# White ash hardwood flooring in Toronto — the supply problem nobody mentions **Should I choose white ash flooring in Toronto, given the emerald ash borer?** Ash is a hard, pale, beautifully grained floor, and it is the only one of the six species used in this market being cut faster than it grows. That is not a demand story. It is an insect, first detected at Windsor in 2002, and any honest ash specification has to start there. ## Comparison *Annual growth against annual harvest, US hardwood resource (American Hardwood Export Council)* | Species | Annual growth | Annual harvest | | --- | --- | --- | | Red oak | 60.6 million m³ | 31.9 million m³ | | White oak | 40.1 million m³ | 20.1 million m³ | | Hard maple | 19.1 million m³ | 10.2 million m³ | | Hickory | 14.6 million m³ | 6.0 million m³ | | Black walnut | 4.8 million m³ | 1.9 million m³ | | White ash | 3.3 million m³ | 6.9 million m³ | ## Specification | Item | 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) | ## What goes wrong here - 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. ## Related questions ### 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. ## Recommendation 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. Conditional on: - 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. --- ## Provenance - Canonical URL: https://ecowoods.ca/guides/white-ash-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#ash, https://ecowoods.ca/papers/where-toronto-hardwood-comes-from#tolerant-hardwoods, https://ecowoods.ca/papers/where-toronto-hardwood-comes-from#growing-stock, 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.