing: As it is an oily wood, finishing requires knowing what NOT to use on it. Oil-based sealers will not dry within “normal” time frames, and sometimes not at all. You must use either an alcohol-based sealer or a water-based sealer. If using a water-based sealer, you MUST coat the wood immediately after buffing. The buffing process creates heat, which drives the oils in the wood down and allows the sealer to bond to the top cells of the wood. If you wait too long to apply the sealer, it will peel off in sheets. This fact is unfortunately true of most tropical exotic woods.
An ipé floor by Costa Hardwood Floors. “Ipé rewards meticulous craftsmanship. Controlled sanding techniques, progressive grit refinement, and finishes engineered for dense hardwoods reveal its rich depth and enduring elegance,” Igor Costa says.
Ipé/Brazilian walnut
Tabebuia spp. | Janka: 3,680–3,684
Probably the second most common exotic that wood floor pros will encounter is ipé, also called lapacho or Brazilian walnut. Ipé is a wood of extremes: extremely dense and durable, as well as extremely difficult to work. Its incredible hardness and strength make it well-suited for flooring applications.
CHARACTERISTICS:
Color/appearance: Heartwood can vary in color from reddish brown to a more yellowish olive brown or darker blackish brown, sometimes with contrasting darker brown/black stripes. Ipe’s appearance can be very similar to cumaru.
Grain/Texture: Has a fine to medium texture, with the grain varying from straight to irregular or interlocked.
Workability: Overall, ipé is a difficult wood to work with, being extremely hard and dense, with high cutting resistance during sawing. Ipé also has a pronounced blunting effect on cutting edges. The wood generally planes smoothly, but the grain can tear out in interlocked areas. Also, ipé can be difficult to glue properly, and surface preparation before gluing is recommended.
It is difficult to nail, and in some cases, you have to drill holes in the tongues and hand-nail.
Sanding and finishing: It is difficult to sand and finish. From the toxic dust to the wood’s oily nature, it’s a challenge. Before coating, vacuum very well and tack until your tack cloth comes up clean, because the dust will cause issues if not completely removed from the surface.
Poly will either take a very long time to dry, or it may not dry at all without adding a second chemical, such as Japan dryer. Alcohol sealers work well, as do water-based sealers—if you apply them immediately after buffing!
A merbau floor by Clint Fudge of Clint Fudge Floor Sanding in Botanic Ridge, Australia. “Merbau is very durable; here it is generally only used as an outdoor timber, for decks and patios. This floor was originally a deck, but the owners filled it in with walls and a roof and effectivity turned it into an indoor space,” he explains, adding that it’s a dense wood. “I find the higher density timbers easier to sand than the softer ones.”
Merbau
Intsia palembanica | Janka: 1,712–1,925
Merbau has excellent strength characteristics and outstanding stability, making it ideally suited for use as wood flooring. It is very photo-sensitive and will darken dramatically over time.
CHARACTERISTICS:
Color/Appearance: Merbau has an orangish-brown color when freshly cut, which ages to a darker reddish-brown. Color between boards can vary widely. There are also small yellow mineral deposits found throughout the wood, making it easier to separate from other lookalikes such as santos mahogany or royal mahogany. (These yellow deposits are water-soluble and can cause staining.)
Grain/Texture: Its grain is straight to interlocked, and its texture is coarse.
Workability: It glues and finishes nicely, though it can be challenging to saw due to gumming and dulling of teeth. It finishes nicely as long as you follow the advice given earlier in this article.
Odor: It has a unique smell when being sawed or sanded, which can also cause irritation and sneezing… again, this is true of all wood dust! Sorry to harp on this, but (take it from a cancer survivor) wood dust can be dangerous and is a known carcinogen.
A prefinished acacia floor installed by Kyle Thompson. “It has so much character,” he says. “Make sure you’re paying attention to detail as you’re installing.”
Acacia
Acacia melanoxylon | Janka: 1,160
Acacia (also called Australian blackwood or wattle) wood flooring has irregular, bold grain that one either loves or hates. It is a fast-growing tree and is considered an eco-friendly wood choice. Because it is rot-resistant, it is widely used in outdoor furniture manufacturing, as well as in indoor furniture and flooring.
CHARACTERISTICS:
Color/Appearance: It has a unique appearance, with bold grain, knots and color variations that some can find distracting. It tends to come in shorter lengths, which means more visible seams, creating a less uniform look than species with more uniform grain patterns and longer lengths.
Moisture and temperature sensitivity: It is prone to shrinking, expanding, warping or gapping if not perfectly dried and acclimated, especially in fluctuating climates. It requires an extended period to adjust to indoor humidity before installation to prevent post-install problems due to its density and oily wood.
Color fading: Direct sunlight can fade its natural color, requiring sealants and careful placement.
Sanding and finishing: It has a high oil content, so care must be taken, as with ipé, when finishing. The oils tend to clog sandpaper, and the dust can stain if it isn’t removed right away.
A tigerwood floor by Jorge Perez, now an adhesives rep at Bona US. “Tigerwood dust can be tricky and oily,” he advises. “All activity will show, so fine-tune your machines!“
Tigerwood
Goncalo alves | Janka: 2,160
Tigerwood is a stunning, durable tropical hardwood known for its dramatic dark stripes on a reddish-orange to brown background, resembling a tiger’s coat. It is native to Central and South America.
CHARACTERISTICS:
Color/Appearance: Features rich reddish-orange tones with bold, dark “tiger” stripes for a unique, stunning look.
Water resistance: Natural oils make it dense and resistant to moisture, suitable for decks and bathrooms.
Color changes: Sunlight exposure causes the wood to darken or lighten significantly, altering its appearance. Use UV-filtering curtains or avoid direct sunlight if you want to preserve the color.
Installation challenges: Its hardness can make it more difficult to install. The proper nailer, pressure setting and cleat size depend on the thickness of the flooring. Care must be taken not to break the tongues.
Sanding and finishing: Like most tropical species, it is an oily, dense wood, and sanding and finishing require specific knowledge, as discussed earlier in this article.
Wood floor pro Andrew Castona of Sunrise Flooring installed this prefinished Patagonian rosewood in his office 17 years ago. He reports that the floor has darkened only slightly over that time.
Patagonian rosewood
Anadenanthera colubrina | Janka: 3,840
Patagonian rosewood (also called curupay, cebil, angico preto and curapauis) is a very hard, dense South American hardwood (from Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay) prized for its rich reddish-brown color with dark streaks, durability, and resistance to rot. It is often used for flooring, furniture, and musical instruments. It isn’t a true rosewood (those are Dalbergia), but it offers similar aesthetics and superior hardness.
CHARACTERISTICS:
Hardness: Extremely hard, making it highly resistant to wear, moisture and insects.
Color/Appearance: Ranges from pale to deep reddish-brown with distinctive dark streaks, often with interlocking grain.
Workability: Very dense and hard, making it challenging to work as tools must be kept sharp and sandpaper changed often.
Sanding and Finishing: As with most exotics, it is difficult to sand and finish due to its natural oils and dense fiber.
A sapele floor (with stain Duraseal oil-modified finish) by Endurance Floor Company. “The main challenge to working with sapele is the potential for indentation from steel edger wheels or dropping tools on the floor,” says Endurance’s Lenny Hall. “A very good dust containment protocol is also important, because the red dust from cutting and sanding tools gets airborne and will be carried everywhere.”
Sapele
Entandrophragma cylindricum | Janka: 1,410–1,510
The name sapele comes from the city of Sapele in Nigeria. It is commonly known as sapele, sapelli, sapele mahogany, aboudikro, assi and muyovu. This commercially important hardwood is reminiscent of mahogany and is a part of the same Meliaceae family.
CHARACTERISTICS:
Color/appearance: It is darker in tone and has a distinctive figure. It is particularly prized for its lustrous iridescent colors, ranging from light pink to brown and gold to red.
Grain: Interlocked and sometimes wavy, creating a distinctive ribbon patternfigure on quartersawn wood, plus potential for quilting or wavy figuring. It exhibits high chatoyance—an optical effect where a luminous band of light appears to move across a material as the viewing angle changes.
Stability: Relatively stable with low shrinkage, especially when quartersawn.
Machining: Can be challenging due to interlocked grain, causing tear-outs, but finishes nicely. As it isn’t as dense as other exotics, it’s not as hard on saw blades. It is easy to nail relative to the very dense exotics previously mentioned.
Finishing: Takes glue, nails, screws, and stains well; you can use any finish you desire, from OMU to water-based.
Credits for photos on top image:
Advice for Any Tropical Species
An ipé and mesquite floor by Howard Brickman. “Extractive bleeding can occur with some finishes on ipé, so always test a small area first,” he cautions.For myriad reasons, tropical species present some challenges for installing, sanding and finishing.
Dense and oily: To start, in general, these hardwoods are typically very dense, with tight grain and oily wood. Due to their hardness, they are challenging to nail, as it is easy to break the tongues if the incorrect fasteners, nailers and pressure settings are used. Flooring cleats are blunt for a reason: They crush the cells as they penetrate, rather than splitting the wood as sharp fasteners tend to do.
Beware of scratches: As with harder domestic species like maple or hickory, scratches on tropical woods are difficult to get out—only even more so, because exotics are denser and harder than all of our domestic species. As always, when sanding, start with the finest-grit paper to get the flooring flat, and never skip more than one grit.
Take health precautions: We should always use respirators when sanding any wood floor, but this is even more important with exotics, as many people have adverse reactions to the sanding dust of these species. Covering your skin with long-sleeved shirts is also a good idea. Some people become sensitized to exotic wood dust (or any wood dust) over time.
What is CITES and IUCN?
In addition to changing trends, concerns about sustainability played a role in the diminished popularity of imported tropical species. Those concerned about sustainability today can reference:
CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Its Appendices afford species different levels of protection:
Appendix I: Includes species threatened with extinction; international commercial trade is generally prohibited.
Appendix II: Includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction now, but may become so without trade controls.
Appendix III: Includes species protected in at least one country, which has asked other CITES Parties for assistance in controlling the trade.
IUCN is the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It creates the Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book. Founded in 1964, the list serves as an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological species.
All Things Wood Floor, created by Wood Floor Business magazine, talks to interesting wood flooring pros to share knowledge, stories and tips on everything to do with wood flooring, from installation, sanding and finishing to business management.
At left, Brazilian cherry being coated with poly by Glenn Harris. “Wear a respirator—that red dust is brutal,” he cautions. At right, Brazilian cherry stained with a traditional oil-based stain and coated with waterborne finish by Jorge Perez. The species is easy to stain, he says: “Nothing different than oak—it’s just wood.”
A cumaru floor by McCullen’s Wood Flooring. “The milling was phenomenal, so it didn’t take much to get it tabletop flat,” Eli McCullen says. It was coated with Loba EasyFinish.
An ipé floor by Costa Hardwood Floors. “Ipé rewards meticulous craftsmanship. Controlled sanding techniques, progressive grit refinement, and finishes engineered for dense hardwoods reveal its rich depth and enduring elegance,” Igor Costa says.
A merbau floor by Clint Fudge of Clint Fudge Floor Sanding in Botanic Ridge, Australia. “Merbau is very durable; here it is generally only used as an outdoor timber, for decks and patios. This floor was originally a deck, but the owners filled it in with walls and a roof and effectivity turned it into an indoor space,” he explains, adding that it’s a dense wood. “I find the higher density timbers easier to sand than the softer ones.”
A prefinished acacia floor installed by Kyle Thompson. “It has so much character,” he says. “Make sure you’re paying attention to detail as you’re installing.”
A tigerwood floor by Jorge Perez, now an adhesives rep at Bona US. “Tigerwood dust can be tricky and oily,” he advises. “All activity will show, so fine-tune your machines!“
Wood floor pro Andrew Castona of Sunrise Flooring installed this prefinished Patagonian rosewood in his office 17 years ago. He reports that the floor has darkened only slightly over that time.
A sapele floor (with stain Duraseal oil-modified finish) by Endurance Floor Company. “The main challenge to working with sapele is the potential for indentation from steel edger wheels or dropping tools on the floor,” says Endurance’s Lenny Hall. “A very good dust containment protocol is also important, because the red dust from cutting and sanding tools gets airborne and will be carried everywhere.”
An ipé and mesquite floor by Howard Brickman. “Extractive bleeding can occur with some finishes on ipé, so always test a small area first,” he cautions.
