wood floor matching and width question?? (hardwood, engineered, refinish, color)

[amylauren]

We are planning to put wood floors down in foyer, kitchen and small extension to match the oak that is already in every other room in the house. Is it possible to get a real match with the old stuff? The house will be empty to do whatever needs to be done but can it be?

Also, a lot of the wood floors I see advertised are thicker in width than what the builder layed 30 years ago-is the thinner style dated now?

[BobKovacs]

Most of the old "nail it down, sand it and finish it in place" oak flooring was 2 1/4" wide, and it's still available from plenty of sources. If you're looking at older homes that have those floors, you'll have no problem matching them. You'll have to sand and refinish the old flooring at the same time to get the color to match, but that's not a big deal if the house will be empty.

WRT it being "dated", I don't think it is. We've got brand new prefinished Bruce nail-down oak flooring in our new house, and it's 2 1/4" wide and we love it. The houses across the street from us are on slabs, and they get a wider glue-down engineered version of the same flooring, and I don't think it looks as nice. But of course, that's just my opinion.

[lovemaine]

We have oak hardwoods in our house. When we bought the place, the hardwood was only in the foyer, kitchen and dining room. We had oak installed in the family room, sanded the new and old, and had everything stained. Matches perfectly, and you can't even tell that the wood floor in the family room is new. On the other hand, I've been in homes where the owners tried to match the existing wood floors with new wood, and it's very noticeable that the 2 woods don't match.

[Ms. 01 Snake]

If then new wood is wider, it can be cut down to the right size to match.

[windtimber]

Originally Posted by Ms. 01 Snake

If then new wood is wider, it can be cut down to the right size to match.

Errrr...what about the T&G? A little hard to remill onsite.

[texdav]

If you do the whole new areas the width wouldn't matter that much. Had some pieces replaced one time and they cut it at the shop to match the old.

[Stephan_K]

To answer your question about getting a perfect match with the new to the old... Yes it can be done quite easily.

If using a pre finished flooring (which would be the simplest) then probably not. You may be able to find something close but most likely not an exact match. If putting in raw hardwood, sanding and finishing it, yes you can have an exact match easily by simply having the stain color matched to the old. Most stain suppliers color match just as they do with paint. Some don't though.

And like Bob mentions, since the house is empty, it would be a perfect time to just sand everything and refinish... especially if the other floors need it. If they are in good shape and you want to save a few bucks, just have the stain matched and do the new floors.

Hope this helps you some...

[golfgal]

We had 1 1/4 red oak floors in our old house--everywhere but the living room and dining room. We had someone install the same in the living room and dining room and then sanded the rest and sealed it all with 3 coats of poly. He did an AMAZING job. You can not tell at all what was old and what is new.

Getting the wood was a piece of cake too--just ordered it from the local lumber yard. If you house is really old, 100+ years and has something unique you can usually find what you need at salvage places if you can't get the same at the lumber yard.

[Ms. 01 Snake]

Originally Posted by windtimber

Errrr...what about the T&G? A little hard to remill onsite.

Actually, they cut them down all the time, you simply cut on side and you can still do T&G.

[amylauren]

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I would like to save as much as the original flooring as possible to cut down costs.