Hickory or White Oak Flooring?

[John Kendall]

I am having a large barn taken down and in exchange the company taking down the barn will give me hickory or white oak tongue & groove flooring. I am familiar with white oak a little, but I've never worked with hickory. I only know it's very hard, which is what I want for a floor, but white oak is right up there as far as I know.

I did get a small piece of hickory to experiment with today. I planed it, sanded it with 80, 120 and 220 grit. Stained a small section and saw what looked like some open grain areas. Is that normal? Let me know what you think is the best looking, most durable and easiest to maintain.

Thanks!

[Steve Clardy]

I think Hickory looks better. More grain, color, etc.

Has more tendency to burn when sawing, routing.

Need good sharp tooling.

[John Kendall]

I am leaning towards the hickory also. The best part is, I should only have to install, sand and finish it (I hope). Cutting down, drying and shaping it to size will be done by the company dismantling the barn.

[Tom Jones III]

I would take the hickory without a second thought. My parents installed a hickory floor and it looks great.

[Jim Becker]

I'd take the hickory for two reasons...one, it really looks awesome with its color variations and two, I don't particularly like oak...

[Art Mulder]

White oak is basically waterproof. Something to keep in mind, if you're putting it in a kitchen/bath/entry.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

I vote Hickory as well. Oak is very common in flooring, Hickory is not [at least around here]. You will love the color variations.

[Luis Oliveira]

If Hickory is the same as pecan, I will also vote for Hickory. I made a L shape desk out of Hickory and I love the way it machined, it is solid and it takes stain very well.

[Ron Blaise]

Pecan is a sub-species of Hickory, in fact nursery's use Hickory root stock to graft pecan shoots because it's more hardy and resistant to disease and guarantees they will get the kind of nut they want. It's used a lot for flooring here in ther south because it is so abundant, hard and tough.

[chris del]

I say hickory as well, it just seems like a no brainer for me.... Everybody has oak, You want to be like everybody else or have a unique durable floor that others will notice and love?

[richard poitras]

hickory wold look the best in MOP

[Chris Padilla]

As most of the voting is going, take the less-common hickory wood over oak. Either floor properly sealed and maintained will last a lifetime but the hickory gives you an edge in unique-ness.

A buddy of mine had all his kitchen cabient redone in hickory. Looks great and has that "not run of the mill" factor.

[John Kendall]

Wow! Thanks for all the input!

Now it's tougher to wait on the barn to come down and the flooring to be made. There will be about 1200 sq./ft. of flooring done when it's all said and done. 3 rooms, kitchen included. I'll have to get some pictures of it when it's done for you to see.

[Alan DuBoff]

I would vote hickory also, but keep in mind that it is quite a bit harder than oak, and as such takes a toll on edge tools much faster. I find that I like texture of hickory better to work with, such as with a chisel, but it requires sharpening them more often.

I know folks that hate hickory, but I find with sharp edge tools, it's nice wood.

There is no better or worse in this case, both are decent woods. Both make excellent flooring.

Also keep in mind that a nice piece of quarter sawn oak with decent ray fleck in it, is exceptional wood to work with also. Wood always makes a difference, good or bad.

Last year I laid about 200 sq.ft. of hardwood flooring, but decided on purple heart for the specific application, and it worked well as cost was the same as hickory or oak.

I found the best pricing at Lumber Liquidators. The purple heart I got is so hard, it's like purple concrete. Which is interesting as on paper hickory is harder, but I know for fact that this purple heart is harder than hickory that I have been working with, and the hickory is quite tough wood. I also have some non-flooring purple heart that is not nearly as hard...go figure...hardness is relative, IMO.