Many luxury homes feature floors that are made of gorgeous antique heart pine. Never heard of antique heart pine? Well, if you are in the market for a luxury home its time you did.

As a tree grows old the wood in the very center of the tree becomes heartwood. Pine trees allowed to grow 300 years or older will develop a heartwood at the center and that heartwood is what we call "heart pine." All the heart pine ever made in the United States was already made at the time of the declaration American Independence in 1776. No more was made because pine trees were cut down and not allowed to age sufficiently long to create a heartwood. At the time of the settling of America by Europeans there were 80 million acres of antique heart pine and every bit of it was cut down for lumber by 1900.

Regular pine is soft and yellow in color. Heart pine is brown to red to orange and yellow and is harder than then the regular pine. Heart pine is much more resistant to insects and decay compared to regular pine. All of the true heart pine sold today for use in luxury homes is recycled lumber taken from buildings torn down for their lumber and other materials.

New heart pine comes from trees allowed to age sufficiently to develop a heartwood. Its not nearly as developed as antique heart pine and it is more yellow in color. One of the reasons luxury homes are so expensive is that you will pay anywhere from $9.00 to $12.00 per square foot for new heart pine! So if you're looking a luxury home with 8,000 square feet of useable space then the flooring alone will add $70,000 - $96,000 (2008 prices) to the price of the house. If the flooring is true antique heart pine then the flooring could add as much as $150,000 to the price of the house.