I love the look, and to me it looks expensive not a lower grade. Hickory is hard and wears well.

"why wouldn't you go through the box and pick out the boards with all the similar color tone and return the rest?" First that would be very time consuming and near impossible to get the consistency you are talking about. Second that is why people embrace hickory, they love the variation. If that won't work for you I suggest you save yourself now and find another flooring. I think hickory could work well for coastal causal near a beach.

It's not a look that I would put in my home - the color variation and visual movement is too much for my eye and I prefer a floor to be more of a back drop for everything else. But...

What type of rental is this and who is your target tenant? I'm renting right now while we build and am in a nice 2100 sq ft split bedroom ranch with oak floors. I probably would have still rented with the floor you show above since it's not forever. That may make a difference in your decision.

Hickory is a very specific look. It is also a busy pattern. I'd probably not go there unless I specifically wanted that look. Have you looked at bamboo flooring? It is stronger than oak, very renewable and has much less of a color variation.

The wide color variation is the nature of hickory. Staining the floor could help to even out the color a bit. A BETTER quality laminate would address any scratches that might occur from renters and would be easier in some ways to maintain. The nice thing about laminate is that you know what you're getting in advance of the installation.

as said, hickory is a very specific look. Great variety in the color of the boards. Lots of movement to the eye. Imo, if it fits anywhere, it fits into a coastal beachy place but it is not good looking to a number of people. Why not try a calmer, more even oak, maple, or walnut. Those would please a greater number of people/renters. And still look smashing.

We have natural hickory on both our main floor and in the upstairs bedrooms. We love it and use it like a neutral. There is a lot of variation in the color, but I think that's the point, and agree with the others who say if you don't like the variation you should choose something else. We had our installers mix up the planks so we didn't get the striping effect, which I don't care for. Our hickory has worn really well and has withstood teenage boys, sloppy lead footed husband, visiting/foster dogs and five cats tracking litter and vomitting hairballs. Hickory is a very forgiving floor, in part due to the color variation.

People who use hickory typically like the variation in color. I do feel it looks a bit more rustic and it works great for our house in the woods. I also think it would look nice in a beach house.

Yes, once you open the box you are pretty much stuck with it. They charge by the box, not the board, so you can't take the pieces you like and return the rest. Some stores will take back unopened boxes but there is often a restocking charge of at least 20%.

I really like the concept of color variation in hickory, but I sort of dislike the overall background color of unstained hickory.

For a rental, I'd probably just do oak, though. I think it's pretty expected and neutral. Most people don't have a problem with oak floors.

For a coastal/casual/contemporarylook, you I also think a natural (light) maple would be pretty, and that has little color variation. Advantage of unstained floors is that the underneath color is the same as the top color, so a scratch won't show as much. I think maple is a little harder than oak, too.

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I love the look of the hickory, it's a gorgeous flooring. I wouldn't worry about the movement, furniture and rugs break up the movement quite a bit. However it is taste specific and more expensive than many many other floorings, you said this is a rental, so I would suggest going with something like a simple oak which you can also get in light and medium tones.

The whole attraction to the hickory is the mix of light and dark and the interest it offers when it's laid.

I've never had hickory, but I do think it's a beautiful look...

for a rental on the coast, I think I would probably look into laminate...

I don't care for the look. Looks too busy or like I need to sweep/clean it all the time.

For a rental, I'd get porcelain wood tiles. They use photography to create the tiles, so they're pretty authentic looking; virtually maintenance free; use the new grout that has the sealant in it; stands up to everything, including sand (laminate will scratch, porcelain won't), and you can even use a steam mop on it, unlike laminate.

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Ditto Tibbrix' comment. Wood grain tiles look great and are a no brainer for a beach rental. They arent pretending to be wood, they are a clever riff on wood flooring. For a beach cottage look for a driftwood color or paler wood tone.....very beachy.

I'd worry about sand on wood, but perhaps that's not a valid concern. Any beachy people with sand vs wood experience here?

Wood and sand are not a good mix. Wood and floor sealant is an even worse mix. (Never mind wood and damp air/water!). "Back in the day", the sand is the reason people on Cape Cod painted their floors, and often then splattered different color paints over the painted floors.

A friend of mine has the porcelain tiles in the kitchen/foyer/mud room of her primary residence. Ten years, look like the day she had them put in. They take a beating - three sons, two huge dogs, parties, tons of traffic…And yet, for her beach house, three years ago, use had hardwood flooring put in. Big mistake. It's already a mess, scratched up, will need to be refinished soon….salt, animal urine, etc., eat through wood-floor sealants if you don't pick them up right away. This new porcelain flooring holds up to everything. Great stuff.

I totally missed the part about the walk to beach location. Absolutely do the wood look tile.

We have acacia throughout our home and love it's variation. Here is pic of the floors during the room renovation of our master bedroom

A lot of the floors with higher color variation are more expensive woods, so I wouldn't think it looked cheap. True, the longer and wider boards that will give you less patern or a larger pattern of variation will be more expensive that the same wood in shorter or narrower boards, That's true of any wood.

All that said -- I think the wood look tile is your best bet I would not put in hardwood near a beach and/or a rental.

The wood tiles were my first suggestion in her other thread but she said she didn't want tile throughout the house. She's in California and she doesn't think it would be appealing to renters.

She might be thinking that "tile" means ceramic.

I'm not sure. It's a beautiful flooring, wish I had known about it when we did our floors. I have a bathroom I'm hoping put it in at some point.

I'd consider bamboo. Costco has it on sale quite frequently. Or alternatively, site finished oak with a commercial finish.

I vote for wood look tile too. Many wood look tiles are so realistic nowadays, the renters won't figure out the floor isn't wood for a while.

mary9915, your floor is gorgeous. I'd not heard of acacia used for flooring before. Beautiful!

Wood tiles are those porcelain tiles that look like they're wood, right? When they stand on it its hard surface, won't renters know its a porcelain tile?

The problem is that I already have porcelain tile in the rest of the first floor so I kind of feel that more porcelain tile in the living room would be too much tile and too cold. The whole floor would be tiled if I tiled the living room. And, the whole grout thing is such a hassle that nobody tells you about when they say how maintenance-free tile will be.

If I had do it all over again, I would have put those wood porcelain tiles in the kitchen and adjacent dining room instead of the current porcelain tile. Or, if I was in Florida, I think I might get away with that much tile. But, from what I've read, the rest of the country prefers more of a wood or warmer surface in the living room.

http://massrealestatenews.com/what-types-of-flooring-do-home-buyers-prefer/

I don't want to make the mistake of another rental nearby who over-tiled the place to the extent that its hurting them find a renter. (I also think its hurting them that they make applicants jump through a lot of hoops before they will even show the place.) But, they're making a point of showing all the tiles in the place in Craigslist because I think the landlord got sick of showing it to all these people who would end up turning it down when they saw all the tile in the rental.

It looks like the hickory has a mixed reception here on the board. With apologies to those who have it and love it, I'm one who doesn't care for the look at all. I wonder if wood, but one such as maple or oak, since you want wood, would appeal to a broader audience in your rental? Maple and oak might be looked upon some as bland, but they don't seem to get the mixed reviews here as hickory does.

What kind of rental are we talking about here? Is it a vacation rental property, where people rent it for a week or a weekend? Or is it a tenant situation?