Hardwood Flooring Trivia: Red vs. Yellow Birch

Want to stump a friend with some flooring trivia? Ask him or her to explain sourcing and manufacturing differences between "Red Birch" and "Yellow Birch" hardwood flooring. Below, you will find some background on birch--a fine choice for residential hardwood flooring--and of course the answer to this question.

Birch trees grows in the northern regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. In pre-colonial and colonial times, Native Americans stretched birch bark over the frames of their canoes. Birch is a straight-grained product that takes stain quite well. In turn, this attribute allows hardwood flooring manufacturers to offer birch flooring across a relatively wide color palette. Perhaps for all of the above reasons, birch is an increasingly popular choice among consumers looking for something "a little different" in their hardwood floor. Birch offers both beauty and mystique.

At times, hardwood flooring marketeers refer to "birch," "Red Birch" and "Yellow Birch." Faced with this noise, consumers incorrectly may infer that the terms distinguish among physical staining options. Indeed, the terms "Red Birch" and "Yellow Birch" have nothing to do with stain color. In its natural state, "Red Birch" is the pinker of the two whereas "Yellow Birch" presents a more creamy or golden hue. However, the terms "red" and "yellow" are relevant only in the sense of a relative comparison as neither hardwood's visual appearance closely approaches the primary color for which it is named.

So, if not stains, what do the terms "red" and "yellow" designate? Consumers familiar with oak hardwood flooring might guess that the different birch names represent product from different species of birch trees. Such is the case with oak hardwood flooring, where, as the American Hardwood Export Council's fine website makes clear, red oak and white oak reference product harvested from two entirely different species of trees.

As applied to "Red Birch" and "Yellow Birch," however, the oak-derived two-tree hypothesis proves false. It turns out that "Red Birch" and "Yellow Birch" derive from the same species of tree, albeit from different parts. The older, stronger, non-living central wood or "heartwood" of the tree carries a more "pinkish" hue reminiscent of a cherry--hence, the "Red Birch." The younger, living, creamier-looking sapwood is the "Yellow Birch." Indeed, to be truly technical, "Red Birch" is really the heartwood of what is commonly called the "Yellow Birch" tree.