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Help with flooring choices - see pics

15 years ago

We are remodeling a 1940's cottage-style home and need to address the dining room floor, which is immediately to the right of the foyer in an open living/dining/foyer area. The former owners popped out the front wall to make a dining room and rather than trying to match the original floor in the adjacent living room, they installed ugly gray berber and called it "done"!

Since we too, have been unsuccessful matching the old flooring, we thought we could do something unconventional and create a two-toned pattern with new oak flooring. It is a border, which stands out, rather than attempts to blend with the original floor in the adjacent living room.

In other words, instead of trying to blend it where it doesn't match well, we will just use the power of contrast and make the new wood floor (same species - oak) look deliberate. We are also hoping it will better define the space.

On the eve of installation, I'm second-guessing our idea because I notice few people do these things, unless doing a border with floral motif wood inlay or such.

Does anybody think this is hideous? It surely can't be as bad as staring at plywood, like we've done for 2 years! I'm wondering if this will pass for a while until we can replace the entire floor?

Please share your ideas - you guys are so creative. Please see "My Page" for a link to my photobucket "dining floor" folder. Thanks.

Comments (4)

glennsfc
15 years ago
Your idea of defining the space is fine. However, the existing wood if it is oak appears to be white oak or maybe it is ash (notice the mixed heart and sap wood in many of the planks). The new is rotary cut oak and looks like plywood (the color may be close, but the sawing and possibly the species itself looks a little wrong to me).

Why is it that you cannot match the existing? Is the existing prefinished? Is it no longer marketed?

If you do a border, will you weave the border at the corners or mitre them?

Nice house.
rebeccag3
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks, glensfc, for your input. The existing floor is definately oak (judging by grain and hardness) and appears to be white oak. It's 2" wide by 1/2" thick. Flooring people tell us they don't have access to it any more and none at salvage. Plus it's kind of damaged in places. It will need to come out entirely at some point, but we don't want to bite the bullet yet, since it's in the entire house including bedrooms. So, we are looking for a short term solution that is better than bare plywood (the ugliest floor known to mankind).

We also have a height issue in that the we have 1/2" to work with, to keep it flush to existing floor. Also, where the old and new floors would meet is a walkway to the kitchen, so you literally have one foot on the old floor and one on the new in places! No pressure there...

The Bruce floor we bought samples of is 3/8" engineered hardwood so we thought we would shim it up to our needed height with Ardex feather finish, as recommended to us by Floorguy and others.

You are dead on about the grain and saw cuts not matching (my husband is smiling - must be a guy thing). That's why there is no way to get these newer hardwoods to match the kind made decades ago. So why even try to match, I say. Just go with contrast but make it pleasing to the eye with the tones. I'm thinking we should go all dark and do a picture frame with mitered corners (DH is a carpenter). That way it looks like it is a feature instead of totally hodge podge.

Any more thoughts??
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Thanks, Sandy, for your input. Unfortunately we are limited in choices since the old floor is no longer made or available through salvage (from the 1940's). I am rethinking the lighter inset and think we should go all dark-toned, but keep the picture frame idea with mitered corners to define the space. Then if we redo the other floor later we could match it better since the Gunstock tone from Bruce is commonly used now. Most other materials are out due to variances in the subfloor. Since the walkway to the kitchen is smack dab between the dining and living areas, the floor heights have to match or we would be walking one foot on one side and the other foot on the other side. We only had 1/2" to work with, not nearly enough room for tile or stone there, by the time you get your cement board, mastic, etc. The Bruce floor is thin plank (engineered) and at 3/8" we can shim up to our existing height. The kitchen is actually 1/4" cork tiles laid on a diagonal (I wanted something soft due to a bad back). So, as you can see, without redoing the whole floor we are really limited, ya know? So it goes with remodels and a budget!
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allison1888
15 years ago
I would wait until you can redo both floors and then do it all to match. You could still do a pattern in the one room, but the overall spaces would blend. You could also solve the height issue too.
glennsfc
15 years ago
With all due respect to the flooring people you have talked with thus far...they are dead wrong. 1/2" X 2" wide white oak flooring is still being made today. And, almost any damaged floor can be restored to better than new by a good restoration/refinishing contractor. We do exist...however we are a vanishing breed and I just happen to be one of them.

I only encountered one severely 'damaged' floor that I determined was not restorable.

I have included the link below to just one manufacturer of the flooring you have. You probably don't want to pursue restoration, but...if you do, just try to get white oak that is the same sawing and grade as what you have and includes the split sapwood and heartwood that is seen in some of the planks in your existing floor. White oak is an awesome hardwood floor. It is my favorite.

Best of luck to you.

Here is a link that might be useful: The flooring you seek...

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