Kempas hardwood comes from the Koompassia tree which is found in parts of Asia, mostly Indonesia and Malaysia. The wood has a coarse texture but is somewhat lustrous with a spiral or interlocked grain. The color is orange–red to reddish brown and undergoes a slight muting of the shade with time. Kempas has become popular with the current trend toward wood flooring from exotic species.

Kempas hardwood floors are available in solid and engineered hardwood flooring types. In hardwood boards the width varies from 3" to 5". Because of its coarse grain structure, Kempas is able to handle traffic well. It is a durable wood floor with a hardness of around 1700 on the Janka Hardness scale.

When purchasing kempas hardwood flooring it is important to research the hardwood floor manufacture and read how this floor type is harvested and manufactured. Solid kempas wood requires it to be properly dried and seasoned post–harvesting in kilns. It is believed this is not always satisfactorily done at the country of origin and may result in problems for the hardwood flooring at a later stage as the wood is unstable. Such problems give rise to solid kempas floors splitting and cracking at the ends and opening up of the grains on the face.