The Meaning of Old Growth

By Kathy Fleming, Hardwood Floors Magazine

Ask most people how old a piece of furniture must be to be considered a true antique and most will know the answer. At least 100 years old.

Ask most car buffs how old an automobile must be to be considered a classic and they too will know the answer. At least 25 years old.

If only it were that simple with antique wood floors.

It was…once upon a time. Whenever the terms old-growth, original-growth and antique were bandied about, the vast majority of us unconsciously agreed that meant o-l-d. Very old. We knew we were discussing trees from America’s first forests and wood that provided denser, superior lumber.

None of us really needed an exact definition. It was mainly the foresters and scientists who investigated the topic. The customers of specialty antique flooring manufacturers knew what they wanted and would never have thought to ask for the definition of the “old-growth” wood they were buying. And vast majority of the time, they got wood floors that truly were very o-l-d.