Marri vs Jarrah vs Blackbutt: Choosing a WA Floor

Marri and Jarrah cost exactly the same — $239 a square metre for the 130mm, $259 for the 180mm, boards only and GST included. Blackbutt is $30 less. So this decision is mostly about design and feel, with one practical exception worth knowing before you choose.

Here is how I talk a Western Australian family through it.

The exception: hardness

Get this out of the way first, because it is the one place money is not the deciding factor.

Blackbutt is 9.1 kN on the Janka scale. Jarrah is 8.5. Marri is 7.1.

So at identical money, Jarrah buys you 1.4 kN more hardness than Marri. And Blackbutt — the cheapest of the three — is harder than both.

If you have large dogs, an active household, or castor chairs running on a hard floor, that difference is real and it should weigh on the decision. If your household is ordinary family living, all three handle it and you can choose on feel.

Marri: rustic and country

Honey, cream and deep brown, with black gum veins through it. Varied in colour, plenty of character, and a little busy.

Marri grows nowhere in the world except the south-west of Western Australia. Most people here know it from furniture before they know it as a floor, and that matters — it arrives with a reputation already attached.

It is an heirloom timber. Once you have a beautiful Marri table you hold onto it and pass it down to your children, and people carry that same sense of value into their floor.

Who buys it: mainly country people and local Western Australians. New homes usually take the 180mm. Renovations usually take the 130mm, often because they are matching something already in the house.

Jarrah: regal and red

Deeper, redder, more uniform in tone than Marri, and it darkens over the first six to twelve months into that deep red people picture when they say the word.

Jarrah is a much more regal red feel. Marri is a much more rustic, country feel. They give a different emotion, and which one strikes a chord is personal.

Two practical notes. Jarrah's red has to work with your furniture and your wall colours — it is a floor you build a room around rather than a neutral you drop in. And because it is darker, in a small room it will read smaller.

Jarrah is also far harder for us to source than Marri. We can buy Jarrah logs once or twice a year. Marri comes up more regularly. If you want Jarrah, ask early. Jarrah flooring has the full detail.

Blackbutt: the practical one

Pale to light brown, far more even in tone than either WA species, harder than both, and $30 a square metre cheaper.

It is also the easiest of the three for us to get, which means shorter lead times and fewer disappointed customers.

What Blackbutt does not have is the rarity. It is a more available resource, so it is not considered as precious, and it does not carry the Western Australian association that Marri and Jarrah do.

We often see people come in wanting Marri and end up buying Blackbutt, simply because it is a more durable surface. That happens most weeks and it is usually the right call. Blackbutt flooring is where to start if that sounds like your house.

The short comparison

Hardness: Blackbutt 9.1 kN, Jarrah 8.5 kN, Marri 7.1 kN.

Colour: Marri honey to deep brown with black gum veins. Jarrah deep red, darkening over the first year. Blackbutt pale to light brown, the most even of the three.

Character: Marri the most varied and the busiest. Jarrah more uniform but darker. Blackbutt the calmest.

Price, boards only and GST included: Marri and Jarrah $239 for 130mm and $259 for 180mm. Blackbutt $209 and $229.

Availability: Blackbutt easiest. Marri regular. Jarrah once or twice a year.

Where they grow: Marri and Jarrah are Western Australian. Blackbutt comes from farm forestry in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland.

All three are on the floor at our Osborne Park showroom, a few steps apart, which settles this argument faster than anything I can write. Download the Lifewood price guide if you want the numbers first, or call us and describe your house.

So which one

Matching or extending a floor you already have: whichever species is already down. Board width matters as much as the species, so bring us the width.

An older Perth home where you want the floor to belong: Marri or Jarrah. Choose on whether the room wants rustic warmth or regal red.

A hard-working family home: Blackbutt, and spend the $30 difference on floor preparation.

You want the rarest of the three and you are willing to plan ahead: Marri, and give us three to six months lead time. The 130mm Marri is being discontinued and a 220mm Marri arrives in January 2027, so if you need a narrow board, talk to us soon.

Everything on the Western Australian species is on the Marri timber flooring page.