Which Wood Species Works Best On Floating Stairs?

The best wood species to use on your floating stairs is one that will hold up to daily use, is structurally sound, and is also breath-taking. The best species for you to choose will depend on your sense of style and the nature of your project.

Below, you’ll find our recommendations for wood species based on what is important to you.

Best Wood Species for Floating Stairs

Viewrail carries many wood species that will work well as treads on contemporary staircases. Each will give you a premium product that is as beautiful as it is strong. Below you will find a breakdown of the costs and benefits of the top wood species Viewrail offers for floating stairs, as well as a recommendation order supported by over 15 years of working with lumber. Viewrail recommends these wood species for floating stairs, though not necessarily in the following order:

Red Oak
Hard Maple
White Oak
Ash
Walnut
Hickory

The following chart will give you some quick facts about each of these species, as well as their rating on the Janka scale (the Janka scale assigns each wood species a rating for its hardness out of a maximum 4000). You can also check out our Modern Stair Tread Visualizer!

Wood Species	JANKA Rating	Highlights
Red Oak	1290	Durable Easy to Stain Readily Available Economic Heavy Grain Patterns
Hard Maple	1450	Natural Light Color Can Stain Virtually any Color Durable Consistent, limited grain pattern
White Oak	1360	Popular to stain with “White Wash Durable Heavy grain Patterns
Ash	1320	Light Grain pattern Easy to Stain Not as Durable as Oaks
Walnut	1010	Beautiful with a Clear Finish Diverse Grain Pattern
Hickory	1820	Heavy Color Variability Common to have Wood knots Extremely hard Wears well Easy to Stain

Why these Wood Species?

We offer over 15 different wood species but we have narrowed it down to these 6 because of three factors: stability, finishing quality, and overall aesthetic value. Each of these wood species will remain stable for the lifetime of the stairway, accept a wide variety of finishes well, and are beautiful woods.

Taking the Next Step with FLIGHT

If you’re interested in learning more about types of stairs or how much floating stairs cost and what FLIGHT could look like in your space, you can get a quote for floating stairs on the top menu bar. Or, if you’re feeling creative, you can use our “build your own floating stair” tool to create a virtual staircase.

Do you want to talk to an expert about customizing your project? Have any more questions about wood species or floating stairs? Give our experts a call at 1(574) 742-1030.