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vions

What type of hardwood is this?

vions
10 years ago

I had a hard time identify the hardwood floor in the photo. From distance it looks like red oak, white oak, or Amendoim, but if we enlarge the photo, the grains of the knots or veins seem to be much wider and less busy. Any advice?

Comments (12)

  • gregmills_gw
    10 years ago

    Any chance of getting a few shots of the floor?

  • UniqueWoodFloor
    10 years ago

    It seems Brazilian Cherry to me.

  • clg7067
    10 years ago

    Looks like red oak to me.

    Here is a link that might be useful: rustick red oak

  • vions
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    gregmills:

    >Any chance of getting a few shots of the floor?

    I took a few pictures of the floor during an open house a few years ago. Now I 'd like to replicate the same floor in my new home if I can identify the type of wood and stain. Here is another photo of the house. Unfortunately the resolution is not good.

  • vions
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    gregmills:

    Here is the third photo of the hardwood floor I need to identify. There are some optical distortions that blurred the photo in the middle.

  • vions
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    UniqueWoodFloor:

    > It seems Brazilian Cherry to me.

    Thanks for the tip. I googled the web and found a photo of the Brazilian Cherry that look similar. So it is a good candidate. If I fixate the base color to honey as in the original floor, the grain in this photo does look reddish too. My reservation is that the original floor has some neat pattern of "> > >" grains while Brazilian Cherry's grain appears to be more chaotic and random to me.

  • vions
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    clg7067:

    > Looks like red oak to me.
    > Here is a link that might be useful: rustick red oak

    I narrowed the search to red oak as well recently mainly due to the photo I found on hullforest.com (see below).

    The grain in the photo has the neat "> > >" patterns I saw in the original floor. It also has natural base tone and reddish/brownish grain similar to the suspect, though the latter is more of a honey base tone. I learned that they use Early American stain and Lenmar Satin oil based poly to stain the floor in the photo.

    Seems to me both the grain pattern ("> > >") and tone contrast between base and grain do match the suspect better than most other potential candidates.

    As to the link, I did have red oak and Gunstock stain in my candidate list too. Gunstock turns the grain reddish desirably but it also turns the base color to reddish instead of honey. But it is indeed one of the closest matches out there.

    I am surprised to find that creating a floor of honey base color and reddish grain is very tricky thing to do. I think we are very close, though not there yet. Someone told me over the weekend that one possible solution is to water pop the floor to open the grains, then stain the wood with darker reddish color (e.g. Gunstock) that penetrates into the grain. Then sand the surface and stain with honey color. It may indeed take two passes of stain to control the base color and grain color separately, though I still hope there is simpler solution.

  • vions
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    clg7067,

    I looked at the link one more time and realized that they made the base tone more honey-like than reddish as most Gunstock-stained red oaks were. So it is closer to the desired honey-red contrast than I thought.

  • gregmills_gw
    10 years ago

    Yeah i just get get a clear enough view of the grains. Although it could very well be either red oak or braz cherry as others have suggested i cant say 100% confidence what it is.

    You sound like you already know what you want. Have you thought about checking out a showroom at a hardwood floor distributor?

  • Ram1
    10 years ago

    In order to properly maintain a wood floor, whether you are cleaning, repairing or refinishing, you need to know what kind of wood and what kind of finish the floor has. How far as i know we can Observe the color and grain of the wood to determine what type of wood the floor has. You will need to know what type of wood if you ever have to replace part of the flooring or molding. Most wood floors are made with oak. If the floor has a light, tan color with pale, almost white, streaks here and there and a fine grain, it may be white oak. Extremely pale floors are likely to be maple, as it is one of the lightest woods. If the floor has a golden tone with a more pronounced grain, there is a good chance it is red oak. If the floor has a deep red tone, it is cherry.

  • vions
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    gregmills:

    > Have you thought about checking out a showroom at a hardwood floor distributor?

    I have visited most floor stores in the area. I have not found anything close to what I am looking for.

  • vions
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Ram1:

    > If the floor has a light, tan color with pale, almost white, streaks here and there and a fine grain, it may be white oak. Extremely pale floors are likely to be maple, as it is one of the lightest woods. If the floor has a golden tone with a more pronounced grain, there is a good chance it is red oak. If the floor has a deep red tone, it is cherry.

    These rule of thumbs are very useful. I like the golden tone a lot since it brightens up the room like sunshine does (See photo). I think red oak is probably what I am looking for. Thanks.