Red and White Oak Flooring Identification

[Bryan Hall]

Bought a 1959 home and am wondering about the flooring. It's in rough shape, will be an interesting and time consuming project to rehab I'm sure. That being said, I'm still developing in my ability to identify wood types. I attached two pictures. One, the boards are running horizontally. Another, the boards are running vertically. The central board in the horizontal picture looks to be clearly red oak to me, due to the short rays. In the vertical picture, the central board has a little longer rays, but I haven't worked with a ton of white oak, so I'm wondering if those are still considered short?

Thanks for the insight.

[Andrew Seemann]

It looks like Red, but if you are going to stain it that color, it won't matter; they will both look more or less the same. Actually, Red and White were not always separated historically; it could even be a mix of both.

The below desk is a mix of Red and White Oak. Can you tell which is which:)

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[Andrew Hughes]

I also think it looks like red oak.
I have the same looking flooring made by Bruce. If your floor has enough thickness to refinish consider using Rubio monocoat. It’s a little bit pricey but has zero Vocs and looks great. The color has held up great on my floor we used Mahogany.

[Warren Lake]

depends where the trees grow

[Mel Fulks]

Red oak. Old test is ,look at ends. No open places means white oak.

[Randall J Cox]

Red oak. Old test is ,look at ends. No open places means white oak.


Which is white oak is good for outdoor furniture. No openings for water to wick into. Or something like that (no wood expert). Randy

[Lee Schierer]

All board in both photos look like red oak to me. Plain sawed red oak often looks exactly like that.

[Robert London]

With peaks and cathedral grain, it's the common grade of red oak.

[Scott T Smith]

It appears to be red oak, due to the open pores in the late wood as well as the rays not being longer than 3/4”.

There is at least one species of white oak that is open pored, and that is chestnut white oak. However it’s ray’s will still be longer than 3/4” and they are open pored too, catching stain and creating a unique look.

[Bryan Hall]

Thanks for the education gents. I always thought it was red oak, but was starting to wonder about a few boards. Sounds like red is most likely.

We'll see if I can convince myself to refinish the whole house with rubio. I'll have to decide on doing it room by room, or moving everything out for a week and just getting it done in one big push.