Help Identifying Oak Flooring Type

[richard c. wolin]

My 1963 house in Western Oregon has 2 1/4" x 3/4" tongue and groove flooring in the living room which I am planning to extend into the dining room. I am assuming that the wood is oak. I am hoping to find some new material that matches the original wood closely enough that I can use it. Red oak flooring seems to be the most common 3/4" type available here, but the samples I have compared to my original flooring always tend to be noticeably more pink in color.

I do not know if the attached image is much help (the image shows a piece of red oak sitting on top of a sanded section of my current flooring). If anyone could offer any insights I would appreciate it.

Thank you,
TC Penrose

i live in southern oregon and have exactly the same flooring that i am trying to match. how did your project turn out? any useful tips from your experience? thanks.

[Roger Bullock]

The old floor is over 50 years old and the growth rings look pretty close together. It is my guess that this old flooring was cut from older slower growing trees (possible 1st or 2nd cut) which could still be found back then. Chances are that the new flooring will have been cut from trees that will have fewer growth rings per inch thus having a slightly different look. White oak today next to old growth white oak will have a different appearance and will take stain differently IMHO.

[Howard Acheson]

Keep in mind that there are a large number of sub-species of both white oak and red oak. They can be quite different in color. Second, older wood will have oxidized and changed color to some extent. Third, the wood will have be subjected to UV from sunlight which will also change its color.

The bottom line is that you will just have to keep trying to match samples of the wood available to you..

[Peter Quinn]

Old growth timbers being sawn into 2 1/4" strip floors in the 60"s? I have my doubts about that theory frankly. I think you missed that window by 70 years or better. That looks like a basic character grade strip floor sawn from select or #1 common to me. It looks like WO to me, and I say this based on the ray fleck in the one QS board. it is rather more difficult to see the flecks in RO than in white, and those flecks are easily seen in the photo. I've worked with a bit of reclaimed lumber sawn from timbers several hundred years old and the grain is significantly tighter than the one piece of clear flat sawn in that photo.

First growth WO could reach 500 years old and 4-5 feet diameter at a height of 100+ feet. That would be one heck of an impressive tree, but there weren't many left after the A&C movement, and I believe they were scarce enough even in the 60's that they weren't being ground up into strip floors. I wonder what you see in that photo that looks to you like old growth lumber?

[Andrew Nemeth]

You can buy a red oak/white oak sodium nitrate test kit at most wood floor supply houses. As mentioned before, once you know what your looking for, it is usually pretty easy to tell differentiate between the two by looking at end-grain. Although you can look online for photos, I suggest you get a scraps of known red and white oak and cut them for comparison.

On occasion red and white oak floors will be intermixed so make sure you look at several boards however you decide to determine the species. If it is mixed and you are replacing more than a couple boards, it is important to determine ratio of each if you are looking for an "invisible" patch or addition.

[Bill Orbine]

Old floor is white oak for sure. Both the tanish color and the thicker, longer rays spells it out for me. You have a variation of cuts shown on the picture : quartered/ rift and flat cuts... not exactly premium stuff. And the BORG carries it.

[Zsolt Paul]

Old flooring is white oak for sure. I have been in the wood flooring business for 22 years. My question is, why are we talking about this? Its a 5 yr old post! LOL

[Jason Roehl]

i live in southern oregon and have exactly the same flooring that i am trying to match. how did your project turn out? any useful tips from your experience? thanks.

Old flooring is white oak for sure. I have been in the wood flooring business for 22 years. My question is, why are we talking about this? Its a 5 yr old post! LOL

Because of the post I quoted above, which is recent. Unfortunately for the recent poster, the original poster has not been on SMC since 8-22-09, so he's not likely to answer soon, or find the question even if he does return sometime in the future.

[Dennis Lopeman]

I'm going to go out on a limb here (haha pun intended) and say that is White Oak. Only because I KNOW I'm right b/c everyone says so and you did the sodium nitrate test! Damn I'm smart.

[Peter Quinn]

My MIL lives in SE Connecticut, lives in a house built in the early 1940's, and has exactly the same floor. Go figure. Friends of mine have a house built in the mid 1970's, and it has the same floor. Humm? I'd venture that 1/4 of the houses in the US with hardwood have exactly that same floor. Rare it is not.

Cool tip about the sodium nitrate test. I responded to the post because it was bumped by an interested party, responded to by an interested party, and so it goes. Seems unlikely the OP will respond now that you put it like that Jason!