Birch hardwood floors have always been a popular choice due to the fact that they are cheaper than oak, but still a sturdy hardwood floor with a wide variety of natural colors. It’s worth looking at some photos of birch flooring online so you know what I mean. As you can see, it is very different than oak flooring, however, both floors are the most popular solid woods sold today.
I think it’s compensation. Simply price on product. Oak is strong and durable, but more expensive. Birch is a cheap flooring, which is not as strong (or beautiful) as oak. People choose it for the price. Maple would be a better choice for a light floor than birch as it is more stable and more resistant to wear, but doesn’t sell as much volume. And that means it’s simply because of the price.
Of course, now that engineered and multi-layer flooring is becoming more popular, oak flooring has become even cheaper. But engineered birch flooring would also become cheap hardwood flooring if it only made it to hardwood flooring in good volume. But as it stands, it’s still a niche and therefore a very expensive product. And if that’s not weird enough, due to lower volumes, this less-than-high-quality engineered wood is considerably less expensive than its oak engineered flooring rival.
A good idea of how a lower quality product can become more expensive due to volume. I’d say buy the oak any day. And if you really like tough yet lightweight floors, buy some maple.
