Timber Species Guide
SPECIES WE WORK ON
A homeowner-focused guide to the timber floors we see across Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula. Not a product catalogue — original notes on identification, sanding behaviour, finishing and coastal performance.
| Species | Botanical | Janka (kN) | Colour | Typical Era | Coastal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Cypress Pine | Callitris glaucophylla | 5.4 | Pale cream sapwood against honey-gold to mid-brown heartwood, with dark knots throughout. | 1930s through 1970s, concentrated in rural and semi-rural Peninsula properties. | Fair |
| Baltic Pine | Pinus sylvestris | 2.5 | Pale straw yellow when fresh; ambers to a warm honey-orange over decades of light exposure. | Pre-1950s heritage stock; particularly common in Federation-era and early postwar cottages. | Fair |
| Blackbutt | Eucalyptus pilularis | 9.1 | Pale golden yellow through to soft honey-brown, sometimes with a hint of pink in never-exposed areas. | 1940s through 1980s, with heavy use in postwar Peninsula homes. | Excellent |
| Blackwood | Acacia melanoxylon | 5.5 | Golden brown through to a deep reddish brown, frequently with darker chocolate streaking following the grain. Sapwood is distinctly paler, close to straw. | Rare as a full floor in Peninsula housing. Turns up as feature flooring, thresholds and joinery from the 1930s onward, and increasingly as an engineered veneer today. | Fair |
| Brush Box | Lophostemon confertus | 9.5 | Soft pinkish-grey through to warm mid-brown, notably even in tone across a board. | 1950s through 1990s, used where an even, quiet, hard-wearing floor was wanted. | Good |
| Engineered Oak | Quercus robur (European oak wear layer) | 4.9 | Pale blonde through to mid honey-brown; frequently supplied pre-tinted or smoked. | 2000s onward, and the dominant specification in current Peninsula rebuilds. | Good |
| Grey Ironbark | Eucalyptus paniculata | 14.0 | Pale grey-brown through to deep red-brown, often with strong variation between boards. | Intermittently across the twentieth century, usually where extreme durability was the priority. | Excellent |
| Jarrah | Eucalyptus marginata | 8.5 | Rich deep red through to dark burgundy-brown, darkening considerably with age and exposure. | 1930s through 1980s, appearing intermittently rather than as a default flooring choice. | Excellent |
| Messmate | Eucalyptus obliqua | 7.1 | Pale straw through to light brown, with pronounced gum vein and colour banding between boards. | 1990s onward as a feature-grade specification, though the species has been milled far longer. | Good |
| Spotted Gum | Corymbia maculata | 11.0 | Pale honey-brown through to deep chocolate and reddish-brown, often with dramatic variation within one board. | 1990s onward as a premium specification, with some earlier use in feature areas. | Excellent |
| Sydney Blue Gum | Eucalyptus saligna | 9.0 | Warm pink through to deep reddish-brown, generally more even in tone than Spotted Gum. | 1960s onward, with heavier use from the 1990s as a premium warm-toned specification. | Excellent |
| Tasmanian Oak | Eucalyptus regnans, obliqua & delegatensis | 5.5 | Pale straw through to light reddish-brown, generally even across a board with subtle variation between boards. | 1950s through 1990s, and the single most common hardwood in Peninsula brick veneer housing. | Good |
| Victorian Ash | Eucalyptus regnans & delegatensis | 4.9 | Pale straw to very light pinkish-brown, generally paler and cooler in tone than Tasmanian Oak. | 1960s through 2000s, overlapping heavily with Tasmanian Oak in Peninsula housing. | Good |
