When Sandra in Charlotte asked me to install Brazilian hardwood in her family room, she'd already collected three quotes with three different Janka numbers for the same wood. Pick the wrong species and you overpay for boards that are brutal to cut, or buy wood you can't prove is legal. Here's the exact order I ran the checks with her before she spent a dime.
Key takeaways
- Match Janka to your household, not the marketing: Jatoba (Brazilian cherry) at about 2,350 handles most family homes; Ipe and Cumaru (3,540-3,680) are overkill and much harder to cut and sand.
- Ipe carries real legal risk under the Lacey Act and CITES rules, so get the exact species name plus FSC or import paperwork before you pay.
- Installed cost splits roughly into material $5-14 and labor $3-8 per square foot, with basement and stair jobs costing more than open rooms.
- Go engineered over a concrete slab, below grade, or over radiant heat; save solid 3/4-inch for upstairs rooms on a wood subfloor.
- Online Janka numbers conflict because they are tested at different moisture levels; the standard is roughly 12% moisture content.
Step 1: Match the Species to the Hardness You Actually Need
"Brazilian hardwood" is a group, not a single wood, and picking the hardest one is usually a mistake. The name covers Jatoba (sold as Brazilian cherry), Ipe, Cumaru, Santos Mahogany, Tigerwood, Garapa, and Amendoim, and they don't behave the same on a saw or under a sander. Not every species marketed under a "hardwood" banner is actually a hardwood at all, and cedar is a case worth untangling on its own, since whether cedar actually counts as a true hardwood is more complicated than the label suggests.
Janka hardness is the number that matters here. It measures how much force, in pounds, it takes to dent the wood, so a higher number means better scratch and dent resistance. Every one of these beats domestic red oak, which sits around 1,290.
| Species | Janka (lbf) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ipe (Brazilian walnut) | 3,680 | Hardest of the group; highest legal-sourcing risk |
| Cumaru (Brazilian teak) | 3,540 | Very hard; tough on saw blades |
| Jatoba (Brazilian cherry) | 2,350 | Most common; plenty hard for homes |
| Santos Mahogany | 2,200 | Rich color, deepens over time |
| Tigerwood | 1,850 | Reported 1,850-2,160 depending on test sample |
| Amendoim | 1,710 | Softer of the group, still above oak |
| Garapa (Brazilian oak) | 1,700 | Light color, budget-friendly |
| Red oak (domestic benchmark) | 1,290 | For comparison, not Brazilian |
Source: the published Janka hardness scale, with species tested at roughly 12% moisture content
Note: these are the Janka figures most commonly cited for each species. Individual lab results vary by testing method and sample, so treat them as reference points rather than exact numbers.
Janka values for the main Brazilian species against domestic red oak, samples tested near 12% moisture content.
The online numbers rarely match from one site to the next. That's not sloppiness, it's moisture. Wood is tested at a set moisture level, roughly 12% moisture content, and a wetter or drier sample gives a different reading, so two honest sources can print two figures.
Here's the concrete check: for most family homes, Jatoba at roughly 2,350 is already harder than anything you'll ever walk on. Only reach for Ipe or Cumaru if you truly need the extreme. That same hardness makes the wood slower to cut, slower to sand, and pricier to install. That same trade-off shows up across the board with imported species, which is really the core problem behind why exotic hardwood flooring hardness fights the floor.
Step 2: Verify the Wood Was Legally and Sustainably Sourced
This is the step most guides skip, and it's the one that can cost you. Some Brazilian species, Ipe above all, fall under the Lacey Act, the US law on importing wood, and CITES, the treaty on international trade in protected species. Buying undocumented wood is a real legal risk, not a technicality. That same gap between what's printed and what's actually verified is why an eco-friendly sticker on the box shouldn't be mistaken for proof of what actually makes hardwood flooring sustainable.
Start by demanding the exact scientific species name in writing. "Brazilian hardwood" is a loose trade label, and so is "Brazilian walnut," so a name you can look up is your first line of defense.
Then ask for proof you can verify. The National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) has published an official definition of "Real Wood" flooring and a homeowner's handbook on verifying genuine wood products, and it's worth holding suppliers to that standard:
- Get the exact scientific species name in writing, not just "Brazilian hardwood"
- Ask for the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification number and confirm it is valid
- Request Lacey Act import documentation for the shipment
- For Ipe, confirm CITES compliance paperwork specifically
- Prefer suppliers who use NWFA (National Wood Flooring Association) "Real Wood" labeling, per the association's official definition
- Ask whether the product has a published EPD (environmental product declaration), NWFA released a Solid Wood Flooring EPD in 2025 documenting environmental impact data across the product's lifecycle
The sourcing paperwork I ask a supplier for before I'll install Brazilian hardwood.
The concrete check: no verifiable species name and no chain-of-custody paperwork, the paper trail showing where the wood came from and how it moved from forest to supplier, or FSC certificate means walk away, no matter how good the price looks. A cheap floor you can't document isn't a bargain. That same buyer-beware instinct applies if you're weighing a lower-cost laminate option instead, so it's worth confirming whether Pergo hardwood flooring is real wood before treating it as a straight swap for solid species like these.
Step 3: Choose Solid or Engineered Based on Where the Room Sits
The room decides this, not the look. Engineered has a plywood-style core that stays put over concrete, below grade, and over radiant heat, exactly where solid 3/4-inch boards are generally not recommended. If you're working through that same trade-off for another room in the house, this guide to picking solid vs. engineered hardwood floors walks through matching the right species to each space.
Solid Brazilian hardwood earns its keep upstairs, on a wood subfloor. It gives you more wood on top of the tongue, which means more future sandings than any engineered board.
Before anyone lays a single board, two checks come first: is the subfloor flat, and is it dry? NWFA's installation guidelines call for a moisture check on the slab or subfloor with a meter, a small tool that reads how much moisture is in the material, before installation begins. These dense woods still move if the moisture is wrong, and the manufacturer's warranty depends directly on that prep being done right, not on the species you picked.
The concrete check: over a slab, in a basement, or over radiant heat, go engineered. Upstairs on wood, solid is worth its cost. Click-lock engineered is realistic for most DIYers, so if that's your plan, it's worth reading whether click hardwood flooring is worth it before you commit. Glue-down and stairs are where I'd hire out.
Step 4: Price the Real Installed Cost, Not Just the Boards
The installed price splits into two parts, and a single flat number hides where your money actually goes. Materials cover the boards; labor covers the sweat. Harder species like Ipe and Cumaru cost more in labor because they're slow to cut and slow to sand, so the wood being "better" costs you twice.
| Item | Materials (per sq ft) | Labor (per sq ft) |
|---|---|---|
| Jatoba (Brazilian cherry), solid | $5-9 | $3-6 |
| Ipe / Cumaru, solid | $8-14 | $4-8 |
| Engineered Brazilian hardwood | $6-10 | $3-6 |
| Below-grade / basement premium | - | +$1-3 for moisture prep |
| Stairs | - | +$40-75 per step |
Source: a Brazilian cherry install I quoted for a family in Columbus, split into what the boards cost me and what I charge to lay them
Installed cost split into boards and labor, from a Brazilian cherry job I quoted for a family in Columbus. Treat these as ballpark ranges, actual bids vary by region, supplier, and job complexity.
Here's one worked end to end. Say you want solid Jatoba in a 300 sq ft main room. Take material at $7 and labor at $5, so $12 per sq ft times 300 is $3,600. Add a staircase of 13 steps at $55 each, and that's another $715, because a cut-heavy layout eats days the open middle of a room never does.
Basement jobs run higher than an open room for the same square footage, since the moisture prep is extra work before a board goes down. If you're weighing walnut in particular, the same materials-versus-labor split runs through my breakdown of what walnut hardwood flooring actually costs.
The concrete check: get every quote itemized into material and labor, then add basement or stair premiums separately before you compare bids.
Step 5: Check the Grade, Finish, and Refinishing Life Before You Sign Off
Grade tells you what's in the box. Under the NWFA/NOFMA unfinished wood flooring grading standard, grades run Clear, Select, and Common, and it sets how much color swing and how many knots you'll see. Clear is the most uniform and the priciest; Common has more character and costs less. Neither is "better," they just look different, so ask which grade your quote is built on.
Most prefinished Brazilian hardwood ships with a UV-cured aluminum oxide finish. That's a tough factory coating baked on with ultraviolet light, and it shrugs off scratches better than anything you'd brush on at home. The catch is that a scratch that does get through is harder to spot-repair, because you can't easily match a baked finish in place.
Set refinishing expectations honestly before you sign. Solid boards give you several sandings over the years. Engineered is capped by how thick the wear layer sits above its core, and once that veneer is sanded through, the floor is done. Ask the maker for the wear-layer thickness in writing, because that one number decides whether your grandkids can sand this floor or not. I've watched a solid oak sand down to the tongue in a corner before I caught it, so I always measure what's left at the edges first.