This week, we continue our hardwood flooring profiles series with a new wood - ash. We like working with Ash because it's not something that is very common in the Midwest when it comes to hardwood floors. Part of this is simply because people don't know much about this wood. We can assure you that it's a great and we'd love to tell you why.

Ash is a naturally light wood that you'll know from baseball bats. That's right, baseball bats are almost always built using ash because it gives great "bounce" on impact. Ash is a nice and light wood that has many applications.

In terms of flooring characteristics, ash is great when you want to use stains. Ash is very absorbent and blends well with a lot of stains. If you're thinking of staining your floors, then consider ash. Ash is naturally really light and we find it to be gorgeous without stain. It's personal preference, but ash allows for flexibility in this regard.

One of the downsides of ash is that it's a little on the expensive side. Most of the cost surrounding ash has to do with the fact that it's not a really popular wood. Ash isn't exactly exotic, so it's price is unfortunate. Still, you should always check first because we find that the price of ash can fluctuate a lot.