White ash hardwood flooring in Toronto — the supply problem nobody mentions

Specification

The assembled specification

Botanical name

Fraxinus americana

Side hardness, 12% MC

1,320 lbf (USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Wood Handbook Table 5-3b)

Ontario range

Throughout Southern Ontario and north to Lake Nipissing and Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario Tree Atlas)

Ontario status

One of the seven principal tolerant hardwoods named by the Ministry of Natural Resources

Ontario growing stock

42,273,003 m³ for ash as a group (Forest Resources of Ontario 2021)

US growing stock

4.5% of the US total, 657.8 million m³ (American Hardwood Export Council)

US annual growth against harvest

3.3 million m³ grown against 6.9 million m³ harvested per year — the only inversion among the six

Principal supply pressure

Emerald ash borer, first detected near Detroit and Windsor in 2002; up to 99% of ash trees killed within 8 to 10 years of establishment

Flooring grades published

Clear, Select, No. 1 Common, No. 2 Common (NWFA/NOFMA ash rules)

Reference

Annual growth against annual harvest, US hardwood resource (American Hardwood Export Council)

Failure modes

Where this goes wrong

• Plan the whole floor, including waste and a future repair allowance, in one order. Ash is the species where a reorder two years later is least likely to match, and least likely to be available at all.
• Salvage harvesting ahead of an insect changes what reaches the mill. Expect more colour variation batch to batch than in oak, and require the grade in writing rather than trusting a sample board.
• Ash is frequently offered as a cheaper alternative to white oak. On hardness that is defensible — 1,320 against 1,360 lbf. On supply security it is not, and the difference should be disclosed before the deposit, not after.

Answer

What we recommend

Ash is a legitimate specification for a client who wants an open, pale grain and is told the supply position before they commit. It is not a specification to make on price alone, and it is not one to phase across two orders.

• Order the entire floor, the waste allowance and a stored repair allowance in a single purchase.
• If the project will certainly extend in a later phase, specify a species with a growing inventory instead.

Also asked

Related questions this guide answers

Is ash flooring a bad choice because of the emerald ash borer?

Not bad — constrained, and honestly so. Ash performs well as a floor at 1,320 lbf side hardness with an open, expressive grain. What has changed is supply: the American Hardwood Export Council records US white ash growth at 3.3 million cubic metres a year against 6.9 million harvested, the only inversion among the six species used in this market, and the Invasive Species Centre records that up to 99% of ash trees are killed within eight to ten years of the borer establishing. Specify it knowing that, and order the whole job at once.

Will I be able to match my ash floor in five years?

Nobody can promise that, and anyone who does is guessing. The published inventory is contracting rather than growing, and the colour of salvaged material varies. The practical answer is to buy the repair allowance with the original order and store it in the house, acclimated to the same conditions as the floor.

Is ash harder than oak?

It sits between the two oaks. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory publishes white ash at 1,320 lbf side hardness at 12% moisture content, red oak at 1,290 and white oak at 1,360. On hardness alone the three are near-equivalent; the differences that matter in a finished floor are grain, colour and availability.

Provenance

Where every claim on this page comes from

• Provenance — ash
• Provenance — tolerant hardwoods
• Provenance — growing stock
• Grade — nwfa appearance

Framework pillars this bears on

• Pillar 3 — Product specification

Once this is decided

What the work actually is

Hardwood Flooring Installation · Hardwood Floor Refinishing · Dust-Free Floor Sanding · Hardwood Floor Restoration · Custom Inlays & Borders · Stair Refinishing

Prices for all three bands are published before you call — hardwood flooring in Toronto for a new floor, refinishing for an existing one, stairs for the part usually left out of the quote. If the floor is already cupping, gapping or lifting, this is a diagnosis rather than a decision: what your floor is telling you.

Proof, with the numbers

Where these decisions were made on real jobs

Each publishes the readings and the reasoning, not only the result — which is what makes them worth reading next to a guide rather than instead of one.

Every case study publishes what was measured, not only what was achieved — all of them are here, and each one names the substrate, the species, the readings and the protocol it followed.

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