I find red oak to have a pink/cinnamon cast to it...whereas the maple/hickory are MUCH MORE gold. I foresee a clash of undertones with the red oak. Of course, if you PAINT THEM your fine. But a natural (even a stained finish) with red oak is going to cast a different colour of wood. The maple cabs, though a pale fleshy colour right now, WILL turn to a slightly darker GOLD. In a year or so, the cabs should be a very close gold/yellow match to the gold in the hickory (which is why I like the two woods put together). The red oak, will start out a pinky fleshy reddish hue...and stay that way. It will clash until you stain them or paint them. Your current front doors are OK-ish. The brown is just about right for the hickory. A snick on the reddish side but nothing I would lose sleep over. That's as "reddish" as you want to go with hickory. Red Oak will be worse until you paint.

I have in the past, had this flooring made. Here is a breakdown of cost. 1"x4" red oak = $1.77 per board foot. Example a 10'x10' room requires 120"/2-1/2"= 48 boards. 48 boards @ 10' long = 480 board feet x $1.77 = $849.60. Next, 480 board feet milled into flooring costs $1.75 per foot = $840.00. Total material cost = $1689.6. This does make the square foot cost $16.89. This is allot higher then the typical $3.00-$5.00 per square foot cost, but some people are willing for the purpose of matching flooring precisely.

Thank you everyone, for some reason your responses were delayed and so is my thanks. Our home was built in 1965 and we live in FL. There is a step down into our living room from the kitchen so nothing will butt up against it but you see it as you look through the kitchen. We have beautiful thick hardwood in the living room , the floor that is cupping is thin Chinese finished oak (which I would not buy again nor would I recommend) the "moisture barrier" glue is being blamed for the cupping by the contractor. The cupping began within weeks of being laid. our entire project is on hold until the claim is settled. We removed tile from our former kitchen, family room, hallway and the same beautiful wood that is currently in our living room from our dining room which is now part of the new kitchen. Ir was on the same level as the rest of our home. We had no problem with either of these floors but there was a difference in the height of the original dining room and kitchen. We also removed the wall between them so this is why the floors came in to play. The current plan is to replace with real hard wood that will be sanded, stained and then covered with polyurethane to protect it from water after acclimating in our home for two weeks. there will also be plywood used in addition to the moisture barriers which will now cause a difference in leveling when you transition from the hallway into the bedrooms and bathroom in our ranch home. I will look at travertine and would appreciate any other suggestions. Our original kitchen was torn out last March due to a water leak and black mold, construction began in August and we're still camping in our own home. our exciting project has turned into such a nightmare. Here are a couple of bad photos, the opening is the step down into our living room.

The colour variation between the old and the new could be for several reasons. First it could be the wrong species. Your first posts indicated that you *might have white oak. Now you know you have red oak. If the installer laid white oak (because that was an assumption at the time) it could be a species mis-match. The second reason could be the wrong 'cut' or selection of grade for the wood. Without seeing more of the old floor up against the new, it is hard to say. The third option, which is MOST likely is the AGE of the wood. The old floor could be from older, denser trees (older at time of harvest) which could account for higher amounts of tannins in the wood. The only other thought I have is the old floor has NOT be sanded down yet. I'm assuming it has been....but again this is an assumption. The only other thing I can think of (to get away from this mis-match) would be to harvest old flooring from a second bedroom/den, etc and lay it in the area where it is going to be most visible. Then lay the new material in the out-of-the-way room and hope for the best. Personally I love the look and feel of the Loba 2K Supra AT. If you lay down three coats of the satin you are going to have one of the toughest floor finishes available on the market. I'm not sure why you would use 2 coats of Invisible AT and then switch over to 2K Supra AT for the final coat. Traditionally you start with 2 coats of GLOSS (2K Supra AT Gloss) and then FINISH with one coat of Satin if you wish to have a satin finish. The additives in the finish (that create the matte finish) can cause the floors to look hazy. This is something you will want to avoid. Unless the Loba rep. can GUARANTEE that the matte additives in the Invisible WILL NOT be a problem (ie. s/he guarantees you will NOT get a hazy looking floor) then I would stick with three coats of the Loba 2K Supra AT (2 gloss + 1 satin). If the two coats of gloss scare you, then go ahead and work with the semi-gloss. The Loba 2K Supra AT comes in three finishes: satin, semi-gloss and gloss. You want to avoid the "haze" of matte finishes as much as possible.