Stained white oak solid wood flooring. Help.

last year

We are having white oak solid wood (finished , stained) flooring installed. We chose a "Greige" stain (grey with beige) color but the actual planks delivered are quite a variety of colors. I am wondering if we are getting some second class/quality material. Iit looks like we were shipped some discounted, different badges of material since the stain color differs so much. This is a third shipment for this flooring which is being installed right now, flooring already causing a great delays of the project. There were problems with the not accurate milling in the two other shipments so I have already some doubts about the quality of this material.

Bozena

Featured Answer

Connecticut Yankeeeee

last year

Hi Bozena - stop the project now, if you’re unsure. Yes, I know that’s a huge delay and problem but a worse problem is installing a floor you hate.

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Comments (7)

Timothy Winzell
last year
Is it custom made or from a legitimate manufacturer that might have a website with product pictures?

Are there full boxes left? If so, is every piece in a single box the same color? Or are there boxes with different colors?

Your floor may be treated with a chemical to achieve a particular look/color. Pieces may react differently to the chemical process and of course White Oak is well known to have significant variations.
Bozena Waclawik thanked Timothy Winzell
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Bozena Waclawik
Original Author
last year
Legitimate manufacturer, we bought from the best supplier/installer company in town (Madison). I have not checked different boxes for color difference. They were suppose to check the flooring for any milling problems in their warehouse before bringing it to the construction (as they hauled away the delivered material already 3 times for different reasons) . When buying flooring in Europe one could buy "gatunek 1" or "gatunek 2", the first with less variations and more expensive, the second without assurance of an even material and cheaper, so my floor looks very cheap to me, but it was not cheap pricewise.
Timothy Winzell
last year
It's odd to have a milling issue twice on one order. I can probably count the milling issues I've seen from 1985 to present using the fingers on one hand. I can't determine much from your picture but the color does remind me of products I've seen where the wood was treated chemically to achieve a unique appearance that's not achievable with a regular staining process. I'd love to see a bigger picture.

In the US we have lumber grades and some milled flooring species have grading rules set by manufacturer's associations, Finished products generally require referring to the maker since they're not governed by the associations. In unfinished Oak you have Clear, Select, #1, #2 and #3. In prefinished items you'll often see just a select grade and maybe a rustic grade. Sounds like you're describing the difference between unfinished Clear and Select. Manufacturers don't sort for color, but they might cull out boards with sapwood in the Clear grade, leading to a more uniform coloration.

Don't know what you paid but I'm buying some 6" wide 2' to 10' unfinished engineered White Oak and it's over $8/sq.ft. Recently a contractor requested a bid to install wood being purchased by the homeowner and the product was around $20/ft. for Rustic and $25/ft. for Select. Prices are kind of crazy out there.
Bozena Waclawik thanked Timothy Winzell
aklogcabin
last year
Oak from different areas of the country have different color tones. Oak from south eastern states is more light colored brownish. Oak from Wisconsin or Michigan regions will have more redish appearance. Grey stains come from minerals absorbed from the earth, mineral stains.

If the flooring manufacturer buys wood from around the country you could be getting the color variations because of this. Ask to get wood from same suppliers mill.
Bozena Waclawik thanked aklogcabin
Bozena Waclawik
Original Author
last year
All this is the knowledge I should have before deciding on the choice for the floor. Now I am anxiously waiting how it is going to look with the all walnut wood upper cabinetry (kind of mid centurry style) and a walnut full base countertop table as part (1/3) of the Island. The rest of the cabinetry is suppose to be SW7076 Cyberspace so grey should be still more prevelent color, (black countertops).
PRO
G & S Floor Service
last year
I agree the flooring looks to have a chemical stain, which will explain the variation between boards.