In its August 2007 review of flooring, Consumer Reports said this about
solid wood flooring: "But ... all tend to dent."

In the rating table, they state that prefinished solid wood was "mostly
oak, typically nailed to a subfloor, and all were 3/4" thick."

Red oak has a Janka hardness rating of 1290; for white oak, it's 1360.
Hard maple, rated at 1450, is only about 9% higher than average of the
two oaks.

So why can bowling alleys, typically constructed of maple, withstand at
the approach end the extreme abuse of dropped 14-16-pound balls so well
while CR claims that all solid wood flooring tend to dent (even under
the relatively less severe conditions in a typical household)? Thickness
can't be the answer, because dents are surface phenomena. I can't
imaging thickness greater than 1/2" inch being any more dent-resistant.

As an aside, the report also said engineered wood "dents easily." This
makes some sense; if you put a thin hardwood veneer over a relatively
soft under layer (as an absurd example, balsa wood), the veneer won't
have any support.

On Jan 25, 9:11 am, Ray K wrote:
So why can bowling alleys, typically constructed of maple, withstand at
the approach end the extreme abuse of dropped 14-16-pound balls so well
while CR claims that all solid wood flooring tend to dent (even under
the relatively less severe conditions in a typical household)? Thickness
can't be the answer, because dents are surface phenomena. I can't
imaging thickness greater than 1/2" inch being any more dent-resistant.

Well, bowling alleys are 2 1/2" thick at the business end only, so
obviously there's some added dent resistance by having thicker wood or
they wouldn't go to the expense.

Bowling alleys also have a ridiculously thick layer of urethane on top
(and maybe polyester). Probably a good 1/4" of it, if not more. At
that thickness, it's going to be able to absorb some energy. I don't
know exactly how often bowling alleys refinish their lanes, but I know
it's very often - you see those machines going down the lanes every
once in a while stripping the top layer and putting a new one on.

I also think that if you got the front end of a bowling lane in your
house and really looked at it, it would look pretty dinged up. You
don't see these things at the alley because the lighting is poor and
anyway, it's a bowling alley, not your house. As soon as that wood
was yours, you'd see how marked up it is.

Anyway, I have a bamboo floor in one room of my house and the hardness
rating is something like 1890. It'll still dent. (A window installer
dropped his pry bar on it once, and yes, it left a little dent.) So
any wood is gonna dent too.

On Jan 25, 8:11*am, Ray K wrote:
In its August 2007 review of flooring, Consumer Reports said this about
solid wood flooring: "But ... all tend to dent."

In the rating table, they state that prefinished solid wood was "mostly
oak, typically nailed to a subfloor, and all were 3/4" thick."

Red oak has a Janka hardness rating of 1290; for white oak, it's 1360.
Hard maple, rated at 1450, is only about 9% higher than average of the
two oaks.

So why can bowling alleys, typically constructed of maple, withstand at
the approach end the extreme abuse of dropped 14-16-pound balls so well
while CR claims that all solid wood flooring tend to dent (even under
the relatively less severe conditions in a typical household)? Thickness
can't be the answer, because dents are surface phenomena. I can't
imaging thickness greater than 1/2" inch being any more dent-resistant.

As an aside, the report also said engineered wood "dents easily." This
makes some sense; if you put a thin hardwood veneer over a relatively
soft under layer (as an absurd example, balsa wood), the veneer won't
have any support.

I bought some bowling alley 'wood' on eBay from a chap in Indiana a
few days ago. It's about as far from the forest as anything I've seen.
It makes Pergo look like some kind of cardboard by comparison. The
stuff is a tough plastic laminate lithographed like maple on both
sides. The surfaces are an optical flat. As for as dents, there were
none. The material was used, and while one side had a high gloss
finish the other side was more like semi-gloss. The substrate was a
composite as hard as anything I've seen in a fabrication laminate. I
hope I can find some more of it to make a great big router table out
of.
I think that answers the question of why bowling balls don't get the
alleys all dented up these days. They sure did suffer, though, back
when I was a kid. HTH

Joe

On Jan 25, 4:13 pm, Joe wrote:
I bought some bowling alley 'wood' on eBay from a chap in Indiana a
few days ago. It's about as far from the forest as anything I've seen.
It makes Pergo look like some kind of cardboard by comparison. The
stuff is a tough plastic laminate lithographed like maple on both
sides.

Supposedly some alleys have switched to this stuff, but some (most?)
do still use real maple.