can you lay wood floors 3 years later and have it match? (flooring, refinish)

[amyla]

We are laying wood in a couple of rooms in our house, having all the 30 year old wood sanded and stained, along with new wood. In 3 years, our estimated redo kitchen time, I always wanted a wood floor kitchen, but can you lay it down and have it not look terrible 3 years later? My kitchen has big openings into den and dining room. Thanks

[golfgal]

I would do it all now or do it all when you re-do your kitchen. In 3 years the floors you have now will have darkened slightly so it is possible that you won't have a continuous color. They should even out over a number of years but it would be best to do it all at the same time.

We put in new wood in the living room of our old house to match the existing wood in the remainder of the house that was put in in the 1940's. We refinished all the floors on the main floor then and you can't tell what wood is new and what was original. The floors upstairs do not 'match' the color of the floors downstairs.

[Bydand]

Yes you can match the floors. I matched a rather large hole in the floor between the living room and dining room where a 36" X 48" grate went through with new wood flooring. The old surrounding floor had been in place 73 years. Even doing it myself you couldn't tell where the new and old joined. There was old wood on all 4 sides of the new. If I can do it, any flooring guy worth being called a floor installer should be able to do it without even thinking about it. The opening it was in was 9" wide.

[Streamer1212]

As long as the wood species match, it will be no problem. If you have existing white oak and you install new red oak, they will take the stain differently.

If you match the species, then sand all of the old floors down to raw wood, install the new wood, and stain/finish the old and new at the same time. They should match.

Regards,
Streamer1212

[texdav]

With modern finishes three yerarts should be no problem.Fllors that are sanded and finished on site can be stained to match easily.

[ShaneSA]

I put a wood floor in the kitchen and ran the wood the oposite way of the rest of the house. The rest of the floors are original and were finished several years ago. I could not get a match to color because the original floors are Texas Red oak and I could not get that. So I put in Oak and stained it as close as possible to the original floors. Since they run perpendicular to the other wood, it's not noticable. At least no one has commented except to say how beautiful the kitchen floor is. There is only one door into the kitchen from the rest of the house. I finished off the floor with satin finish polyurethane so there is no staining or problems with water. The rest of the house is varnish.
It's just a suggestion if you can't do the kitchen right now.

[amyla]

Thanks everyone. We are going to do the floors in the rest of the house in Sept. but we can't afford to do the kitchen right now-its on the bigger side and would be changing layout-but always wanted wood floors in a kitchen. We have red oak going on the rest of the house so we would do the same. Thanks again.

[cb at sea]

I hate wood floors! I have them in my dining room and foyer. They were supposed to be in the entire 1st floor, but I changed that!! They show scratches, and dust....I like tile so much better, especially in a kitchen!

[ceh111]

Originally Posted by Streamer1212

As long as the wood species match, it will be no problem. If you have existing white oak and you install new red oak, they will take the stain differently.

If you match the species, then sand all of the old floors down to raw wood, install the new wood, and stain/finish the old and new at the same time. They should match.

Regards,
Streamer1212

I just had this exact thing done and the new floor is much lighter in color. Both are red oak. If you don't have personal experience with this don't speculate and give false advice!

[mrpeatie]

I live in a 1930s house. The diference I notice with patching in the homes in my areas and the older part of my city vs the newer flooring is with variantion. The older floors were more varied in terms of not every piece of wood being and exact spot on match. The newer floors are much more uniform- that is great if you like a room/house full of very consistent flooring. But when it comes to patching having a little variance accross the existing floor seems to hide the patch better.

I specifically have red oak like was mentioned and the orangness and graining is just diferent enough between planks to pick up on but not distracting. So when I put in newer wood it will not stand as much since there was already some discrepency.