I’m seeing a continuing shift where clients are still wanting wood floors some texture but not necessarily the hand scraped looks. Wire-brushed floors which seemed to have a false start 5 years ago are now widely accepted.
Grainy wood species like white oak are given texture by passing under a wire bristle brush. The brush “sweeps” out the softer spring wood giving the surface relief that makes the grain more pronounced.
New wire-brushing techniques have evolved which have a nicer effect on less grainy woods such as hickory and maple but the predominant product being used is European white oak in wide widths.
Close up of a wire-brushed white oak wood floor from Real Wood Floors.
This product could be found at every booth at the Shanghai Domotex show in March. Every vendor has jumped on this bandwagon so expect the product to be pushed into every retail outlet in the US.
samcobb
woodflooringtrends 
Looking at the first photo posted I would think running the planks through a sander first would eliminate the mill marks that run across the board, then running them through the wire brush would make for a very nice floor.
I’m a stickler for perfection and find fault when others cut corners for a quick profit.
Aside from that, the look is very nice.
Thanks for commenting Lisa. That particular product is made to emulate a reclaimed look. So in order to achieve that look, RWF cuts their Euro white oak logs into a 6″ x 9″ wide cant, then runs them into veneer intentionally leaving the saw marks so it looks more like a old product. Then they dry the veneer and press into engineered flooring. So in that particular product which was made to look like an old warehouse floor those defects are intentional. Thanks for commenting!
I be darn. Thanks for clearing that up.
Lise thanks for joining the conversation. What trends are you seeing in your market? What floors are consumers asking for currently?