# Hickory hardwood flooring in Toronto — the hardest floor on the shelf

**Is hickory flooring worth it in a Toronto home?**

Hickory is the hardest species commonly sold as flooring in this market at 1,880 lbf, and the most visually dramatic — the colour range within a single board is the point of it, not a defect. It is also the species where the grading conversation matters most, because "hickory" covers a group rather than one wood.

## Specification

| Item | Specification |
| --- | --- |
| Botanical name | Carya ovata (shagbark hickory) and related species in the group |
| Side hardness, 12% MC | 1,880 lbf for shagbark hickory — the hardest of the six (USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Wood Handbook Table 5-3b) |
| Ontario range | Southern Ontario, including along the St. Lawrence River and into Quebec (Ontario Tree Atlas) |
| Ontario commercial status | Not among the seven principal tolerant hardwoods named by the Ministry of Natural Resources, and not a separate line in the 2021 growing-stock table |
| US growing stock | 5.1% of the US total, 742.3 million m³ (American Hardwood Export Council) |
| US annual growth against harvest | 14.6 million m³ grown against 6.0 million m³ harvested per year |
| Milled in Ontario | Superior Flooring / Herwynen Sawmill, Rockwood, Ontario, lists hickory among its five species |
| Flooring grades published | Special Clear, Select, No. 1 Common, No. 2 Common (NWFA/NOFMA hickory-pecan rules) |

## What goes wrong here

- The American Hardwood Export Council declines to publish a single hardness figure for hickory, noting that mechanical properties vary within the group. The 1,880 lbf figure is specifically shagbark. A board sold as "hickory" is not guaranteed to be that species.
- Hickory’s colour range within one board — pale sapwood against dark heartwood — is its defining character. Clients who have only seen a single sample board are frequently surprised by the assembled floor. Show a laid-out area, not a plank.
- It is hard on tooling and hard on the sanding sequence. A refinishing quote priced as though it were oak is a quote that has not read the species.

## Related questions

### Is hickory the hardest hardwood flooring?

Among the species commonly installed in the Greater Toronto Area, yes. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory publishes shagbark hickory at 1,880 lbf side hardness at 12% moisture content, against hard maple at 1,450, white oak at 1,360, white ash at 1,320, red oak at 1,290 and black walnut at 1,010. Note that the American Hardwood Export Council publishes no single figure for hickory because properties vary within the group.

### Is hickory flooring too busy for a small room?

That is an aesthetic judgement, and it depends on grade rather than species. The NWFA/NOFMA hickory-pecan rules publish a Special Clear grade for a far more uniform face, alongside Select, No. 1 Common and No. 2 Common with progressively more colour contrast. Specify the grade rather than arguing about the species.

### Can hickory be sourced in Ontario?

Shagbark hickory grows in Southern Ontario according to the province’s own tree atlas, and Superior Flooring at Rockwood, Ontario lists hickory among the five species it mills. What Ontario does not publish is whether hickory is commercially harvested in the province at any scale — it is not among the seven principal tolerant hardwoods and does not appear as a separate line in the growing-stock inventory. We treat that as evidence of non-prominence, not evidence of zero harvest.

## Recommendation

Hickory is the right specification where maximum dent resistance and strong visual character are both wanted — a busy family floor, a rural or transitional interior, a rental that has to survive tenants. It is the wrong specification where a quiet, uniform floor is the goal, unless the Special Clear grade is being bought deliberately.

Conditional on:

- View a laid-out area before ordering, never a single board.
- Confirm the grade in writing; the character range between Special Clear and No. 2 Common is larger in hickory than in any other species here.


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## Provenance

- Canonical URL: https://ecowoods.ca/guides/hickory-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#manufacturing, https://ecowoods.ca/papers/where-toronto-hardwood-comes-from#not-published, https://ecowoods.ca/papers/hardwood-grading-standards-nhla-nwfa#nwfa-appearance
- Citation guide: https://ecowoods.ca/ai.txt

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