We had new flooring installed - the sample he showed me matched perfectly, but the new floors have more of a red tint to them. We have natural red oak in the older hw and the new is white oak. The new floors were prefinished before installation with that titanium stuff. Another problem, my old floors are flush at each board, but the new ones seem to have a small bevelled edge to them. Depending on the lighting, the floors don't really look all that bad, but I'm wondering if the new floors will fade and match my old ones soon. And I'm wondering how big a deal it is if the surface (bevelled vs flush) doesn't match.

Advice anyone?

White oak has a pink to orange tint, compared to red oak.

The installer should have know it wasn't going to be close, once installed and advised you of that.

Huh? Sure you're not thinking the other way around?

Could be a difference of a site finished floor with an oil finish and a factory finished water based type with the prefinished?

Appearance:

Red:
Heartwood and sapwood are similear, with sapwood lighter in color; most pieces have a redish tone. Slightly redder then white oak.


white:
Heartwood is light brown; boards may have a pinkish tint or slight grayish cast. Sapwood is white to cream.

When looking at them side by side, the pinker boards of white oak, look red in color compared to the rich golden red of red oak. Red oak is not exactly red but a very dark rich looking gold with a red tint.

J9,
What kind of prefinished was this? You mentioned titanium finish, is it a Lauzon product. If it was, your floor isn't going to change much for quite a long time. The Lauzon finish has a pretty good UV inhibitor (sunscreen for wood) in it. If the product doesn't have an inhibitor, chances are it'll yellow & darken some. I don't know if it'll ever match though.
The truth is that often the same species harvested at different times and/or different areas won't match even with the same finish. The species we've had the worst time with is birch. You really need to watch production dates with it.

Anyway, good luck.

mullican caramel color and I'm told that I have white oak and that these are white oak.

What to do, or is it okay to have floors that are different in different rooms?

THANK YOU SO MUCH for the advice!

Nina

I guess what I really want to know is:
1. Will the floors lighten with time? How much time? How much lighter?
2. Do people have different types/colors of flooring in the same house? They change at room divisions.

Thanks!

Nina

Nina,
#1 - If they yellow they may appear darker, eventually, who knows
#2 - Yes