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What wood flooring looks OK with older Red Oak?

15 years ago

(X-post on Flooring & remodeling, but not too much activity there...)

We're opening up our floor plan. The rest of the house is Red Oak from 1956, recently refinished. We need to find a wood floor for the LR/DR area, adjascent to the new kitchen, that'll look good with the oak.

It's two steps down, a seperate space, so it can be different, although the steps would probably have oak treads. The room has lots of windows and afternoon sun.

I guess we could just do more oak, but it's not my favorite wood, and it would be nice to do something different if it doesn't look too weird. Cost is also a factor, we have about 275 sq feet to do...

Thanks for your advice!!!!

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Comments (4)

happytobehome
15 years ago
I can't advise on a different wood, but I will say that we just had 45 year old red oak refinished in the living room and dining room, and had new red oak installed in kitchen to match. It all looks beautiful and matches very well considering the 45 year age difference. I'm sorry you don't like the oak you have, and hope that you'll get some good suggestions for matching with another wood. Good luck!
lesmis
15 years ago
I'm not a huge oak person either, but maybe you could look at quartersawn oak. It won't have the same graining as your current oak (if that's what you don't like about oak), but it will have a similar coloring. Others on here have used hickory/pecan and that's very pretty too!

My sister just mixed maple and red oak in her kitchen/family room and used the maple as a border to frame the kitchen up against her old red oak and it looked really nice.

Kat :)
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In my opinion, because I have Red Oak floors throughout from 1940, they are probably not quartersawn, meaning you see a lot more of the woods grain, which I think gives the wood a uniqueness that other woods dont have. Because of the wild grain, I think there would be too much contrast between the Oak, and say a Maple, or Cherry whose grains are a bit tighter. Why not keep using Red Oak, which also is a bit more cost-effective?
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I second the cork vote, of course, since I am the resident cork kook. But I was thinking tile might be good also since you could put radiant under it. IIRC, you're in a cold climate and that sunporch floor will get cold no matter how well it's insulated. (trust me!) Hmmm...but you do have that woodstove in there, so maybe that's not a concern. What are you using in the kitchen area? It might be nice to just repeat what's in there.
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Hickory I believe it is Hickory. Hickory can be similar to oak in color but it does not have the intese grain and layers that Oak has. Variations in the grade of hickory can show different looking floors. So if you do a search for Hickory on the web you might see some far lighter or darker looks. Hickory flooring is somewhat of a mixture of woods. If you notice you will have some light pieces and some dark. That may be because you have different types of hicorky. True hickory and or Pecan hickory, Chinese Hickory, sand Hickory, pignut hickory, shag hickory, .... they can all show different color variation. Hickory is a hard wood. Really! It is hard to sand but it is a good quality wood that will last forever. Hickory used to be used to make baseball bats, canes, tool handles and anything that needed to be bowed. It can be flexible but still really strong. A great floor! Enjoy your hickory floor, it is beautiful. ~boxerpups
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Comments (6)
I see the issue. It looks almost like the new floor was a different grade then your existing floor. was the old floor refinished along with the new floor? Because the color is so light, matching the two because of the grade difference is going to be virtually impossible. Best solution is resand everything, and go a bit darker. Sometimes when patching a really old floor with new wood and then say going natural, the patch sticks out like a soar thumb, so in the case if you stain dark it hides the obvious difference. granted this scenario doesnt 100% apply to you, but the concept should still work.
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Stacey Collins
Original Author
15 years ago
Really? Maple and oak? I LOVE maple......

My husband used to work for a wood flooring company and his old boss also suggested hickory, but the pictures we saw on the web were VERY busy. We are definitely going for a more uniform, light, calm look...

I'll check out quartersawn, and bring some maple samples home to look at with the oak.

We may just end up doing oak in there, too, for simplicity. Although DH won't be happy about adding 300 sf to his floor refinishing project: he was hoping for pre-finished in that area (but that would look different than what we have elsewhere, so if we're doing oak, I would imagine it should be the exact same, huh?)
Fori
15 years ago
I'm using Marmoleum with my 1956 oak. Some of it looks really good with the oak--even some of the neutral colors.

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