Same here. I extended my carpeted area to hardwood flooring. My contractor put new red oak in place of white oak and the stain stick out like a soar thumb. I don't know what to do. We haven't poly'ed yet. Any suggestions please?

I ended up getting the red oak stairs and the white oak floor. Did white oak, no stain, water poly. Stained the stairs darker to make it look intentional. I might have been able to get away with keeping the red oak stairs natural, too, if the floor installers had been asked to, and they had looked for boards that were redder and installed them near the stairs. There were some boards that looked like red oak. Here's the thread and pics ... [https://www.houzz.com/discussions/red-oak-stairs-do-i-install-white-oak-floors-or-red-dsvw-vd~3697644[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/red-oak-stairs-do-i-install-white-oak-floors-or-red-dsvw-vd~3697644) Make sure you read the part at the end about the nosing strip. That was a real oversight on my part. (I miss my stairs looking like that - they look cluttered now with the railings.)

To be safe go with the same in both areas, but for a specific answer.... It depends. There really is no single thing that is Red Oak or White Oak. There are at least ten different types of trees that produce White Oak and ten different trees that produce Red Oak. Many White Oaks are "redder" than Red Oaks. So in the end, you have to just look at the two woods side by side. In Red Oak the pores are open, while in White Oak the pores are plugged (this, rather than the color tendancies, is the absolute difference). White Oak is for boats because it is resistant to water damage, Red Oak isn't. With some effort they can be stained to look virtually identical and neither deepen as they age, so that color will remain consistent, however, they take stain very differently. Red Oak soaks up stain while White Oak leaves most of the stain on the surface of the wood. I prefer White Oak everywhere, I love White Oak for kitchens because of its resistance to damage, in the end though, I wouldn't make a decision based on the Oak species of my floor although I would try to be consistent... Good Luck

Beth H. : - thanks so much for sharing those last two images. I'm working on a staircase in an addition to our old house and I've been using Houzz images to help the staircase maker understand what I'm seeking and hadn't seen those. And I agree, Houzz has chronic "control issues" when it comes to sharing images easily from other sites. I really think the owners have ambitions to take over from Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, let alone all the also-rans, ugh. It's a sharing world, Houzz - get with the program! Anyway, about those images you've shared; are they from Houzz? I tried clicking on them to see if they'd open a post, to no avail. Thanks!