In the market place there is an overwhelming amount of choices, but unfinished oak flooring remains the number 1 option for unfinished hardwood flooring. Just to clear things up a bit, understand that this type of floor must be installed on location first, followed by floor sanding and finishing. I really like unfinished hardwood floors because the end user has the maximum amount of control on the appearance of the final product. This is in contrast to engineered oak flooring, where the color and sheen is pretty much predetermined. The other thing is that although these floors require much more work, sanding and finishing your hardwood flooring after installation insures there will be a perfectly smooth surface without slight micro edges between boards. There is also the option of going with unfinished engineered oak flooring, where no sanding is necessary, but needs to be finished. I personally would go all unfinished or all engineered, this meeting in the middle business really doesn’t serve a purpose. So out of the unfinished category, why oak? Unfinished oak flooring tends to be very durable, has a popular finish grain, takes on several different color hues and the most important, is the best value out of any hardwood flooring. Before I go on to describe the positive attributes of an unfinished oak floor, I will talk a little bit about oak wood in general.
The Species of Oak Wood
Of course this article is about unfinished oak floors, but I really think it’s important to have a good understanding of wood as a material. Throughout this blog you will find that no matter the wood product I’m talking about, I like to reverse a bit to investigate the source material, in this case, oak trees and shrubs from the Quercus genus. This family of trees and shrubs is six hundred strong and who knows, maybe botanists are still discovering a few here and there. There are also several trees that are commonly considered oak but, come from a different genus, Lithocarpus. Many of us are most familiar with deciduous oak trees, the ones where the leaves fall of in the fall. The lesser known variety of oak is an evergreen tree called live oaks. For the deciduous oak trees, the leaves come in various shapes but most will have a spiral formation off the branches and also feature a serrated or rough edge on each leaf. For germination and reproduction, the oak tree bears a fruit that we all know as acorns.
A classic Oak Tree
The most famous of the oak species is the mighty Red Oak. As flooring goes, unfinished red oak flooring is probably the most popular choice. The red oak trees are quite tall and grow the most abundantly in South and Central America. The leaves tend to be a bit more pointy than other varieties of oak.
White oak is also very popular, unfinished white oak flooring falls right behind it’s red oak counter part as far as popularity. White Oak trees are not as tall as Red Oak trees. This species of plant is easily identified because it has almost shrub like qualities, yet still look like a treee. The leaf shape of this tree is much more round than other species of oak.
Now onto the species information that has a little more relevance to unfinished oak flooring, the legendary strength of oak. Have you ever heard someone say that the word is strong as oak? I think it was in that movie Jerry McGuire, but I digress. Oak is indeed very strong. Throughout history this wood material has been reliable material for many important projects. The use of oak as a building material dates back at least to the middle ages. Not my kind of middle age ie. “Baby Boomer”, but THE middle age. Back then, of course they need a wood of great strength to build the Trojan horse and slay dragons (joke), but they also needed a wood resilient to disease. Now days this requirement isn’t really much of a concern because of all the technology out there on treating wood. Back then it was a huge concern, meaning the difference between lasting a few years or a few generations. Oak was popular back then because oak lumber has a natural resistance to insect infestation, disease and mold. For these reasons oak wood became the wood for boats, wine barrels, furniture, and yes, hardwood flooring. Speaking of wine barrels, a quick tid-bit on both the strength of wood and what makes bourbon so good: The tannin in the wood which gives whiskey body and character is also the main component in the molecular structure that adds strength to the wood making it ideal for unfinished oak flooring. Just a little fun fyi for you.
An oak barrell gives taste to whisky and strength to hardwood flooring
Not only do you now know more than you really more than you needed to about the oak in unfinished oak floors, you learned a little history too. Are you still with me? Good. Lets go more in detail of the actual process and characteristics to expect in you new hardwood floor.
Unfinished Oak Flooring Characteristics and Production Techniques
Okay, we know that oak is the most popular choice for unfinished floors and the reason for this is due to many of its characteristics. The most iconic quality of oak is its grain pattern. For most, the grain of oak is immediately identifiable. In woodworking talk, unfinished oak flooring grain is considered to be an open grain pattern. I have always found it a bit difficult to describe the grain patterns of any wood, but essentially the pattern of your unfinished oak floor will have more space between the grain lines then other hardwood floors. With this distinctive open pattern, the way manufactures saw the boards can have a dramatic effect on the appearance of the unfinished oak flooring grain pattern. The different saw techniques not only change the appearance but can change the inventory of unfinished oak flooring for sale and at for what price; expensive oak flooring and cheap unfinished oak flooring are both in the realm of possibilities. These saw techniques are as follows:
- Plain Sawn boards are cut tangent to the growth rings of the log. By using a plain saw cut on oak, it creates the most common pattern found in the marketplace. The reason why you can expect to see this pattern more than any others is that the plain sawn boards yield the most lumber per tree. For manufacturers, it’s important be as efficient as possible and by getting the most lumber per tree is a good place to start. So if this is the most efficient way to cut unfinished oak flooring boards, than whey aren’t they all plain sawn? A very good question with simple answer. The draw back of plain sawn boards is that it creates the most open grain pattern which is more prone to expansion and contraction. This variance can cause boards to end up slightly different dimensions which, as we all know, things that are not the exact same length and width can be frustrating to line up and fit into finite spaces.
- Quarter sawn is a technique where the oak raw lumber is cut into four equal parts, or in other words, quartered. After the initial cut, the boards are then sawed at a 75 sometimes up to 90 degrees perpendicular to the red or white oak grain pattern. The main reason for this cut for unfinished oak flooring is the flake pattern it creates. This can show off a beautifully dynamic wood grain making a truly unique hardwood floor. The drawback here is that there is quite a bit of waste material in quarter sawn boards thus making the product more expensive.
- The last saw technique is called rift sawing. Most of us have heard of this technique. Basically, it’s a lot like quarter sawing but the saw angle is much smaller generally from 40 – 70 degrees. The reason for this is that the cut in the oak will create a very straight looking pattern that can seem almost uninterrupted when placing unfinished hardwood flooring boards together. This saw techniques is also used quite a bit in wood furniture because the grain is predictable and individual pieces look more similar. This becomes important when the craftsmen is trying to match things like chair legs. For unfinished red oak flooring and unfinished white oak flooring, it’s a great choice giving a more minimalistic look. This type of unfinished oak board also has a reasonable price ending up in between plain sawn oak and quarter sawn oak boards.
Have you picked out your grain pattern of your new unfinished oak floor installation? I bet you picked rift sawn, most do lately. Now that you know the grain you want, let’s talk a bit about another important characteristic of unfinished oak flooring, the hardness. If you been shopping around for a wood product, you may recognize the term Janka Table. The Janka table organizes hardness data on pretty much all woods. Keep in mind this is not number is not derived via specific data, but rather by relative data. In other words the Janka rating of unfinished hardwood flooring by itself means nothing other than to compare it to other woods. Both red and white oak are considered to be relatively hard woods. The Janka rating on red oak is 1290, while white oak rates a bit higher at 1360. It’s really pretty interesting how they conduct the hardness test on the wood. They force a steel ball bearing into the wood via a precise and measurable machine. The scientist measure the force it takes to push the ball half way into the wood. Now you know, “and knowing is half the battle.” Again, probably a little too much info, but hey, that’s how I roll with wood. In the grand scheme of things, oak is hard, but not really near the top of the list like hickory, ironwood and some other exotics no one has ever heard of.
Unfinished Hardwood Flooring - Finish Options
Unfinished Oak Flooring Installation
The day, or weekend rather, has come to install your unfinished oak floors. Unfinished oak wood flooring does not require you to be a rocket scientist, although I do know a rocket scientist (literally) that made a disaster out of his flooring project. Of course he can’t change the oil in his lawn mower either, luckily he can put men into space. My point? You probably need some woodworking experience of some kind before tackling this one. If not, you can find many unfinished hardwood flooring installers near you to do the job for you. Trust me, if you don’t know what you’re doing, hiring professionals will save you money in the long run.
So, you know wood, have the whole measure it twice and cut once thing down, and you know what the grit count of sand paper is from across the room? Good, you can install your own unfinished solid oak flooring. Notice this product is called unfinished, a key point for sure. Remember that this unfinished oak hardwood flooring needs to be installed first… and then finished, miraculously transforming it into a finished oak hardwood flooring. I always, always go over this because I have seen some DIY projects gone bad by finishing the boards first, and then installing. This is a recipe for disaster with your unfinished oak flooring because it is absolutely impossible to get a consistent level of sand and finish on each unique hardwood board. This will create little edges that don’t line up and colored boards that don’t match. This will result in a god awful looking hardwood flooring not to mention an expensive one because you’ll have to hire someone to redo your work. Ouch.
Now that we have that mumbo jumbo out of the way. The first step is installation. Like any woodworking project be careful to get your measurements right and take your time laying your hardwood floor out. A little tip I like to through out there is to rent or borrow a nice floor nailer. The good ones come with a nylon shoe, this protects your floor leaving no trace of the installation on the edges. Some nailers tend to leave a little micro bevel on the edge closes to the underlying nail.
As far as sanding goes, take your time here too and also don’t skimp on you equipment rental. A sander with an effective vacuum system will make the job much faster and more precise. Sanding is in my opinion the most important step to unfinished oak flooring. This is what set unfinished apart from engineered hardwood floors. A quality sanded floor on site will always look more finished and luxurious than an pre fabricated installation.
Now silky smooth, it’s time to finish your unfinished oak floor. Oak is a pretty porous material, so it will take the stain nicely. Unfinished red oak flooring is especially responsive of stain. You can really make that grain pattern pop with the right color, or help it blend in more, it’s totally up to you. A staining trick all of you should know is to take advantage of using all the scrap pieces of wood you can for testing your stain options. I would go ahead and fully finish several prices with different combination of stains, number of coats and clear finishes. Then place them in the room after they have dried and take note of which one looks best at all time of day and night. The different daytime light as well as different artificial light at night has a dramatic affect on the color of the oak hardwood flooring. I had a person stain there floor to find it looked pink at night. Lesson learned, be sure to take your time to find the universal color for you.
Unfinished Oak Flooring for Sale and Unfinished Oak Flooring Prices
Luckily it’s a bit of a buyers market when it comes to unfinished oak flooring. Since this is the most common variety, there is a ton of inventory of the stuff in the market. This creates a supply and demand kind of thing, giving you the best price. If you were looking for something like exotic hardwood flooring or reclaimed hardwood flooring, you’re more at the mercy of the manufacturer or distributor because of the limited supply of this type of product. Also concerning price, the quality of the material is a big factor. Like I described above, simply the different cut of the wood can change the price points quite a bit. Remember that cheap unfinished hardwood flooring will usually be plain sawn and also a lower grade, meaning it will have more knots in imperfections. Does that mean it’s bad wood? Absolutely not! In my book it means your floor has more character. If you want a minimalistic clean pattern that is easily replicable, you will have to pay more for a higher grade oak as well as get a rift sawn batch. In the scheme of things you can still get a top of the line unfinished oak flooring for less than other types of wood. You can compare this to buying a fully loaded Ford pickup truck to a base model Range Rover. More value for your dollar.
Unfinished Oak Flooring in Summary
So today you leaned why oak is a reliable product, where it comes from, why so many people use it for their flooring, the basics of installation and price. I would say it all here for you to help you decide if you want to go with unfinished oak flooring for your next home project.
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Great post, I have been looking for that
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