Common Hardwood Floor Wood

[Meanie]

I plan to finish my stairs this summer (remove carpet and add treads & risers) and want to match my hardwood floor at bottom of stairs (main floor). I'm far from an expert at identifying wood species but think my hardwood floors are red oak. I do know when I had the floors redone years ago they use a honey maple stain. The home was built in 1949, what type of wood do you think they would have used?

Here is a picture I took of an item on the floor which may help identify. Disregard the item.

Thank you

[Clare Snyder]

From the colour and grain I'd say, better than 90% it is maple.

[Doug Miller]

Clare Snyder wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Nonsense. This doesn't even remotely resembly maple. It's red oak.

[Clare Snyder]

I didn't look at the other pictures - and only on the small screen.and you are right - It's more likely oak

Around here maple, oak and ash are common - and the maple often has the red tint, but not the defined grain. The ash has something of a green tint, and is otherwise very similarto oak.

Today you can grt just about any kind of wood, but the older homes have "local" wood - and I just iunstalled ash flooring in our livingroomand diningroom - whuile the bedrooms are all in oak. Our oak has a LOT less color variation than the oak shown

[dadiOH]

Not red oak. Not ANY oak.

Definitely hardwood, looks familiar, but dunno what. It doesn't look like maple to me either. A couple of pieces do look like white oak, some look like cherry.

[dadiOH]

On second thought, I'd say hickory

[-MIKE-]

That was my first impression. Every one of them looks like Hickory at different grain angles and color variations.

[Leon]

Red or White Oak but with a stain the coloration of the natural wood is difficult to tell. That said there appears to be patches with other woods. The stained color appears to be red oak.

[Scott Lurndal]

Looks like Ash to me.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Oak is very common here and some look like red oak, but a couple of boards I'm not so sure. Maybe take a better photo or two?

[Meanie]

[hubops]

I can't tell much fom those photos either. The wide variations in grain and colour make me think of more modern hardwood flooring - not rustic - which includes lots of defects and rough spots - but the next grade ? The oak floors in my first home - tiny 1959 bungalow - that I resurrected from under the carpeting, in 1982 - had quite uniform colour & grain, with just a few small spots that were off - - it looked real sweet after a stain and a satin urethane. Perhaps the OP's 1949 house was previously re-floored ? or maybe it was built from various home-sawn materials ? .. just a thought. John T.

[dadiOH]

NOW it looks like oak.

[-MIKE-]

Some of the grain in this pic definitely looks like Oak, probably white.

[Larry Kraus]

Looks just like our floors, specified in our building contract as #1 common red oak.

[krw]

+1

Some of the boards have "rays" that look red oakish, some don't. Is it possible it's a mix of red and white oak? Some of the boards have the longer rays, like white oak.

[-MIKE-]

That's what I saw, too. Especially in the additional photos.

[Clare Snyder]

With the green tinge I'm thinking grey ash. Mine has a stain on it that warms it up a bit - but more ash-like than oak-like - and the two ARE close.

[Clare Snyder]

WShat I put in was "select or better" Waterloo County Ash. 0 taking down a lot due to Emeral Ash Borer.

Back in the sixties it was Elm that was in oiver-supply due to Dutch Elm Disease.

[Meanie]

Ok, it appears the consensus is mainly oak, perhaps red and some white. Perhaps I will purchase one red and one white oak board, stain it and see what matches best.

Thank you all for the help.