Pecan – Total Wood Species Guide

PROS: Pecan is a hard and dense light brown to dark reddish-brown wood. It is commonly available as strip flooring, sometimes mixed up with hickory. When mixed with hickory, it is extremely strong and durable. It has a fine but still very distinctive grain pattern. The grain is coarse and often irregular in structure. Pecan is modestly priced. It is very hard and will stand up well in high traffic areas. Similar to hickory, it is a rustic floor that is used in log cabins quite often. Also, since it is such a hard wood, it is fairly resistant to dents, scratches and gouging. Pecan is harder than oak.

CONS: You may not find it in your area, it is more popular in the Deep South. Even though pecan is a fast-drying wood, it is susceptible to shrinking when it dries. The shrinkage is fairly minimal, but worth mentioning. Pecan is also susceptible to frost and decay. Also, it will sometimes dull tools when cut. Because it is incredibly hard, it doesn’t take nails that well. This is one hardwood that you may actually want to screw, rather than nail. (I know this goes against everything on my web site, but pecan is a special case!)

TREE FACTS: Pecan is native to south-central North America. Pecan is a species of hickory. In the beginning of the 16th century, Europeans started to notice pecan trees and began to write about them.