I had to widen a few doors in my house to accomodate a wheelchair. I have a 1950's house with what looks like original flooring. I have two doors that had to be widened 4" or so. Now I am left with a 4"x4" empty area that goes to the sub floor. What is my best bet for either matching my old flooring or are there any other suggestions of what I could do? Thanks.

Well, I have a couple questions that need to be addressed first.
1: are you planning on refinishing the floor?
2: what is the floor? size, species, etc.
3: can you salvage a few boards from an obscure area such as a little used closet to do the repairs?
4: what are your expectations for the final appearance?

Hi Dennis,
Thanks for the help.
1. The floors I have are in good shape and don't need to be refinished. They seem like they were done by the previous owner.
2. My living room and adjoining hallway and master bedroom are all hardwood. My house is 1100 sf total with about 800 sf of it in hardwood. The door from the master to the hallway was one that was widened. So, there is hardwood on both sides of the jamb. I believe it is Oak in a natural finish. It is not tongue and groove and is 2"-2".5" wide.
3. I hadn't thought of the closet. I do have two that have carpet in them but not sure if they put it over the hardwood. I will check.
4. I'm not too concerned over the final apperance, but would like it to blend in as close as possible.

Hopefully this helps. Thanks

Ya that info helps a lot, but I forgot to ask one crucial question.
Does the floor run parallel to the door opening or pass through linerly from the hall to the bedroom?
And hopefully you can wait for my ideas until tomorrow, am hitting the road in a few minutes.
However these guys on this site have so much knowledge of hardwood flooring its scary sometimes so they may be able to help you if you need a quick response.

Thanks Dennis,
Actually I have one door (master bedroom door) that has it running thru(perpendicular) and a closet door where it runs parallel with the opening.

No problem waiting. It has been this way for a while as I'm just getting back on my feet.
Thanks

I'm not sure how to explain the procedure, but if you have some wood in the closet's you could remove it and use it for the patches. Call a local installer and have an estimate done. I would prob do a job like that for a couple bills, but different strokes for different folks. Time wise it would only take maybe 1/2 day, but the "pita" factor is quite large.

How about a couple decorative patches with some inset/border material? Square it off and glue it in.

Thanks everybody for your input.

Stephen, what exactly do you mean. I'm guessing you mean to maybe cut out the rest of the area from jamb to jamb and put in maybe a contrasting piece(s), or am I way off here?
Thanks

Yes you can go straight across or just pieces next to the jamb. Straight across would look nicer. Probably easier than refitting planks to pass through.

You can pick up this stuff almost anywhere these days:

http://www.czarfloors.com/borders.asp

The advantage to cutting straight across the opening and inserting a decorative piece is that if there are any visible differences in gloss level, they should be relatively un-noticable.
Of course the dis-advantage is the cost of these if on an extreme budget for this work.
I might consider the doorway into the room be treated this way, and the doorway into the closet be filled in with salvaged material from a closet. Naturally the void left by removing several pieces from a closet would then have to be filled in with something.
Lots of options to consider.

I'm leaning towards doing the inlay. I agree it will look better than just piecing in. What's my best bet for a good clean strait cut. I'm assuming a circle saw, but are there any specialty tools, or tricks of the trade, I'm not thinking of?
Thanks again guys.

You can do circular saw up to a point, then use a multifunction tool from harbor freight. Better be careful with that circular saw though. I would not try it unless your skilled at it. The HF tool can do the whole thing, just takes longer and prolly a couple blades.

I would drill a couple three holes that fit a 8d finish nail and temp fasten it down as your guide. The pull it, remove and clean surface. Then polyurethane and drive finish nails in and set, then putty the holes...done

Watch for fasteners along cut. maybe do a 1/4 in deep cut first. If you hit a fastener with the HF tool it won't blow up on you. Wear goggles.