Prime Grade / AB Grade
Back to GlossaryPrime Grade / AB grade Glossary
Prime grade flooring [often referred to as A grade] is generally free of defects such as knots, wane, splits, shakes, holes, worm holes, heart kern ingrowing bark, lath marks and significant colour variation. The appearance therefore tends to look very even, sometimes to the point where it begins to look man made.
AB grade is a commonly referred to term which describes a grade almost prime but allowing a proportion of B grade – which allows small pin knots and blemishes not allowed in Prime grade.
Depending on the species of wood flooring being considered, by nature Prime grade is very demanding in terms of selection and hence tends to be expensive. In high character trees such as Walnut the price of Prime grade, particularly in wide widths can be prohibitive.
