Help Identifying Oak Flooring Type

[Thomas Penrose]

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

[Lee DeRaud]

Guess my first question is, how are you going to finish it? Looking at that picture, if you put anything except a pure-clear finish (e.g. water-base poly) on those two pieces of wood, there's no way you'll able to tell them apart afterward.

[Russ Massery]

The old flooring looks more #2 common white oak but it's hard to tell.Also red oak floors tend to turn brown over the years. Stains will change the color enough that you wouldn't be able to tell. I will say the piece your showing us in Select & Better Red Oak.

[lou sansone]

there are a lot of different types of oaks, but to simple ol'e me it looks like your floor is white oak.

[Jules Dominguez]

Thomas, I was told once by an experienced, graduate forestry major that the only way you could visually distinguish between red and white oak is to look at the end grain. The pores in red oak are open (unobstructed tubes) and the pores in white oak are like bamboo tubes, i.e, whith periodic obstructions that block the pores.
I had some irritating problems with the open pores of the red ( I know, it can be dealt with) and haven't bought any for a long time, but still have some red along with some white in my stock. I look at the end grain to identify which it is.
Not much help in your case, but I thought I'd comment.
(Further comment: I'm not color-blind but have poor color discrimination.)

[Dave Mapes]

Thomas

That looks like white oak. If you have it sanded down to the wood put a couple drop of water and check the reaction. It the wet area becomes a blood red then it is red oak.

If you can get a sample of the old floor take it over to Lumber Liquidators on 2245 NW Nicolai St and compare it to their samples. It will give you a better idea and they will also assist you.

Dave

[Thomas Penrose]

Thank you very much for all the help and suggestions. I will check out Lumber Liquidators in Portland and see what their white oak looks like. I was not planning to stain the floor, but thought that I might prefer the more amber color of an oil based finish. I am not totally decided on what type of finish I will use though.

Thanks again.

[John Shuk]

It's #2 common red oak in my book. That's what I have in my house. There can be big variations because Red Oak technically covers alot of species.

[Joseph N. Myers]

I have a lot of red oak that is white and a lot of white oak that is red. So color is not that much help at least in this area.Bruce Hoadley, who wrote "Identifying Wood" notes a method for identifying red/white oak called "ray height" that he says is 90% to 95% releable. Basically, both have rays that look like black thread running with the grain. In red oak, the rays never exceed 1" (usually 3/8 to 5/8) where in white oak, many are in the 1-1/4" to 2" range. Try it, you'll like it.Regards, Joe

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Looks like Red Oak in the pic.

[Guy Baxter]

TC,

How wide are those planks? Per Mr. Myers comments and my meager experience, the second board from top has ray flecks that indicate the floor is white oak.

Though my experience is meager, my mistakes are many. Mixing red and white oak in the same project is a mistake I will never do again. An entertainment center carcass of red oak plywood with white oak doors and framing seemed like the cheapest solution for a mission style entertainment center. The differences are striking when large areas are involved. Most guests to our humble abode do not notice (or mention) the difference, but it stands out like a sore thumb to me.

Guy

[Thomas Penrose]

Thanks again for the suggestions. I did remove a piece of my flooring and sand it down. The bottom side is stamped with the manufacturer's name/info, which is "Arkansas Oak Flooring Co. - Pine Bluff Arkansas - Perfection Brand". Wetting it with water did not result in any kind of red color. None of the flooring I have sanded has resulted in open pores being brought out (I have seen other oak with very open pores, but this wood does not seem to be like that at all). The rays all seem rather short on the pieces I have inspected, typically less than an inch long. I will take the piece I removed to a hardwood flooring dealer and see what they say.

[Thomas Penrose]

I did a Sodium Nitrite test on the flooring and all twenty strips I tried turned black, indicating that the wood was white oak. I went to Lumber Liquidators in Portland, OR and ordered about 450 sq ft of white oak from them for $2.36 a sq ft. It looked like a close match to my existing wood and should arrive in 2-3 weeks. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Jim Young]

Floor looks like white oak and the loose board looks like red oak. JMHO

We put both, red and white, in our kitchen floor, to mix up the look. A little unconventional but so far everyone has liked it.

http://marsh-monster.com/forum/wiki/uploads/SimolisPage/jy_kitchen4.jpg

[Mark Singer]

It looks like quarter sawn or rift sawn white oak....

[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. :D

[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!