The reasoning for wanting Rift & Quartered Sawn floors lies in the dimensional stability over the flat or plain sawn. It is the best option for radiant floors & wide plank. When a log is processed into boards, the way the annual rings run through it determines its designation. When looking at the end grain of a board you can see the direction of the annual rights. A rift & quartered board will have the angles of the annual rights anywhere from 35° (riftsawn) to 90° (quartersawn). This is important for the stability of your floor because of the natural shrinkage and expansion in wood flooring. With rift & quartered sawn the width of the boards will not move like with the flat sawn creating gaps in the floor. Rift & Quartered Sawn also has a unique visual design. The surface has a mix of the straight grain from the rift sawn and the quarter sawn displays the Medullary Rays with emanate outward from the center of the log creating a visual appearance know as fleck figure or ray.