Hickory is denser than other hardwoods of the northern forest, including Maple and Oak. Of all the varieties of Hickory that grow in the United States, our Hickory is derived almost exclusively from Pignut Hickory, the hardest of them all.
You may be familiar with the Shagbark variety of Hickory, which is easily recognized by its long shaggy strips of bark. The contrast between Hickory’s cream colored sapwood and warm brown heartwood creates a light and dark striated floor that is equally at home in a traditional or modern setting. With a clear finish, Hickory’s color variation can be played up, or with a darker stain, Hickory’s color variation can be minimized.
We can make you a custom floor because we are a sawmill. Choose the plank widths and lengths that are right for you, and choose your preferred grade and cut of Hickory as well as your preferred surface and finish options.
Hickory floors offer excellent impact resistance and are recommended for high-traffic areas, including kitchens, entryways, and first floor rooms. A truly American hardwood, Hickory is a hard and heavy wood that has been used for ax and hammer handles, wagon wheels, golf club shafts, and drumsticks, and other demanding applications.
We expect our wood floors to hold up to generations of use, and we offer you a lifetime quality guarantee.
Hull Forest Products is an industry leader in forest conservation. We utilize best management practices and our forestry division consists of state licensed foresters and timber harvesters as well as Society of American Foresters (SAF) certified foresters. Learn more
It’s hard to imagine a wood floor that conjures up the image of the American frontier more than wide plank Hickory, which has a distinguished American pedigree. Hickory trees are found throughout eastern North America, and “Hickory” is one of the few extant Algonquin words. The word “pawcohiccora,” from which “hickory” derives, was first recorded by the explorer John Smith in Virginia circa 1608. The wood and the mast of the hickory tree were extremely important to the Native Americans and the early English settlers. Hickory’s toughness was so legendary in early America that the word hickory became synonymous with “strength”: a hard-wearing twill cloth was known as “hickory cloth”, and General Andrew Jackson was dubbed “Old Hickory” by his troops when he demonstrated his toughness on the battlefield.
Hickory is a hardwood with a lot of tension in it – this is what makes hickory so tough, but it also means that hickory needs a little more time and love than other hardwoods to acclimate and install. We encourage you to plan on acclimating solid hickory flooring for up to two full weeks, or longer, if needed, on the kiln dried acclimation sticks we provide with your order. There are no shortcuts with hickory. The wood needs to acclimate while HVAC is up and running in the home to recommended conditions. As with all flooring, your installer will need to take readings with a moisture meter to ensure that the flooring is at the recommended moisture content and that it is also within 2% of the recommended moisture content of the subfloor, prior to installation. We provide National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) installation instructions with your order. Proper acclimation and installation are important because hickory has a greater tendency for slight seasonal expansion and contraction when there are big swings in a home’s indoor humidity. We always want to make sure homeowners are prepared for this because some people don’t mind it at all (and we have many happy solid hickory floor customers), but others do. Setting up this wood for success through best acclimation and installation practices minimizes any issues. We also offer engineered hickory for those who prefer an engineered wood floor.
Learn more about the characteristics of hickory flooring at our blog
Our family has made wide plank flooring for over 55 years, and we enjoy creating enduring floors that are a healthy and environmentally friendly solution for our clients’ homes.