Red Oak Wood Floors are your answer for a great quality, real American wood floor without breaking the budget. Here are 5 reasons you should consider it!
#1 - Red Oak Floors have a great VALUE!
Red Oak Wood flooring price is lower than white oak. White Oak prices continue to rise and there’s tight supply. The price difference between a RQ White Oak and RQ Red Oak Floor is significant. There are amazing stains available today to make them look lighter or darker. Check out the project by famous designer, Leanne Ford. She used 6″ Red Oak RQ Clear with Bona Nordic Seal finish.
Red Oak is an amazing option to save a bit of money and not sacrifice the benefits of a high-quality, healthy real wood flooring option!
#2 RED OAK WOOD FLOORS ARE POPULAR!
Red Oak has been one of the most used flooring options for decades, but typically in plain sawn. Plain sawn red oak is typically what people think of when referring to red oak, and many people don’t want that dated floor in their new home.
If you are renovating or adding an addition to your home and you already have red oak you may want to keep what you can to save money.
First, you likely have red oak stair treads and those are expensive to replace. Secondly, you may have red oak in certain rooms that you can keep. You can add a Rift & Quarter Sawn or Live Sawn red oak to the new flooring areas. Finally, you can refinish the existing red oak in the house to match the color of the new wood and you can make the house flow together really well.
#3 AVAILABILITY!
Pennsylvania has plenty of hardwoods, over 17-million acres, almost 60% of the state. Of all the forests in PA, about 90% of the trees are hardwoods. Hardwood trees lose their leaves each fall.
Northern Red Oak trees make up approximately 14.5% of PA’s hardwood forests. Other Red Oaks, like Scarlet & Black Oak make up an additional 5.5% of the forests. White Oak, while plentiful in PA is only 12 % of the forests.
*Statistics based on 2019 Forest Inventory Analysis Forest Service, US Department of Agriculture.
#4 RIFT ONLY FLOORING
Rift only wood flooring has been incredibly popular in white oak for years. The rift sawn cut creates a very stable flooring option and visually has tight straight growth rings that go the length of the board.
The big thing that makes the difference between rift sawn and quarter sawn is the medullary rays.
Medullary rays – cellular structures in trees that are perpendicular to the growth rings.
True Quarter Sawn will have growth rings perpendicular to the face of the board and the medullary rays are parallel so you see them as the heavy fleck or striping in quarter sawn.
Rift Sawn has the growth rings more of an angle to the face 30-60 degrees, so the medullary rays are not as bold or dramatic in rift sawn compared to quarter sawn.
White Oak is very popular with quarter sawn because the medullary rays are very big! In red oak, these medullary rays are much smaller. Therefore, it is much easier to yield more rift sawn from red oak than white oak.
Click here to learn more about how logs are cut.
Remember, if you like the look of Rift Sawn Flooring please consider using red oak. It is much easier to produce and will also save you a lot of money!
#5 RED OAK COLOR!
While it’s true the red and pink tones have not been overly popular for a while, we are finding more and more homeowners appreciate the added “warmth” from a red oak floor. The various subspecies of red oak create more color variation and complexity to the floor.
Besides, if you’re not a huge fan of the natural color of red oak flooring, you can always stain it. Red Oak takes dark stains as well as lighter white stains so a quality installer can truly make your red oak flooring fit most any style.
Looking for an installer near you?
Check out Bona Certified Craftsman – or NWFA Certified Installer
Also – the new Bona red oak product is exciting.. Watch Video on Bona Red Out here
Want to look at more photos of red oak wood floors?
Check out these albums on our website with some of the best pictures.
Or you can go down a rabbit hole and look at our FlickR account to see many beautiful red oak floors.
Confused about the cut & grades of AMHF flooring? CLICK HERE to learn more.
Still unsure about red oak? CLICK HERE to see all AMHF flooring options.
