I'm assuming old and new got sanded and had some sort of clear added to it so you can compare? I assume you weren't planning on staining?

The above pics are showing sanded natural clear and sanded with light stain to compare. The first pic is drastic and the other pics are showing it mixed in with existing one side natural and one side light stain. Thank you!

Thanks, so the stain will blend it good enough to not be noticable? Thats my worry.

Yes. A quality floor refinished will be able to blend the two woods. I have 70+ year old WHITE oak floors and newer red oak. You can not tell where they meet.

"Thanks, so the stain will blend it good enough to not be noticable? Thats my worry."

If they're a reputable, quality floor finisher, no you will not be able to tell the difference after sanding and staining.

I had some tile removed in my kitchen area and replaced with new red oak to match the red oak that was in the rest of area, stained Provencial, impossible to tell apart new from old

Hmm… not sure anyone is going to be able to blend those species well even with stain. If your flooring guy is concerned enough to stop work and call the GC, I suspect it is going to be a problem.

When doing this the 2 woods need to be blended far back from the actual join so that it looks perfect before staining and IMO yes you will need to stain to make this work so be prepared to go a bit darker to make it work.

You will slways have a slight difference But if the end result is more thsn slight, you need a better flooring professional.

Thank you all for your input. We are down to one transition line from original red oak and new red oak. They are going to put it all in, sand it and then give me options of leaving it natural (my original choice) or putting a stain on it.
New problem…I am supposed to choose finish on white oak cabinets but don’t feel I can make the right choice until floors are dialed in.
Yikes 😳

@vicbayside I just had my floors done, blending old with new. Mine are white oak so my experience may be different but I'll share it just in case. I knew I wanted light floors (we have dark counter tops and some of my cabinets are a very dark stain.) So the floor guys put down several samples for us to evaluate. (Note: this was after sanding.) For our floors, the stains made the grain more noticeable, not less. If you're wanting to tone down the grain, stain might not be the answer unless you go very dark. After sanding, have your flooring people put down several stain samples covering the old and new boards to see how it looks.

In this picture, the old tile floor started about two feet to the left of the tall cabinetry wall at the right and continued on through the old kitchen. Everything in the DR (where the light is hanging) and closer to the camera is the old flooring. Yes, there is definitely a variation in the color, but to me that's part of the beauty of natural wood.

Here's what we used:

One coat of the Bona NordicSeal so we didn't get a grey color.

Then Loba in a satin finish (not sure how many coats) and then buffing.

In this situation we generally finish the entire floor to the chosen color and apply one coat of finish. This will show how much of a difference there is between old and new. After it dries we abrade the floor and if necessary we mask off the older area and apply a tinted clear coat to the new boards. A slight color difference can usually be adjusted with a single tinted coat. Once it dries we carefully abrade it, remove the tape and apply a coat or coats of finish.

I'm surprised your 1983 floors had such short boards.

@chicagoans thank you for your detailed experience, much appreciated. Your floors are gorgeous. Thank you to all that took the time to respond, I appreciate your experiences and advice. I've been crazy with all thats going on here to respond lately. The floors were all put down and now waiting for sanding. I am praying it will blend to my satisfaction. I was not comfortable having my cabinets finished without being sure which way my floors were going to go, so cabinets will be finished here. I did that with my last kitchen and it worked out fine so hoping this works as well.

If anyone has personal experience with red oak floors and white oak cabinets, please let me know your experience. Again, thanks so much!

@chispa I'm not familiar with what size boards were used when...these are original to the house though that I know. They only used the wood in dining, kitchen, hallways...we are extending into both living room and den. Just praying some crazy difference doesnt jump out at me!

Did you decide to use a stain? I'm in the process of doing the same thing where I just added new red oak floor board into my kitchen and am now having my entire first floor sanded and restained. I need to choose a stain color.

We aren't ready for sanding yet so I don't know if we are going to stain or not. Are you staining it all because you don't want it natural or because of matching? I have existing stairs not being done and I have white oak new cabinets to work with. I'm hoping to leave mine natural with all the different shades.

We have new HW in our kitchen + they're replacing the HW in the foyer so we decide to stain in the hopes it would blend better. My home was built in 1941 and the red oak has turned orangey and I'm hoping that the color we select will minimize the orange tones. It's very daunting! We're having this done tomorrow.

It is very daunting! Do you have transition spots where they blend in the wood strips? That’s going to be the biggest point of question for us. Ok so you are staining in hopes of not getting the orange color later.
Please post pics as I am doing the same next week and would love to know. Best of luck tomorrow!

These are some of the options shown with lights on and off. I am leaning toward a meduibrown which is top left only because the the lightest stain really shows the pink. I'd prefer to go lighter but don't think it will work for us. Thoughts? Actually I meant top left, picture was flipped. They were able to use the top left stain and lighten it a bit more. Medium brown - brown undertones vs yellow or red. I hope it looks good or I'll have to buy more area rugs lol

How exciting! There are so many other factors in choosing. Your cabinets, furniture, lighting, style.
I’m hoping to stay lighter for all of the above reasons plus pets. Whatever you choose will be beautiful that’s for sure.

@nco_nj hope it all went well, hope to see your pics when you can.
Ours is delayed until Tuesday due to Hillary.
Thanks!

I'm so sorry for my delay - we moved out for a few days. We ended up choosing a medium brown stain because our new red oak was very pink. Good luck!!

Looks great! I know you are happy to be finished with it!

To update, our floors were completed.
Our transition spots are actually fine.
We left the floors natural, which is what I wanted from the beginning. I love all the different shades and patterns.
It was unfortunate but we had a problem with the floor install. Their work was sloppy, bad cuts, bad filler etc. I didn’t want them back in the house but we decided to give them a chance to make it right. They are done and gone and our contractor will deal with them. There are a few spots, ugly cut, mismatched sloppy filler spot and a couple of others that I am not happy with. We are going to get some fresh eyes on it to see what they could do to repair. Anyone else has this problem and resolve it?

Looks great, vicbayside.What did you use as a sealer & top coat, brand, etc? I’m in the same boat with planning a remodeling job in an 80’s townhouse, weaving in more red oak, sanding it all and staining. Worried about the pink and busy grain in the red oak. Do you see a lot of pink with leaving it natural? My floor guy likes to Bona and Duraseal and also mentioned a product called Bona Red Out to tone down the pink. Red oak is so tricky!

@ecgb Thanks, it was nerve wracking I’ve had red oak floors in a couple of houses. I think if someone doesn’t appreciate or want all of the variation of colors and pattern they should get prefinished wood that looks all the same. Red Oak needs stain to be a more consistent color.
As you can see in the pics we have some pinkish, yellowish, brownish all variations. That’s what I love, so we went natural.

As for product, we didn’t know any better to check that out prior. I’ve had this done before and was happy so I had no reason to think it would be different this time.

Other than some poor cuts and poor filler spots, we love the look. Sorry I couldn’t help with product. Best of luck!

Thanks for this discussion. I’m in the medium of a kitchen renovation. I have red oak floors that I have decided to sand and stain in hopes of minimizing the orange and pink hues. I am looking for a stain/brand that can offer that solution and complement white oak cabinets 🙈. Any suggestions is greatly appreciated!