Seeking Solution for working with Old Red Oak vs New Red Oak please!

3 years ago

Hi there!

We just experience our THIRD slab leak in our home and have finally decided to have all of our hot and cold water pipes rerouted - THANK GOODNESS!

The insurance company is reimbursing the cost of replacing the water damaged wood flooring in 3 rooms. We have a hallway and 3 remaining rooms that were not effected by the water damage so they aren't being replaced but the insurance company will cover the cost of them being sanded, hand scraped and restained so that the finish and color matches.

Here is my dilemma...I have red oak floors. Now that all of the stain from the older red oak floors is visible, it's clearly changed color due to the stain, polyurethane, chemicals, etc. have penetrated into the wood. I had them use a custom color to counteract the pink undertones in the red oak. The wood has now lost a lot of it's original pink hue while the NEW wood that was just installed is straight up PINK.

It's not so much a big deal in rooms that are on the opposite end of the house but I have two rooms...the den and the breakfast room that are RIGHT next to each other in an open concept layout. I can't cover the area where they old and new wood 'meet' to cover the two different tones...

I'd love to see if anyone has any suggestions that I am overlooking?

Any stain that's applied won't match the floors up since the floors have varying undertones.

As I see it, my options are: Remove the old wood from the den and replace it with the newer, pink wood. (issues are that this is more money - insurance won't cover this and it will take longer and after the water pipes being rerouted, sheetrock work, painters, floor demo, etc.

frankly, we're weary.)

Hire a stain specialist if I can even find one...maybe someone with extensive experience with a remediation company?

Live with it, which doesn't thrill me because I'm color sensitive and can pick up varying hues in paint colors, etc

For those of you who have handled wood flooring remediation, or have had added new wood next to old wood, once we stain it, will it matter that much? Is there another solution that we can approach? Thank you!!

Featured Answer

PRO

G & S Floor Service

3 years ago

I would apply same treatment throughout. You will not notice much of a difference if, you are adding color.

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Comments (7)

Connie Stackhouse
3 years ago
We installed white oak flooring in thd living areas of our ranch home close to 30 years ago. Last year we removed the worn WW carpet from 3 bedrooms and installed new prefinished hardwood floors. The problem was that white oak (in 2 inch planks) was not available anywhere. We had to go with red oak that was an ever so slightly different color from the wood in the adjoining hallway. Now, after slightly less than 2 years, the color difference is barely noticable. Sunlight and wear have done their job!
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PRO
Norwood Architects
3 years ago
Is the flooring real traditional oak or a laminate? If real oak you may never get a truly consistent color and look because oak naturally varies. You might be able to adjust the stain between new and existing sections but that will take a good bit of experimentation. Good luck!
gratitude24
Original Author
3 years ago
@Norwood Architects it's true traditional oak floors as in they installed raw wood, are sanding, hand scraping, buffing it, staining it on site then adding two layers of poly.
gratitude24
Original Author
3 years ago
@G & S Floor Service, thank you. I'm color sensitive and can spot undertones a mile away so this had me really worried.

@Connie Stackhouse Thank you! This will be a highly visible area that is one of our main daily living areas so thank you! I could deal with a year or two of it being off until the the new wood is also 'bleached out by the chemicals' but couldn't deal with it permanently like that.
PRO
Oak & Broad
3 years ago
gratitude24 , The only way to really get them to "match" is to make sure you blend the right species, lumber grade, plank widths, plank lengths (this one can be very challenging), and refinish together. This is one of the reasons that homeowners will often push an adjuster to allow them to have the entire floor replaced. There are just too many factors involved in making it look like it never even happened.
gratitude24 thanked Oak & Broad
gratitude24
Original Author
3 years ago
@Oak & Broad I REALLY wished I had done this - I wish I had known to do this...between the insurance adjuster who promised to make us 'whole' by covering the cost of the old wood also being sanded, scraped and stained again AND the flooring company that was recommended to me as being skilled at matching AND an interior designer, no one mentioned this as even potentially being an issue.

We have the same wood, same grade and size but I just didn't realize that the old wood would have changed so much from the chemicals soaking in.

I could either go back to the insurance company to try to push them to cover new wood in the adjoining room (the den) but then now this will push the flooring company out when they are booked and pushes us out an additional 2-3 weeks since the new wood would have to acclimate and this new area would have to be worked into their schedule. An inconvenience for all and typically I wouldn't bat an eye to push for this but we have an 18 and 21 year old and both kids will be leaving home around the same time (college for one and moving out for another) and I REALLY wanted to make this holiday season really memorable and go all out decorating. I know it's trivial to many and definitely a first world problem but it's something that's disappointing to me nontheless...

If you have experience with this, do you (or does anyone else) think that the NEW red oak will 'catch up' to looking bleached out like the OLD wood since we'll be using the same custom color on it (has one part ebony since it has a green undertone to counteract the pink)? Or will they always look different??? Thanks so much for responding!!