The majority of China engineered wood flooring factories export European and Russian Oak flooring to international market, according to China Customs data, European oak and Russian oak export proportion ranges from 1:1 to 3:2. So Russian oak is one of the most popular oak species on the global wood flooring marketplace, and many factories in China prefer it due to rich production and easy access to high grades of AB and ABC than European oak, if you are customers in USA, you can also opt for white oak, China also specializes in American white oak engineered wood flooring aimed at US market.
European Oak or White Oak?
Some people refer to European(White) oak and American White oak as “White Oak” because they both belong to genus Quercus, but they are quite different from each other from detailed Quercus classification point. (Q. robur) and (Q. sessilis) are European oak main timber species distributing in France and they are also preferred as wine barrels for coopers in Europe. (Q. alba) as the predominant species of White Oak in North America, consists of about 45% of the standing White Oak timber.
What’s the difference between European Oak and American White Oak?
1). European Oak has uniform dark and golden-brown color variation between boards, American white oak has more color variation with paler and pinkish undertones. American white oak and Red Oak vessel is bigger than European oak, knots are less, but European oak grain is more tight.
2).European Oak has slower growth than American White Oak, so European Oak gets tighter grain and more knots than White Oak
Grain is defined as the average width between the annual growth rings of the tree. Trees grow outward, from the heart out to the bark, adding a layer every year just under the bark, in the “cambium” area. This incremental layer is called the “annual growth ring.” The grain is the sum of annual growth rings added each year in the life of a tree. Oak belongs to the family of the “ring porous” hardwoods.
Average Composition of Summer(Late wood) and Spring Oakwood(Early wood)
3).European Oak has higher tannin content and less sapwood than White Oak, making it more rot-resistant and more available to getting natural color through different kinds of surface treatments of carbonization, reactive staining, fuming/smoking, UV Lacquer, Brush, Oil and handcraft natural color processes.
Wood Flooring Surface treatment of Fumed & Smoked
European Oak
The Oak timber put to use on engineered wood flooring mainly sources from European forest, most in France, Germany and Belgium, also including Lithuania etc. France’s predominant species of oak are Q. robur and Q. sessilis. Q. robur oak timber gets increasingly rare when traveling from France, move into Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Russian. That’s why Q. robur oak timber are preferred for wine barrel, furniture and wood flooring manufacturers due to its scarcity.
Q. robur oak timber gets more knotty than Q. sessilis, because Q. robur oak branches of trunk grow from lower level, however, Q. sessilis oak tree is tall and slender and grows few branches. Furthermore, timber in Q. robur is generally more dense than in Q. sessilis, Q. robur oak timber also has higher tannin content than Q. sessilis’s, so Q. robur oak timber can be achieved more unique and natural colors through chemical processes of surface treats of carbonization, reactive staining, fuming/smoking react with the tannins on oak timber.
European Oak AB Grade, there is clear color variation and almost no knots
European Oak ABCD Grade, there is clear color variation, and obvious knots.
European Oak Veneer A Grade
French Oak
Oak timber grow in 4 area in France is preferred for wine barrel, furniture and wood flooring, and oak from these 4 area has rich tannin means flooring factories can create more unique and natural look engineered wood flooring through carbonization, reactive staining, fuming/smoking.
Oak in Limousin most belong to Q. robur we know it has the most tannin with open wide grained and is loved by flooring brands or wine barrel brandy producer.
Next is oak in center of France, including Nievre and Allier area, most oak here are Q. sessilis timber species with tight grain.
Oak in Vosges of France is almost same as oak in Nievre and Allier regions with characteristics of tight grain and less dense. Oak here is much loved by Burgundy producers.
Bourgogne oak is a little similarity with oak in center of France, in general, the wood is used by the Burgundy producers.
So the tannin content ranking of French oak is:
Oak in Limousin > Oak in center of France > Oak in Vosges of France > Oak in Bourgogne
Russian Oak
Some engineered wood flooring brands said China wood flooring factories export Russian oak engineered wood flooring labeled as European oak engineered flooring to USA and Europe. As a Oak flooring factory, we indeed do it as said above, but please note that both China factories and customers know what they sell and what they buy and they agree with order details before customers decide to place orders and China supplier start making it.
Why Oak being harvested in the Russian Far East is processed in China factories and sold in the United States and Europe, where it is usually labeled as ‘European Oak.’, The main reason is US and Europe ban Russian oak importing due to the war between Ukraine and Russia.
- Some customer prefer Russian Oak because it has clear grain and uniform color variation, plus less sapwood with high grades of AB, ABC, whereas European oak get less high grades of AB, ABC timber with obvious color variation and more sapwood. So some brandy producer buy Russian oak not European oak.
- Russian oak is more easy to get than European oak due to European oak strict logging but factories in China can buy rich Russian oak from Russian Far East, Mongolia and Ukraine with high grades.
For Russian Oak from Primorsky Krai region, It smoked very well, the color was very good and the knots were tight, just like Baltic birch from Baltic sea, Baltic birch offers the most stable, durable and moisture-resistant plywood in the engineered wood flooring, while price is high compared with eucalyptus, pine, poplar plywood.
Russian Oak AB Grade, there is clean grain with no obvious color variation.
Russian Oak AB grade
European(French) Oak Vs Russian Oak
- European oak offers AB, ABCD(Rustic), CDE, CD, EF grades due to more defects of knots, cracks and color variation etc.
- Russian oak AB can replace European oak AB grade due to Russian oak timber tight and clean grain, less color variation and rich production.
- European oak has more tannin content than Russian oak, so if you like true natural color, you can pick up Russian oak, or just get “natural” color oak flooring through surface treatments of Fuming (Smoking), Carbonization, Reactive Stain technologies with European oak.
- Common size of Russian oak engineered flooring is almost same as European oak, because the dimension of Russian oak veneer and European oak Veneer, plus plywood custom supports.
2mm sliced cut veneer, 3, 4, 5, 6mm sawn cut veneer. Russian oak, European(French) Oak.
10/2 mm thickness.
- 600 * 90 * 10/2 mm
- 910 * 125 * 10/2 mm
- 910 * 125 * 10/2 mm
- 900 * 120 * 10/2 mm
10/3 mm thickness.
- 600 * 90 * 10/3 mm
- 900 * 90 * 10/3 mm
- 900 * 120 * 10/3 mm
- 1200 * 150 * 10/3 mm
- 1900 * 150 * 10/3 mm
10/4 mm thickness.
- 600 * 70 * 10/4 mm
- 900 * 90 * 10/4 mm
- 600 * 90 * 10/4 mm
- 800 * 90 * 10/4 mm
13/3 mm thickness.
- 600 * 90 * 11/3
- 1200 * 150 * 11/3
12/2 mm thickness.
- 1200 * 148 * 12/2 mm
- 1900 * 190 * 12/2 mm
- 1900 * 150 * 12/2 mm
12/3 mm thickness.
- 600 * 150 * 12/3 mm
- 900 * 120 * 12/3 mm
- 900 * 150 * 12/3 mm
- 1200 * 150 * 12/3 mm
- 1900 * 150 * 12/3 mm
- 1900 * 190 * 12/3 mm
14/3 mm thickness.
- 1200 * 150 * 14/3 mm
- 1860 * 148 * 14/3 mm
- 1860 * 190 * 14/3 mm
- 1900 * 150 * 14/3 mm
- 1900 * 190 * 14/3 mm
- 2200 * 180 * 14/3 mm
- 2200 * 240 * 14/3 mm
15/4 mm thickness.
- 1900 * 150 * 15/4 mm
- 1900 * 180 * 15/4 mm
- 1900 * 190 * 15/4 mm
- 1900 * 220 * 15/4 mm
- 2200 * 190 * 15/4 mm
- 2200 * 220 * 15/4 mm
- 2200 * 240 * 15/4 mm
- 2200 * 260 * 15/4 mm
- 2200 * 300 * 15/4 mm
20/6 mm thickness.
- 1900*190*20/6 mm
- 2200*190*20/6 mm
- 2200*220*20/6 mm
- 2200*260*20/6 mm
- 2200*300*20/6 mm
What is cost of Russian oak engineered wood flooring?
We manufacture European oak engineered flooring and Russian oak engineered flooring in our factory, the export ratio of European oak and Russian oak ranges from 1:1 to 3:2, according to our annual export quantity of 1, 800, 000 square meters, we sell around 500, 000 – 700, 000 square meters of Russian oak, so we can 100% promise the best price of Russian oak and European oak flooring with quality and best warranty of 30 years.
Russian oak may get larger fluctuation on price, but it is almost same as European with same Grade, dimension and colors, sometimes is 2 USD/sqm higher than European oak flooring. American white oak’s price is almost near to European oak and Russian oak on AB, ABC, ABCD grades. Red oak AB price is 7-10USD/m2 cheaper than European, Russian and American white oak flooring.
Our glued floor boards will get cold press progress under pressure of 800 ton for 45 minutes.
