Our kitchen was recently expanded, and the new floor was done in quarter-sawn white oak. Quarter-sawn had been used because the expanded part of the floor has built in radiant heat. The floors on the entire level of the house were sanded, polyurethane’d etc.
It is looking to us like the color of the new flooring does not match the adjacent old floor.
The contractor had assured us there would be no noticeable difference between the old and new. He was the one who said our old floor section was white oak.
It has been suggested to us that the difference is because the old section is red oak, vs the white in the new section.
Should there be such a noticeable difference between the two sections if they both are white oak, although one is quarter-sawn?
Can’t tell without a picture, and I don’t know how old “old” is, but remember wood darkens with age. If you get an identical match now, they might not match later.
The old floor will have yellowed over time due to exposure to light. Even if the exact same color was used on the new floor, it will take a few months for it to get that “aged” look. Hopefully they sanded some of the old floor back to be certain it was white and not red oak. Red oak is probably a lot more common than white as existing flooring, and it’s not always that easy to tell. Of course your new floor is entirely different wood, probably with different grain patterns, so it’s never going to math exactly.
Was the original floor quarter-sawn? There is a huge difference in the look of quarter and flat sawn oak. I’ve seen a lot of oak floors and have not seen either a white oak floor or a quarter-sawn but I’m sure they are around. The quarter-sawn will take stain differently, as will white vs red oak. Red oak stains beautifully due to the open, ring porous structure.
I did the same type of project on my floors, I added 10 feet of length to the red oak floor to replace the section that had linoleum over pine. Sanded everything and stained, it is a perfect match. I can’t even tell where I did it.
The OP states that all floors were sanded and refinished, that removes the uv darkened top surface, so that shouldn’t be the issue. I had my 60 year old red oak floor refinished a couple years ago, with some major patching and feathering. If you know exactly where to look you can just make out the new section in some places. This is due to the natural variation in wood itself. Sections of red oak from the same tree even will vary. I haven’t worked much with white oak but although it seems a little more consistent I am sure there tends to be variation.
We do several renos a year at work that require patching and refinishing. Installers are always careful to compare the wood and we use left over stock from original installation whenever possible.
White (or red) oak is a category of wood and there are several different species that are sold as white oak. So that can account for more variation. Even installing a new floor best practice is to mix product from multiple boxes to randomize the variation.
Was the floor stained at all? Modern finishes like urethanes and Bona Traffic do not reveal grain and colour like oil based finishes. Even a clear ‘natural’ stain is a good idea to bring out character and consistency of the wood.
OP here.This is resolved. The contractor agrees that the new area does look different from the old area even though he originally told us it wouldn’t. He stands by the old area being in white oak not red. He attributes the difference in appearance to quarter-sawn vs flat-sawn white oak. The resolution is he is going to replace part of the old flooring with quarter sawn, up to an appropriate dividing point between rooms, and share the cost with us.
I was recently told by my mother that you cannot match previously installed wood floors. If you want them to match, you have to rip them all out and put down all new ones. I can certainly believe it, although I personally would accept the fact that two different courses of wood flooring were slightly different in color, and perhaps even make them wildly different in color in order to not make people think I intended them to match.
I am sorry I didn’t read very well I guess, but puzzlegal got it. Quarter sawn is certainly going to look different than ‘flat’ sawn. Good that the issue has been resolved. I bet the floor looks great. Quarter sawn is a really nice look, I love the birdseye you can get with it.