Contributor
Were you planning to do the floor in oak as well as the cabinets? If so I would still use oak for the floor. I remodeled my kitchen in our old house a few years ago and used natural red oak for the floor and select white maple for the cabinets. It looked great. The oak I bought FAS and milled it myself so it was a much higher quality than typical flooring. I tried to keep all the lengths around 5'.
Steve Jenkins, McKinney, TX. 469 742-9694
Always use the word "impossible" with extreme caution
Contributor
Do you have a picture of this?Originally Posted by Steve Jenkins
I'd be interested in seeing the final effect.
thanks,
Matt
Guest
I agree w/ your wife. I don't like my red oak kitchen. I did it about ten years ago and next time I'm gonna do QS white oak, or maple.
Member
I agree with your wife. i don't like ANYBODY'S red oak kitchen, red oak flooring, red oak anything. Yuck. I grew up in a house with a red oak kitchen. I always though my mother liked it until she retired and moved to FLA where she remodled the kitchen. I asked if she were going to do red oak and she said, "Gosh no, I'm SO sick of that nasty dark hole of kitchen in our old house (it had plenty of windows and natural light). That was crap the contractor that built it put in the house because it was cheap and he was cheap. It suck the life out of any room. I want something bright and warm like honey maple!" 25 years she lived with cabinets she hated. I hated them too.
Fill as many square feet of space as your average wall of cabinets occupies with oak and its bound to take on some of that Edwardian look without any of its majesty. Sort of like the Cracker Barrel. Nice place to visit. There is no stain on earth short of black aniline that can suppress its nasty salmon undertones, and that coarse grain doesn't do much for me either. Can you tell I'm not a fan? I know this post was not a pole but if it were I'd vote....
Maple is far more versatile, as or more durable, takes color well, doesn't require grain fill for a proper finish. It has a lot going for it. So does Alder, birch, cherry, almost anything really. About the only place I like red oak better is in a wood stove! Or maybe a Cracker Barrel restaurant. If your maple comes out blotchy, its time to work on the finishing skills. Otherwise, think of it as your wife saying "Honey, go buy your self some more wood."
Member
I feel the pain....Maple is a pill to stain and finish....never seems to look good IMNSHO. I agree...show her how good red oak can look.
[OP]
Contributor
Well, the wife and I went shopping today for maple. We brought home a couple board, and I will be going throught the process of making samples with every stain known to man plus some home brew stuff.
We also brought home a couple sheets of melamine. This is only for the sink cabinet, as I am going to caulk and seal it against moisture, the rest of the cabinet interiors will be prefinished 3/4" ply, but none of it will show on the outside.
Shame on you greedy people for wanting my stash of hand picked oak. It will be used for cabinets in the new addition, the laundry room, or the rear entry hall.
I mentioned it once, but here's the deal. When we moved four years ago, I got a brand new shop, and she gets whatever she wants in the house. A deal is a deal. Soooo....maple cabinets it is, in the kitchen at least. I just swung a side deal with her that I get to make Green and Green cabinets out of the oak, in one of the above places.
Oh, did I also mentioned that I just spent almost 6 weeks redoing an empty rental, and the day the new tenants moved in, my other tenants moved out. Now I get to do it all over again, only with a house twice as big. This retirement stuff is not for sissies.
I did a red oak kitchen for our last house about 10 years ago, and we liked it real well, but, as someone mentioned.....my wife is a home improvement tv show junkie, and decided to try something else. At least she knows enough to not ask me to make it all out of melamine. I would be digging that hole.
Rick Potter
Member
Rick,
Not a big deal but why 12" on center with the I-joists? Could you not get enough depth for the span? Did you want to go beyond L/480 which is a very stiff floor?
Toney
Member
PPPPSSSSTTT: Minwax (or any pigment stain) on maple equals blotchy. Try dyes, wither alcohol or water based, toners, glazes. Not minwax. Its too dense and has no pores. And stop sanding at 150G or it glazes in spots and wont take a dye either. And congratulations.
Member
It was worth a try since I wouldn't have to pay for shipping.
Congratulations! It may all turn our better for you after all.I just swung a side deal with her that I get to make Green and Green cabinets out of the oak, in one of the above places.
You got that right! Now that SWMBO has retired too, I have even more "must do" projects. But, it sure beats getting up early and going to work every day.
... This retirement stuff is not for sissies.
Member
Join the crowd!
Chuck
[OP]
Contributor
Toney, Toney, Toney.
You are going to regret asking that question. Trust me, this is the short version. After the contractor walked away with the money I borrowed to build the addition, I found out he had left the plans with a local architectural firm so they could be corrected. The city had a hissy fit over the way the contractor drew them. That is how I inherited Nasser, a hard headed Iranian structural engineer.
Now Nasser apparantly never learned to read a lumber span chart, and he redid the plans with any span over eight feet needing pilasters 24" square, and 24" deep, with girders to hold up the weight. Matter of fact, right next to the existing kitchen was an eight foot new extension which he determined needing TJI I-beams at 12" OC. This turned out so sturdy the Army wants to park tanks on it. Problem was, the adjoining existing floor was waaay out of plumb as well as pretty weak, considering the 1 1/8" ply on the old floor.
It was so weak that stuff in the refrigerator would rattle when someone walked by (need to start that diet). So, we duplicated the new floor using 11 7/8" I-beams on 12" centers.
My addition has enough concrete in it to build a new 3400 sq. ft. house according to the cement contractor. He said most commercial buildings do not have the footings I have. By the way, it is a single story building.
So...I now have the neighborhood earthquake shelter. Nasser and I had yelling screaming matches trying to come to an agreement on what he would approve. Even the city inspector just shakes his head when he inspects.
Don't get me started on the Hardie Panels.
Rick Potter
Member
Boy a'in't that the truth! IMO red oak kitchens just don't have it. Totally a personal thing, I know. Oak furniture to me means one thing... QSWO in an A&C or mission style. Of course it helps a pile that those forms for furniture and design speak to me. Divided glass fronts, nice brown/honey/redish satin luster to the QSWO are things I dream up.
Maple also makes for fantastic cabs.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Member
We should be getting our final inspection for a new, three story home at Lake Tahoe signed off on Monday. Design snow load is 240 psf and it has to withstand a pretty strong earthquake at that loading.
I don't think we have any floor or roof joists that are spaced at 12" OC - they're all 16" OC. Nassir is on another planet.
Member
Oak makes a kitchen look dated.. haven't done one in many years. Just my opinion of course. Maple is nice but can be a pain to get the stain right. Stain doesn't penetrate well and can blotch as noted here earlier. To complicate things more the solid maple stains lighter than the maple ply but you have to lay it off a bit. Most of the kitchens I've been building the last 5 years are cherry. Cherry is timeless and never seems to go out of style. Stains well and has nice grain. It can blotch but after much experimenting I found that if I use Sherwin-williams "wood classics" I don't need to use any gel or conditioner. One step stain process. Most people think cherry comes out reddish but it can't be stained just about any color.
just another thing to consider. this is one I finished last month. color is slightly lighter than the stains you mentioned.
good luck.
Mark.
Last edited by Mark Boyette; 08-08-2009 at 11:14 AM.
Member
My wife is the master of insults.. I work daily with many of the most beautiful exotic woods in the world and she wants painted cabinets in our new house.
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