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Photos of quartersawn red/white oak

14 years ago

I am planning to do either quartersawn is red or white oak or quartersawn and rift red or white oak flooring. I have not seen them in stores, just in a couple of pictures. It would help if people posted their pics here and names of their floors. This is the last thing in my decision-making process -- please help!!

Comments (7)

jrdwyer
14 years ago
Here is my R&Q red oak in #1 common with Waterlox:

http://dwyerforestry.com/Oakfloor.htm

Here are some good photos from Taylor lumber:

http://www.taylorlumberinc.com/gallery.php

Realize that unstained flooring with oil based products will be darker and have a warmer cast than water based finishes which will be lighter and have a whitish or cool cast.

Do a search of this forum for other posters' pictures. There are some excellent examples in old posts.
sfjeff
14 years ago
I spent extra for quartersawn white oak for a Victorian and was completely disappointed in the result. The fraction which has the distinctive figuring is very low. Apparently, the fraction of "quartersawn" that really needs to be quartersawn is pretty low.

If you do decide to go for the premium, make sure you have an installer that will send back bundle after bundle if it doesn't meet high standards. I would do it again with a different installer that the one I used. Unfortunately, we're living in the place and it's not feasible to rip it all out and start over.
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glennsfc, we are on a timeline to get the kitchen done.... so I didn't push for popping of the rays with danish oil, or even water popping. Gotta draw the line somewhere! This flooring guy seems to know his stuff. Thanks peytonroad! Your pics are wonderful ---and your floors -WOW! We did a sample of the jacobbean and it was beautiful, but a little too brown for the cherry w/ dark stain cabs. So after looking at what others have used, we did a sample with 50-50 ebony and red mahogany, and finally went with a mix of 75% red mahogany, 25% ebony. It was just enough black to take the pink undertone out of the red mahogany. So the floors were stained today, and I love the 'custom' shade. It's perfect with the dark cherry cabs!
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I'm sorry to tell you that selling that wood is against several federal guidelines and is against Mass. state law and makes our ice cream man cry. It also causes night blindness in brook trout and gives three legged dogs bad breath. The local government in western Mass. has been trying for years to make it a crime to even harbor thoughts of quarter sawing red oak and air drying it for sale. So out of the goodness of my heart I am willing to let you send me all that wood so you don't get into any trouble. OK serious now, No one wants to buy wood that may twist, warp, crack, etc..., which may be why it was suggested you sell now. If you let it dry, at least a year, you'll have a better idea of what is good to sell and what may have become firewood. Someone local may want to pick it up now but if you're using ebay or the like you'll want to let it dry first. Also shipping will be much cheaper if the wood has dried out a bit. The offer to send it all to me still stands ;-)
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@ Kayla - I think you might be getting 'hung up' on wording. It is common to refer to "rift and quarter sawn" simply as "quarter sawn". Many professionals forget that industry lingo does not translate out to every-day speech. The rift and quarter sawn products are an upgrade. It is rare to get 100% rift or 100% quarter sawn. One cut creates the other so it is often mixed into one product: thus "rift and quarter sawn". The $12/sf doesn't bother me. That is industry standard for rift + quarter sawn. At the end of the day, the only issue we want to see 'resolved' is the overall look of your floors. So long as the SPECIES matches and the CUT matches (regardless of the name that cut goes by) and the width of the plank matches we are happy with the final result. I know this is frustrating but I feel things are moving nicely. If you are SUPER concerned, get the old floor sanded down at the interface and ask for a single coat of finish be applied over both types of boards. A coat of finish will reveal any grain/species issues before the rest of the work continues. Or you can wait until everything is sanded down and ask the STAIN and FINISH samples are done OVER TOP of the interface area. Any species/cut issues will show up VERY quickly once the stain patches and the single coat of finish are put down. It is a super simple type of test.
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jrdwyer
14 years ago
Quartersawn (or rift and quartersawn combined) with ray fleck visible may only be 10%-50% of a quartersawn lot, depending on the manufacturer and what grading rules they follow. NOFMA defines quartersawn as having 50% of the floor boards with quartersawn characteristics and this includes ray fleck being present. I got this from a commercial flooring website that has the grading rules summarized. NOFMA does not appear to have a separate web site any longer and is now part of the NWFA. This website has less technical information readily available to the consumer concerning grading rules of flooring, which is a shame.

In the combined R&Q flooring I installed, I would say 15% had ray fleck and that was O.K. by me.

If someone wanted ray fleck in every board or plank, they could certainly get it.The price for this selection would be higher.
ccoombs1
14 years ago
I got my rift and quartered white oak from Hurst Hardwoods. They sell it either all quartersawn or a mix of rift and quartered. There was NO plain sawn oak in the whole batch. The mix was probably 30% quartered and 70% rift. It was made at Taylor's in Ohio. I am really happy with the quality.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hurst hardwoods
Newyorking
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks everyone for pitching in. Any more pics? Any recommendations on decent showrooms in Manhattan? I have not been to a single showroom and recommendations would really help.
momfromthenorth
14 years ago
I have taken our pictures down but we put in QS white oak from Coswick (www dot coswick dot com) in their Rose stain two years ago and still very happy with it. (with one rambunctious dog in the house too) It is the 3/4" solid on conventional floor, prefinished, no flat sawn boards, and many have the ray flecks.
Only reason we went with prefinished is because we had some time constrictions and didn't want the mess of site finished. I confess that jrdwyer's floors were what sold me on the QS oak. Would do it again in a heartbeat.
greenthumb2213
13 years ago
I still can't decide what color schemes alternating oak flooring paneling works best with (creme and dark paneling).

Here is a link that might be useful: Oak Flooring

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