onelady1dog2girls, Thank you for thinking of me. I did check out the website and that Sunset Glow Hickory sounds beautiful (and was pretty in the picture) but it is a solid wood only. I live in the preserved wetlands and my floor is concrete with no basement due to the area I live in. I have made up my mind that I only want a prefinished engineered wood floor. I also have 8 foot ceilings. I was not that crazy about the new version of the 5" wide Engineered wood flooring from Brazilian Direct despite really liking the company and Shannon. I loved their solid wood samples last year and I really loved their solid Kempas Samples. I wish they had engineered wood floors in a 3.25" width. A solid wood floor over a plywood floor will raise my floor up much higher than my tiled foyer floors and my kitchen floor and make my ceiling look lower in my living room and dining room (which both are my two room home office). My family room has a Cathedral ceiling so it could handle the floor being raised despite the kitchen floor lower but I think solid wood is not right for my type of concrete sub-floor. I preferred Brazilian Direct's engineered wood floor sample from last year despite a lesser veneer sawn layer on top. I just really feel I am leaning towards a floor no wider than 4" and preferably 3.25 to 3.5" wide to minimize cupping problems. I really like the finish on the BR-111 3.25" wide plank samples I have here that is not too glossy but has a drop of gloss. Despite the 3/8th being the same height as my new Porcelain Tiles, I just wish the planks were 1/2" thick with the same 3 MM wear layer. But then again, the semi-gloss finish on the Coswick Quartersawn Oak Engineered floors is nice also.

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.

mobuddy89 - all of these months later and we're still working on it. We did get sample slab doors from both Barker (quarter sawn white oak) and Scherr's (quarter sawn and rift cut white oak). We like all three, and so got price quotes for all three. Barker is the most economical, but they won't grain match and we're concerned about that. Will the combination of variations in the grain, without grain matching, and drawer-fronts running one way with door-fronts running the other way, just be to much for our kitchen look? If we can afford it, we'll go with Scherr's rift cut that is grain-matched. Our second choice is Scherr's quarter sawn grain-matched. I really wish we could make this decision because it will drive other material choices! We have general ideas for the backsplash (white tile), counter (white quartz), appliances (we've actually picked these - in stainless), and a sheet linoleum floor in a cement / gray color. Then we also have some vintage pottery in aquas, blues, greens that we'll display. Did you decide on anything for cabinets?

I don't mean to hijack your thread, but I am in the Los Angeles area and looking for the same rift/quartersawn engineered white oak with the following specs: 4mm-6mm wear layer 5-1/2" or 7" width random lengths 3'-10' square edge If I can find it prefinished, I would like a very pale silvery gray (almost white) with an ULTRA matte finish (i.e. Bona Traffic HD or hard wax oil). Does this exist and if so, please point me in the right direction? Does anyone know the approximate cost for this? I will need about 2300 s/f, including the kitchen. Thank you!