You are correct they sure look like red oak. If you like them before why change?

White oak is super popular right now. It is a bit harder than red also has tighter grain pattern. Also true that you can do more with white, specialty finishes from Loba , Rubio only work with the pH balance of white oak, for special fuming finishes. If you use regular oil based stains, color would be very similar in both oaks.

I generally prefer White Oak but in your case Red Oak sounds preferable. Natural colored Red Oak like you had before goes with many things. My take is that your Cherry cabinets would look better against a natural or light stained Red Oak and you already know how it would look and like it.

White Oak has a more almond/taupe hue and denser grain. Due to the denser grain it doesn't look as grainy when stained darker. Unless you have other things that would look good with White Oak, stick with what you know and like.

White oak doesn't have pinky-reddish-salmon coloured tones to "get rid of" when adding a stain. That's what I meant by "easier" to add a stain to. Most people shy away from "salmon and cinnamon" colours in their floor. These are the tones that are often hard to "kill" when working with red oak.

For that reason, white oak is "easier" to live with because it is a lot more flexible when it comes to adding a colour - you aren't "battling" the salmon tones in it. Many, many, many people HATE the pink tones of red oak. Which is why SOOOOO many people pay more to have white oak installed - it makes it SOOOO much easier to get the "right colour". We've seen horror story after horror story about "my floors turned pink! what do i do?" All of them had red oak as the material.

That's all that was meant...it is easier to get the RIGHT colour on white oak. Both take stains easily but the COLOUR in the wood is hard to fight if it is pink/orange/salmon.

That just means you don't object to the reddish tones in Red Oak. That should make your decision easy to make.

Yep...all that means is you are happy with what you see. That's the difference. It is as simple as that.

Have been hearing the contractors' horror stories of trying to get red oak to look like white oak. Any suggestions?

Most new guys now a days never heard of bleaching.

National, it depends on the final color desired.

Like jfcwood states - the FINAL colour is the true test as to whether the experiment "worked". The other problem contractors have would be the use of oil based or oil modified finishes. It is impossible to get a white floor when the top coats turn ORANGE!

I once had a "professional" (15 years in the refinishing business) tell me he worked with "water based" finishes all the time. He then named every SINGLE oil based product on his shelf. It turns out he thought that anything that was liquid - like water - was water based. He couldn't name a water based finish if it jumped up and slapped him with a lawsuit!

The "old guard" are having a hard time adjusting to the "new" thinking. The Low VOC stuff, the 'non ambering' stuff, the low-odour products are relatively new (to North America...they are de rigueur in Europe) and are different to use. They require training. Training is no big deal in Europe. You have to do it to keep your license. North America is still the wild-wild west. If you have a sanding machine, you can call yourself a floor refinisher (sad...but true).

Add that to the fact that red oak is cheaper than white oak and the trend is white flooring, you get a powerful mixture of fashion together with lack of knowledge and a healthy dose of "cheaper is better". A whole bunch of hearts have and will continue to be broken - on both sides of the professional-client fence.

My advice: If you want the look of European Oak, then you should start with European Oak. If you are lucky enough to like the reddish tones of Red Oak, then go ahead and work with Red Oak; count your blessings and the money left in your bank account.

So what is your recommendation, if you don't mind, for someone who has a house full of red oak (1915 house, beautiful bones) but can't do red undertones in the kitchen? I can't fathom ripping out all of this old flooring but the red undertones won't work for me in the new construction. Now I'm concerned even with matching the older red.