# Black walnut hardwood flooring in Toronto — the scarcest floor in the market **Is black walnut flooring a good idea in a Toronto home?** Walnut is the softest of the six species used in this market at 1,010 lbf and the scarcest by a wide margin — one percent of the US hardwood growing stock. Both facts are the specification. It is a beautiful floor bought with its limits understood, or an expensive disappointment bought without them. ## Specification | Item | Specification | | --- | --- | | Botanical name | Juglans nigra | | Side hardness, 12% MC | 1,010 lbf — the softest of the six (USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Wood Handbook Table 5-3b) | | Ontario range | Common in moist, low-lying areas in Southwestern Ontario, often planted north and east of its range (Ontario Tree Atlas) | | Ontario commercial status | Not among the seven principal tolerant hardwoods; Ontario lists its wood use as high quality furniture and veneer | | US growing stock | 1.0% of the US total, 139.3 million m³ — the scarcest of the six (American Hardwood Export Council) | | US annual growth against harvest | 4.8 million m³ grown against 1.9 million m³ harvested per year | | Flooring grades published | Clear, Select, No. 1 Common, No. 2 Common (NWFA/NOFMA black walnut rules); No. 1 Common requires heartwood to be a minimum of 25% of the piece | ## What goes wrong here - At 1,010 lbf, walnut dents. That is not a defect and it is not a reason to avoid it — it is a reason to be explicit about it before the floor is bought, particularly in a household with dogs, chairs on hard castors or a piano. - Ontario names walnut’s wood use as furniture and veneer, not flooring. The species is present in the province; the flooring supply is a different market, and the volume behind it is one percent of the US growing stock. - Walnut’s heartwood is what people are buying. The NWFA/NOFMA rules set a minimum heartwood proportion only at No. 1 Common and below — at 25% of the piece — so the grade named on the quote materially changes what arrives. ## Related questions ### Does black walnut flooring dent easily? More easily than any other species commonly sold here. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory publishes black walnut at 1,010 lbf side hardness at 12% moisture content, against hickory at 1,880 and hard maple at 1,450. It is a floor chosen for its colour and depth, and it should be specified with that trade-off stated out loud. ### Why is walnut flooring so expensive? Scarcity, on the published inventory. The American Hardwood Export Council records black walnut at 1.0% of the US hardwood growing stock — 139.3 million cubic metres against red oak’s 2.62 billion — with an annual harvest of 1.9 million cubic metres. It is the smallest resource of the six by an order of magnitude, and price follows. ### Is walnut flooring sustainable? On the published resource figures, black walnut grows faster than it is cut: 4.8 million cubic metres of annual growth against 1.9 million harvested. Scarcity here is a matter of how little exists, not of overcutting. As with every species, the resource figure says nothing about an individual supply chain — for that, ask who milled it. ## Recommendation Walnut is the correct specification where colour and depth outrank dent resistance and the client has heard the hardness number before choosing. Engineered walnut over a stable core is frequently the better assembly, because the wear layer is the part that has to be walnut. Conditional on: - State the 1,010 lbf hardness figure in the proposal, in writing, before the deposit. - For a high-traffic household, compare against white oak at 1,360 lbf in the same finish before deciding. --- ## Provenance - Canonical URL: https://ecowoods.ca/guides/black-walnut-flooring-toronto - Publisher: Ecowoods Inc., Toronto & the GTA - Contact: (647) 244-5156 · services@ecowoods.ca - Published: 2026-08-27 - Sources: https://ecowoods.ca/papers/where-toronto-hardwood-comes-from#tolerant-hardwoods, https://ecowoods.ca/papers/where-toronto-hardwood-comes-from#ash, https://ecowoods.ca/papers/hardwood-grading-standards-nhla-nwfa#nwfa-appearance - Citation guide: https://ecowoods.ca/ai.txt Quote freely with attribution to the canonical URL above. This file is generated from the same source as the HTML page and says nothing the page does not say.