I purchased from Huron Hardwood. I had a very pleasant experience and am thrilled with the wood (4 inch white oak planks). We had a lot of wood left over because we had almost no waste. One of the things I liked about it is the fact that everytime I called I talked to the same person. The President of the company. Very seldom did I get a voice mail when I called. After I purchased, I had questions (a lot of them), and he treated me as well after he had my money as he did before. The only bad part was the delivery - which was not their fault. The delivery is via a semi-trailer truck, which couldn't get up our driveway. And something you should also be aware of is that there is a 3% upcharge if you pay with VISA/Mastercard, which must be through PayPal. The alternative is bank draft or check.

You need to do a little more archeological digging still. You need to know the whole construction of the floor before you can decide how best to install something new. I'd take up that plywood piece in the kitchen and see what's under it. It's higher than the surrounding floor, so needs to go. You should also be able to see from there what subfloor is under the original kitchen hardwood. It's too bad the space under your entryway is finished, but I'd still do some exploring from below to see what's under there, and to figure out the fix to stop it from squeaking. Is it drywall below or a drop ceiling? I know it probably seems like a pain to tear out drywall, but if you cut out a clean patch, like 2' x the width of the joists, it'll be relatively simple to repair. Just make sure to cut it down the center of the joists so that there's room to screw the patch piece to it later. Cut the hole under the area that squeaks the most, if you can. Have someone walk on and watch the floor from below to see what's moving. It might be as simple as pounding in a couple shims from below, or face-nailing a loose board from above. You want to find out what's underneath the hardwood. It might be laid directly on the floor joists, or there might be 10" wide boards that the hardwood is nailed to. Another thought is to take out a board in the hallway, since that's not original and you want to replace it. See what the subfloor is there. I am a bit puzzled at why, when you've stripped the kitchen down to the original hardwood, it's still higher than the hallway floor. Is your current surface perhaps not the original kitchen hardwood? Peeling back the plywood area will help determine that. BTW, I haven't heard of that stop squeaking product you linked to, so can't offer any personal opinion. And don't pour self-leveling compound over top of hardwood. It needs to go over plywood.

I'm not quite following your thoughts on the repair but they have used a piece of plywood between the old hardwood flooring and the new bamboo floor. It sounds like you want to remove some of the planks in order to have the voids filled with a continuous longer board rather than a short piece. Have you read about how to replace a damaged tongue and groove board? I think they cut along the joints of the board to remove the middle section and then chip the rest out of the T&G areas. Placing that one new board in would require removing its tongue in order to be able to slip it into place next to an existing board.

Has anyone installed PG Hardwood oiled flooring - colour "Hangar"? If so I'd love to see pictures of how it turned out. Also looking for thoughts on oiled vs. Urethane coating. I love these boards, but it's only available in oiled finish...