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lmgch

Flooring - 5" or 2"?

lmgch
9 years ago

Our home is a 1901 center hall colonial. Existing wood floors are 2" quarter sawn red oak. Our options for new floor in kitchen area are 2 1/4" or go totally different with 5". What would you do? I'm kind of leaning toward going 5" to make distinction since it wouldn't be exact match anyway.

Thx

Comments (8)

  • Swentastic Swenson
    9 years ago

    How big is your kitchen? Large planks by nature tend to make rooms feel smaller. Also, you'll see much more shrinkage in the winter with wide planks than you will 2" planks (so more gaps between boards which in a kitchen might not be ideal). Food for thought - we have 5" planks throughout and these were not things I considered.

    If it were me and I were trying to keep historically accurate, I'd stick with the 2 1/4" quarter sawn red oak (gorgeous in its own right) stained and varnished to match the original floors. It'll be more cost effective for you and in the end, a more cohesive look for the whole house.

    Good luck with your choice!

    This post was edited by Swentastic on Thu, Dec 18, 14 at 12:05

  • Fori
    9 years ago

    A good flooring installer can weave the new in with the old and get a pretty good match--I did that in a '20s home and while the new stuff looked less dinged up than the old (which had been carpeted over and tiled over) it was pretty darn good.

    The 5" wouldn't look original, but wouldn't be bad either.

    You could do a border between the rooms (like a perpendicular strip of wood in the threshold and then not worry about matching.

  • lmgch
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    attached floor plan so you can see size of new space. area labeled mudroom will be tile.

    our original floor is actually 2" quartered sawn white oak (tiger stripe? or something like that), so installer is saying the red oak will be a match but not exact. he also suggested the 5" would make the space feel bigger, so interesting that PP suggested it might make it feel smaller.

    hmmm...either way it will definitely be old in all the pre-existing rooms and then new in the new space, so it will be a distinction that will likely need a flush saddle or something at the three doorways where old meets new

  • GreenDesigns
    9 years ago

    Do the 2 1/4" white oak, not red oak. Quarter and rift, select. Any flooring wholesaler or mill should be able to get that for you with no issues. Red oak has a different pinky undertone than white oak.

  • Mrs_Nyefnyef
    9 years ago

    While I agree that Greendesigns' advice is the optimal solution, the price increase from what the OP is currently considering is huge (as an aside, the OP said in her first post that her original floors are red oak, but later said they are white oak - I am going to assume they are white oak). The last time I priced oak floors--which was 10 years ago--the white oak 2" planks were about 30% higher than red, and if you wanted rift cut or quarter-sawn, add another 40%. Perhaps pricing is regional, I don't know. I went for red oak select and was very happy with that floor.

    Do keep in mind that red and white oak look more different from each other than what your contractor is saying. If your budget does not include white
    oak, my advice is to get 2" red oak in the best quality tier that you can afford.

    This post was edited by Mrs_Nyefnyef on Thu, Dec 18, 14 at 14:08

  • lmgch
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    yes, I made a mistake in the first post. our original flooring is definitely white oak

    i've sent a note to the contractor asking him to price everything out and then we can decide

    thank for the help - see, I didn't even realize the differences and I'm sure I would have been not happy if I just went and had 2 1/4" red oak installed and only saw the differences after it was done

    thank you!

  • HomeChef59
    9 years ago

    The good news is white oak is the easiest to integrate with old flooring. It will take stain in a uniform fashion. You should be fine with white oak. I just went through the same decision process.

    I would suggest using whatever you have in the rest of the house. You will be introducing so many other elements and finishes to you home, I would advise keeping this decision simple. That way you can use lots of other design elements and yet have a harmonious element to tie the room to the rest of the house.

  • eandhl
    9 years ago

    I will be the odd one and say go with the 5 inch. Let me say I really like wide boards & I would be concerned the 2 1/4 might look like a miss.