In my location, this is the classic medium brown top nailed strip oak site finished floor. This is a reiteration of the color it was stained originally in 1965 when the house was built. Everything in my neighborhood that was rehabbed and got new floors or built new in the gentrification wave (1964-1976 or so) had this or darker but essentially the sort of tone, blacker maybe but not redder). This looks slightly darker in person and with the walls finished.

Yes, the flooring looks like red oak. Red oak shows more grain than white oak or many of the other woods. The color you show looks like medium stain. The stain hue can vary from a purplish coffee brown, natural yellow honey, or medium golden even pinkish brown. Some opt for a charcoal stain to add a more grey hue. It cannot sit long or will make your floors a dark color. Personally, I would go with a medium golden brown...it is timeless and mid range for whatever furniture you choose. Good luck.

Ah Pal thank you. I'm going to use photo as a reference tomorrow.

Christy medium golden brown is the other color I've been considering.

I just know I really want to get it right because I will be stuck with it. Any hardwood will look better than my patchwork flooring I have going on but still ...

Lately I've also been wondering if I should go with white oak and a quieter grain. I've always liked flooring like Pal posted above though. Decisions.

Is the dust going to show terribly on the floor Pal posted?

Our wood floors are like Littlebugs. I like them because I preferred less grain. Love the floor, but do wish that the wider boards had been available when we bought it. The color is pretty resistent to showing dirt.

My floors are 1920s oak -- when we redid them -- we didn't stain them either -- and surprisingly we didn't pay to do the stairs nor the insides of closets and you can't really tell -- they're the same color.

I have unstained 5" wide red oak, with 3 coats of poly, and the color is like #4.

Thanks for the pictures everyone.

What is a good standard size? 3something"? I didn't want anything real wide. Plus, four seasons here so there is going to be some expansion and contraction. I'm thinking 3.5" or smaller. I have no idea how much cost difference some of this makes. I'm making a list of stuff to go over tomorrow.

Where I live, every older house (and all the houses here are old, built before WWII) has flooring that looks like your #4. In that sense, I guess it is timeless. I have seen various posts over the years complaining about disliking orange oak floors, maybe even breaking out the "dated" word. Yes, my floors date my house to sometime between 1870 and 1940, that's a problem why? And they do run a bit to orange, but I can't imagine ever changing them. Because they are exactly what a house of this vintage, in this area, should have.

My floors are very similar to what Palimpsest posted. It is a 2 year old house and the floors are red oak with special walnut stain. They do not show as much dust/dog hair as I was afraid they might. I'm very happy with them.

4 is a pretty standard pre War and "traditional" post War color, but I would consider it "light" not "medium". I think my floor is almost dark, but not quite.

Is the grain in #4 less pronounced because of the grade used?

Now I'm going back and forth on color. It's going to be somewhere in the ballpark of the ones posted above. I was going back through my favorite inspiration photos and they're not all the same but similar. I think I'm going to need to see samples in my house.

Mine are like the first pic you posted, which I find to be similar to what pal posted. My floor guy called it American Walnut or Dark Walnut. It is what we did throughout our house.

If you don't want pink tones, I'd probably go with white oak. Also, if you don't have it stained (just clear coated), it won't show scratches as much.

Oh, I once read the advice to match tile grout to the dirt outside your house. Funny, but a bit of truth there. If your goal is to avoid havi dust, dirt, etc show, you might think a bit about that. My golden retriever's fur is the worst offender in showing against our dark floors (came with the house, sigh). It wouldn't show up nearly so much against unstained white oak.

Wish I could find better pictures of the floor in our old house - this is 2-1/4" red oak original to the house from 1936. We had it sanded and refinished when we moved in. Sorry I don't remember the color name or stain mfg. Red oak is slightly less hard than white oak but the difference is negligible for general living purposes and right now red oak is less expensive because white oak is having its moment. Cross my heart, you will not find a more forgiving floor than red oak in a medium stain. If I were you, I'd go for the savings in the red oak but then spend up for longer lengths so you don't have short pieces everywhere chopping up the look. In the 'old days' long boards were standard but that's not the case anymore and you have to ask for it or you'll have lots of 2' and 3' pieces. They still make a fine floor but where you have long unbroken floor views, it will look choppy because the grain is constantly changing.

Crl - Ha, true about dirt color. Our blotchy vinyl floor in the kitchen does an excellent job at hiding dirt. Too good actually.

Dlm - Thanks for posting those. I really like the flooring from your old house. I'm thinking I should have a tad red in the stain. Oh definitely a no to a bunch of short boards. I've already told DH no short boards since it looks choppy. DH mentioned on the phone to potential flooring guy that I don't want a bunch of short boards and told me floor guy said something about 7' boards and there will be some short boards towards the ends or walls...something like that. What is a good longer length to be aiming for?

Also I was planning to go with an oil based topcoat because I just think oil base gives better depth than water based. I'm wondering how much ambering is going to happen. When I gel stained my kitchen cabinets I used a water based top coat because I could get it in a flat finish (still looks somewhat satin to me) that I wanted, but I think it does lack that certain rich depth that oil based tc gives.

Is it just me or are there lines that run across the flooring in #1?

I had red oak floors installed in my kitchen/dining room which flows into the hallway and living room's original 50's flooring in two wide openings. Old and new were sanded in 2015 and finished without stain, and has not been discernible to the casual eye that there is a difference. Mine are on the orangey side, which I consider 'amber' and I love the warm, glowing color. If I could do it again, though, I would order "clear" grade for a bit more uniformity:

http://flooring-professionals.com/flooring-resources/choosing-the-right-hardwood-grade/

Edited to add, my non-stained floors are very similar to DLM2000's, but maybe the tiniest bit lighter/brighter. Pal's example is browner, but for me is slightly too cold - compare with your #4 - which look do you prefer? What is the lighting like in your home, and what furniture stain/kitchen cabinet stain or paint and wall colors do you or will you have? I agree with fewer short boards for a less choppy look.

Indigo Rose, thanks for the info.

I think I actually prefer a medium brown with some slight warmth. I like warm colors in general. I originally was searching for straight up medium brown because I was starting to believe that was the ultimate classic and 'safe' color.

I knew there were different grades but I don't know which one is what I'm looking for. I don't mind grain variation but I don't like too much blotchiness/darker boards mixed in with lighter ones. Somehow that reads busier to me like short boards. I think the color of stain one picks also makes a difference on how that looks; the darker you go the less that's noticeable.

I'm armed with a bunch of photos. :)

Sheeisback - don't get yourself set on a look from a photo. Oak has a lot of movement and just because a photo happens to show a section that looks really consistent to your eye that doesn't mean the rest of the floor looks like that. I got some excellent advice when I was in a tizzy trying to choose stain for the floors in our new house - everything but the bathrooms and laundry area are hardwood, no carpet anywhere and I was frantic because it's so much wood and HAS to be right! Didn't want natural, didn't want dark, didn't want yellow/orange/red.....sound familiar? Amy (amysrq in the old days) told me to think of the floor as a secondary player - you don't want people walking in and only noticing your floor, not your inviting decor or art or family photos or whatever it is you feature in your home. Sure they can walk in and say wow your floors look great but it should stop there unless you used some vivid aniline dye in a modern house which is totally not you! She said that anything that falls within what our brains tell us is a 'natural wood tone' will become backdrop to rugs, furniture etc - as it should. Of course some stains have more red or orange but even those will look appropriate and largely neutral unless they are VERY red or orange. It was great advice and calmed me a lot about the decision but I still panicked when the floors were done picking out boards that I didn't think right which is insane. I LOVE my floors now, there are boards that are noticeably lighter, a few boards get a distinct pink hue when the sun hits them and there are streaks of lighter or darker areas within the same board! What am I going to do rip them out? Of course not - embrace the wood for what it is and the beauty of a natural product.

Yes, 7' is a nice length but see if you can get them to try for 7 to 10. You'll still have short boards which are needed at the ends and in closets if you're doing them but getting some of those longer boards mixed in with the 4', 5' 6' makes for a beautiful floor. We rejected the flooring brought to us initially because it wasn't what we ordered in length, the installer had a fit, said that's all that's out there and quit. We ended up ordering ours from a place we knew back home in Chicago and had it freighted to NC. For some reason the long boards seem to go north and the shorter more 'character' boards are popular here. We wanted neither. Shoot for select, long boards and you'll be happy. Can't wait to see it. And BTW - are you working with a specific stain mfg that the installer prefers?

Never thought about length of boards but you're right -- ours are long . . . but what you see being installed on HGTV are shorter boards. Interesting.

Dlm sent you an email!

The big reason people on TV are installing short boards is that they are cheaper. They may be calling it a design feature but it started out because it's cheaper.