12 Sep

Prime Grade

Prime grade is uniform in color, very few, if any knots. Colors in a range from golden brown to red brown heartwood. While both rustic and prime grades contain a minimum of 85% heartwood, rustic has knots. Some might call it character. Prime grade is virtually clear except occasional small pin knots. Color is more consistent and harmonious, with a high degree of red heartwood and limited sapwood.

Rustic and Prime Grade have 85% heartwood & this is why that matters.

Heart Pine floors are sold based on this number which should contain a range, such as 50-80% or in 85%, as with the rustic and prime Caribbean Heart Pine. In fact, these floors contain the highest percentage of heartwood found in any new heart pine except for actual old growth, which is extremely hard to find and awfully expensive. So, with that in mind can you choose which of these boards is new and which are reclaimed? Tell them it came from a two-hundred-year-old Kentucky Horse barn; they will never know if you finish it right!

Prime grade might be what you imagine when thinking about Heart Pine flooring, classic if you will. The colors are more uniform compared to our rustic grade, of course but there does exist enough variance to make it “interesting.” Prime Grade Caribbean Heart Pine will have a few tiny pin knots compared to the larger knots and sapwood in the Rustic grade. Prime Grade wide plank Caribbean Heart Pine screams luxury, email us for recent customer pictures and samples.

Sometimes you feel like a knot, sometimes you don’t.

Prime Grade Caribbean Heart Pine

29 Apr

5″ Caribbean Heart Pine

Heart Pine

5″ Caribbean Heart Pine is available in both rustic and prime grades.

Prime grade might be what you imagine when thinking about Heart Pine flooring. The colors are more uniform compared to our rustic grade, of course but there does exist enough variance to make it “interesting.” Prime Grade 5″ Caribbean Heart Pine may have a few small knots compared to the larger knots and sapwood in the Rustic grade. Prime Grade wide plank 7″ Caribbean Heart Pine screams luxury, email us for recent customer pictures and samples. And just in case you are wondering, prime costs about .60 more per square foot.

Unfinished 5″ Caribbean Heart Pine

First of all, this is the 85% version. Second, we answer the FAQ “what is Caribbean Heart Pine“? Visit that link for full information on the species. And if you are trying to match an existing pine floor visit this page or give us a call.

Better Looking with age

Perhaps one of the most desirable traits of Caribbean Heart Pine is that natural beauty becomes more evident with time. As the wood ages, its patina emerges providing a palette of rich, vibrant colors ranging from yellows to vibrant reds and coppers that deepen and intensify with age.

85% Heartwood with both grades of Caribbean Heart Pine

Both versions have 85% visible heart content. So, what is heart content? Heart content is color and color variation; sapwood and heartwood, also known as character. Rustic Caribbean Heart Pine contains more sapwood, as you would expect since sap comes from knots. The sapwood color, grain and knots differentiate rustic from the prime grade, it is not about quality just your style.

Wide plank Caribbean substitutes for Antique Pine

Caribbean Heart Pine is the great substitute, “tell them it came out of Benjamin Franklin’s boyhood home, and they will never know it.” The question: create the age or pay for it, i.e., Antiqued New or Antique Reclaimed Heart Pine. The d added to antique means a process not a declaration of age. In fact, Antiquing is the act of creating age, which becomes much easier with the right materials. Caribbean Heart Pine meets all the criteria in either grade, prime or rustic.