Hello everyone, new user here... I've been reading through the site for hours now. Lots of great stuff here. I have a couple questions on a new install that I'll be having done. Right now, we have prefinished 2 1/4" solid oak in two different parts of the house. Flooring runs perpendicular to the joists. It's Bruce solid oak in both locations - The kitchen was installed by the builder, and the living area (actually used as an office) was installed by a friend. He did a fantastic job and will be tackling the install in question. This is on a first floor, over an unfinished basement.

We want to remove all the existing carpet in the family room, in front of the stairs, and down the small hall leading to the half bath. Since the existing wood is different in the two rooms, and the new wood will touch both, we're probably going to go with something completely different in color. We'll stick to either 2 1/4" or 3 1/4" solid boards.

The biggest question I have - Would we be OK installing the new flooring at a 45 degree angle, based off the fireplace (It's a gas fireplace, with the carpet going all the way up to it, so I presume the wood could go all the way up as well)? We think that would be visually interesting, and would also hide any potential issues that could crop up with making sure everything is straight, since I don't know how it would line up if we maintained the perpendicular layout. Thoughts?

Second question - We're in northern Ohio, and the existing 3/4" oak hasn't given us a bit of trouble. We love the look of some of the exotic stuff, like koa, but aren't completely sold on the non-native woods with their reaction to our variations in humidity between seasons. I'm now am aware of so many other places to get nice wood, but am overwhelmed. We're not far from Barid Brothers Sawmill in Canfield, OH, if anyone has heard of them. And there are a bunch of local flooring places, from big box to LL (made the mistake of going there, then did some reading!), local mills, etc. - So the whole gamut. So any particular recommendations for something very durable, with character, warmth, etc.? We're looking specifically for prefinished.

You will be just fine running the new flooring on a 45. I actually think since you are doing something different that running it this way will break it up and separate it from the other areas well. I like to mitre a 1 strip box around the fireplace then but the wood up to it. You should have no issues with exotic flooring. I would avoid anything wider than about 5", because flooring wider than this can be prone to issues. Also, be sure to acclimate the wood prior to installation. Some good brands of prefinished wood are; br-111, Mirage, Lauzon, Armstrong, HomerWood, Chelsea Plank, Appalachian, & Aacer. If you contact a local company they should either have a showroom or access to one in your area. A couple of those places will even send you out free samples. I also deal with a guy local to my area on a lot of prefinished flooring. I believe that he ships his products all over. We have used quite a bit of his acacia walnut lately and it is really nice and it would contrast well with oak. Plus it's only about $4 per square foot. Here is a link to that guys website http://uniquewoodfloor.com/. The owners name is Winston. Tell him that I sent you. Hope this helps.