With current economic conditions causing a steep decrease in new home construction, Columbia is now seeing the consistent hardwood flooring purchases being made by the replacement/remodel consumers. Strong favorites of this demographic are “character” hardwood flooring products. The character market represents wood with some form of character, texture or rusticity. Roughly 30% of purchases made in the hardwood market today are for these character products.

Columbia recently conducted extensive research regarding current consumer tastes and buying habits in the wood market. The results clearly show that the majority of the population is trending toward the more natural product designs. Also, looking across the industry at the new hardwood products introduced over the past two or three years, roughly 50% have presented the attributes of the more character looks.

This consumer preference was so strong that Columbia responded last year with a total reinvention of its wood product line. Columbia could now be considered the industry’s “character woods specialist” featuring a full range of 48 solid and 50 engineered character woods across multiple species and multiple colors, in both solid and engineered hardwood. No one else offers this. Columbia’s character woods feature planks with unique surface treatments such as hand-sculpted, recovered, weathered, distressed and time-worn looks, as well as wood featuring natural knots, hammer dents, nail holes, splits and mineral streaks.

Another hallmark of Columbia’s character assortment is that its woods are the first hardwood flooring products in the industry to offer a myriad of surface treatments “prefabricated” from the factory. Before this innovation, character looks in the industry could only be achieved through expensive on-site finishing. By effectively employing the right technology, Columbia has been able to significantly increase the character options available to the consumer and keep prices within most budgets.

Columbia’s solid and engineered character woods are all Lacey Act and CARB Phase 2 compliant. Our engineered character products are also FloorScore certified.

Columbia is the only brand in the hardwood industry to offer retailers the “right products” to capture the 30% of their local retail market interested in character woods.