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Flooring Design Dilemma

Old oak dining room floor that needs to blend with new kitchen floor

5 years ago

Help please! We are having our kitchen remodeled and there will be a partial wall removal to open up to the dining room. The flooring in the dining room is the original honey stained oak and it's in good shape. The contractor would like to remove the oak and use a DuraCeramic or a luxury vinyl flooring in both rooms for ease of installation. We don't really want to demo the old oak floor. Any thoughts as to a good transition? We are agreeable to using prefinished hardwood in the kitchen if the colors will match but our concern is the level of the floors. The new peninsula will straddle the new floor and the old floor, making that transition more difficult. Any ideas?

Featured Answer

PRO

Barnes Custom Builders

5 years ago

Is there an option to add in new oak to the kitchen and refinish the existing oak, so that they are all the same?

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Comments (8)

PRO
Brickwood Builders, Inc.
5 years ago
We would put oak hardwood in the kitchen and refinish
blnorris thanked Brickwood Builders, Inc.
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At this point, it seems like a lot of work to remove the threshold board and redo the floor. To really look like the same floor, you would need to remove quite a few boards of the existing floor to weave in new wood of random length. All the seams between the boards should be several inches from the adjacent boards so at least 2/3 of the existing boards would have to be modified. Then you would have to hope the new boards were an even size match for the existing which isn't guaranteed. Yes, if you measure. them with a tape measure, they will both look to be 2 and a quarter inches, but measure a 32 board (6ft) section on each side and you may find a small difference, just enough to be noticeable to your eye. Also mixing brands and ages of wood flooring can be like trying to mix Legos and Megablocks...they are compatible, not identical. It sounds like the installer is willing to work with you which is a positive. I suggest trying to get a written agreement with him that states he will permit you to have an extended period of time for rework. Then live with the floor as is for several months before you decide if you want the existing floor refinished to get a closer color to the new portion. You might find the color bothers you more as time passes but perhaps you will get used to it and not notice it as you start to live in your space
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hollybar
5 years ago
Another vote for carrying the same oak floor throughout.
blnorris thanked hollybar
queenvictorian
5 years ago
Fire your contractor for his insolence, then install additional oak flooring in the expanded space. You might have to refinish the entirety of the floor (new and old sections) if you want to achieve a perfect transition, but that's not a terribly huge undertaking relative to the rest of your remodeling.
blnorris thanked queenvictorian
blnorris
Original Author
5 years ago
Well, we won't fire the contractor at this point lol, but we'll push to have hardwood installed. We need to determine if the older floor can still be refinished. We have oak floors throughout our house and they have been refinished at different times and there is some color variation already. Or we may just replace the hardwood in the dining area as well. Thanks all!
PRO
JAN MOYER
5 years ago
ONE flooring, whatever it is.
Danette
5 years ago
same issue here! While I love the look of hardwood in a kitchen have decided to use slate tile in kitchen vs having to refinish/stain thrvwhole house full of original old oak hardwoods.
Attached is a pic I saved from this site of slate and hardwood with peninsula.
State Project · More Info
blnorris thanked Danette
jhmarie
5 years ago
Your dining room floor is classic. Oak flooring has been around for over a hundred years and it is the easiest to match and patch in because it is always available - not discontinued like many other floorings. Yes - it takes a good flooring person to work the transition, but they do it all the time on This Old House. A hardwood floor will last you decades, while a vinyl floor will need to be replaced sooner or later (10 to 20 years) depending on the type.

If your contractor does not want to do it, or know how to do it, get your own flooring people to come in and do it. I would prefer to get a flooring person in there and not just all around carpenter / handy man that may be working for your contractor.
blnorris thanked jhmarie

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