should all red oak flooring look about the same?

Home Maintenance Flooring
1

Hi everyone - I'm in the process of having some red oak floors installed in my home. I already have hardwood in my kitchen and entryway and was adding on to continue the wood into the family room. The contractor laced in along the seam and said it should be invisible. The problem is that it's not. The wood is very different in quality and color as the existing floor. Rather than a relatively consistent honey color, the new wood has a large number of strips that are darker browns and even dark gray. The contractor said I have #1 red oak in the rest of the house so that is what we ordered from Lumber Liquidators.

I've called my contractor asking him to call me since I have concerns about the quality of the wood that was installed.

What should I do? I understand there will be normal variations in the wood but this is more than I can handle.

edit: I talked to my contractor and he in turn discussed it with his finisher who said it is definitely a big difference in wood color. We might consider staining it but that will definitely change the look of the whole house so I'm a little concerned. It also will not complete even out the color difference. Finisher indicated it could just be a bad batch of wood. Contractor wants to me call Lumber liquidators and tell them I'm unhappy with quality of the wood. I really think they need to tear it out and start over. I realize the wood on my existing floor is 10yr old but they have completely sanded away all those years of wear. The old floors look better and color more consistent than new floors.

2

Red oak is pretty "grainy" so the dark brown and gray streaks sound about right. Is it possible your floor is "white oak", which is less grainy and more consistent in color? Or was your original flooring maybe stained that honey color or was it finished "natural"? Wood, being a natural product, is going to have differences and inconsistencies even though it may be the same #1 red oak. Also, hardwood floors change color over time (exposure to sun, etc) and so your original floors may look nothing like #1 red oak anymore, even though that's what it is. Lacing in new wood floors with old is always tricky. You might want to consider refinishing and staining the whole floor to one color. Other than that, I would imagine you'll have to fight it out with your contractor. Have you shown him the floor in it's current state? What does he say about it? If he's a good contractor, he should be able to work with you to come up with a solution. If you're not happy with his work, he'll lose you as a customer and as a good reference, so it's in his best interest to make sure you're satisfied. Good Luck!

3

I added wood floor in my family room and it looks the same as the floor in my kitchen. However, I had the old floor sanded, stained and refinished along with the new floor. I suspect that you have a different type or quality of wood. What about having a Lumber Liquidator representative take a look at it? Don't settle for something you aren't happy with!

4

Hello,
I work for a handyman company and we warranty all of our work. He obviously saw the wood before he installed it he needs to fix the problem. I do however have a half way solution, can he replace some of the wood to make the color shift more gradual? Really if it's a bad batch he should have spotted that immediately but if you don't hate the newer color you might "blend" it and end up with something unique to your home. Bottom line if you are not happy he should fix it until you are or you can sue him. (FYI) check for license, bonded & insured before you EVER hire a contractor, report him to the BBB & sue if he wont comply w/ you satisfaction standards. Finally get a second opinion from another reputable professional.
Good Luck
K

5

If you're not happy, don't settle because you'll never be happy. Something is obviously wrong - it's the wrong type/color of wood, a bad batch, etc. But you paid a contractor and Lumber Liquidators to match your existing wood as closely as possible and that hasn't happened. You need to get both your contractor and Lumber Liquidators in your house at the same time so they can figure out a solution with you. Otherwise the contractor will blame L.L. for bad wood, L.L. will blame the contractor for ordering the wrong wood.

Good luck and I hope you're able to work it out to your satisfaction.

6

if you didn't get the satisfaction that you asked for and you can't live with the idea of having different variations of wood, complain and get it fixed. if you like it, love it and keep it. :)

7

I agree with your contractor, you should complain to Lumber Liquidators until they do something about it.

8

Friends of ours have their own company that is a hardwood flooring company. We just recently had our floors done and before we started, he went over all the different types of wood, and stains and how they will appear.

It sounds like your guy didn't look to see what kind of wood you had prior to laying the new wood down, nor did he match up the stain. I hope you haven't paid him yet, maybe you can get him to redo it all.

9

It sounds like you had select grade, not #1. I think it is your contractor's fault, as he should have known what he was looking at and that it looked different before he put the new wood in!! CHeck with Lumber Liquidators, too. They don't have the greatest reputation for quality, hence their cheap prices.

10

When we moved into the house that we live in, We decided to pull up the carpet and use the existing red pine. By the bathroom, there had been water damage and so the wood got to be replaced. I found a place in Salt Lake City that could matches the wood. (Not all red pine #1 are the same)

The older wood is usually the better wood. Ask your contractor to find somewhere that has wood that matches your old wood, if he is not willing, find it yourself.

Best of Luck,
Colleen N.

11

We have friends who had a similar problem. They would not have put up with a mismatch if they didn't have to. Money was not an object. Their floor is close, but still not a match. I hope you have better success, but this is one reason we chose not to try to match our wood in our house, but instead go with something that complemented it.

12

Hello,
I am a sales manager for a flooring company in San Deigo. My mom sent me this and thought I should respond. First off NO. Not all red oak is going to be the same color. Every company will have a different way of manufacturing their wood, different stain, etc. which will cause it to look different then what you have. Also wood has what is called different dye lots. So, even if you order the exact same red oak from the exact same manufacturer but at different times it will be a different dye lot, therefore could be off in color.
To be honest, I would have to tell you have a couple different options. One is to live with it, the second is to replace your old floor with the new wood, or two replace all of it. I know, its not what you want to here, but from a professional standpoint that is what I have to offer.
Your installer if licened should know that and have pointed it out to you!
Sorry.
Nicole

13

Caveat: I could be all wrong because I am not a professional, but “just” a homeowner who has experienced this problem

We have the same problem. We added on to an existing red oak floor. Our existing floor is generally honey, with darker and lighter variations, with very few dark boards. Our new floor has many dark boards so is clearly “an add-on”. The whole point was to have it look like one big floor.

There are several factors

1)the grade of the wood. In general, there are 3 grades, select $$, #1 common and #2 common. These do not affect the integrity of the wood, but its appearance - amount of color variation and knots. Select has the least color variation. #2 is used the most in homes, and has inherent color variations. I would guess that the grade is not the problem, unless you used high end select for the existing floor.

2)the luck of the draw (the lot of wood). Red oak trees vary. There is naturally a range of colors in red oak and as it is not hand selected, you don’t know what you will get. (They don’t explain this might be a problem when you install a new floor next to an existing one - grrr!)

3)the stain color you choose. If they were different, the floors will not match. If you restain everything the same, you will still have the same number of dark boards and light boards, but overall it will match the existing floor better.
(A screen and recoat will not change the stain, but a sanding will take the stain off).

  1. lacing in Good on you for lacing in. This does help one floor blend better with another, including keeping the boards aligned the same. Lacing in should have required refinishing (at least part of) the existing floor.

We are very unhappy with the amount of dark boards on our new floor too. Besides not liking dark, it makes it obvious that it is two different rooms. The only true fix is to rip out the dark boards and replace them with hand selected new boards. You might be able to do this one at a time, or take up the whole floor - both expensive fixes. As single boards cannot be really be finished, this would entail refinishing (at least part of) the whole floor to get a consistent look.

If you come up with a better solution, please let me know!!

Updated

Caveat: I could be all wrong because I am not a professional, but “just” a homeowner who has experienced this problem

We have the same problem. We added on to an existing red oak floor. Our existing floor is generally honey, with darker and lighter variations, with very few dark boards. Our new floor has many dark boards so is clearly “an add-on”. The whole point was to have it look like one big floor.

There are several factors

1)the grade of the wood. In general, there are 3 grades, select $$, #1 common and #2 common. These do not affect the integrity of the wood, but its appearance - amount of color variation and knots. Select has the least color variation. #2 is used the most in homes, and has inherent color variations. I would guess that the grade is not the problem, unless you used high end select for the existing floor.

2)the luck of the draw (the lot of wood). Red oak trees vary. There is naturally a range of colors in red oak and as it is not hand selected, you don’t know what you will get. (They don’t explain this might be a problem when you install a new floor next to an existing one - grrr!)

3)the stain color you choose. If they were different, the floors will not match. If you restain everything the same, you will still have the same number of dark boards and light boards, but overall it will match the existing floor better.
(A screen and recoat will not change the stain, but a sanding will take the stain off).

  1. lacing in Good on you for lacing in. This does help one floor blend better with another, including keeping the boards aligned the same. Lacing in should have required refinishing (at least part of) the existing floor.

We are very unhappy with the amount of dark boards on our new floor too. Besides not liking dark, it makes it obvious that it is two different rooms. The only true fix is to rip out the dark boards and replace them with hand selected new boards. You might be able to do this one at a time, or take up the whole floor - both expensive fixes. As single boards cannot be really be finished, this would entail refinishing (at least part of) the whole floor to get a consistent look.

If you come up with a better solution, please let me know!!

14

Hi Everyone - well here’s what happened. Lumber liquidators #1 red oak is not the same quality as other manufacturer’s red oak. The color is significantly darker with lots of browns and grays. This is not the wood to get if you want the natural honey color. Also, depending on the lot, board lengths can vary. The lot we received had board lengths averaging 2-3 feet. The scoop on this wood is that if you don’t mind a darker, more rustic look with larger knots and you are doing a full room with no other wood to match, this would be a good product for you. The homeowner down from us put this wood in the entire first floor and it’s looks terrific - just dark and rustic.

Lumber Liquidators put it on the contractor to fix, which he did amazingly well by the way. They used #1 red oak from another manufacturer (I think it was Summerhill) and with a full sanding of the old floor, the seam is virtually invisible. The floors look amazing and required no staining to match.

Don’t let anyone tell you that imperfect is impossible!