Quartersawn oak floors
I bought “quartersawn” oak floors from a vendor who has been highly recommended on brownstoner.com. When I received them, I noticed that they were marked “R&Q” on the box instead of quartersawn. I called the vendor, who then said that it was “the same thing”. I should have researched this, but didn’t do so and…
I bought “quartersawn” oak floors from a vendor who has been highly recommended on brownstoner.com. When I received them, I noticed that they were marked “R&Q” on the box instead of quartersawn. I called the vendor, who then said that it was “the same thing”. I should have researched this, but didn’t do so and now I find that they are not – R&Q includes some quartersawn (smaller %) and some rift cut (larger %). I am very annoyed about this, but have no recourse with the vendor because the invoice says “R&Q” – I would also like to find out from readers if you think $5.25/sqft is a good price for 5″ R&Q red oak (better & select) floors.
Original poster – I bought about 2500 sqft. – my installer said he could have bought it for $3.50/sqft which I think is a bit too low. Also, is it completely impossible to get pure quartersawn floors then? I happen to like the flecks, and how much would they be per foot (say 3k sqft +)? Just for future projects ….
Price is not bad, but not great for around town. Also, quantity affects price.
Original poster – southslopewoodworks, thanks for your comments. What do you think of the price? I thought the price was fine, compared to Internet & Lumber Liquidators (who are horrible, btw).
An unrelated FYI, southslopewoodworks, your typekey URL has a typo in it: http://soouthslopewoodworks.com/
Nice website, but others might not know to drop one “o” so you should probably fix it.
When ordering this species it is expected that some will be rift and some will be quartered. Few yards will separate the two as they have very similar characteristics. There is no price difference between rift and quartered.
Personally- I prefer rift sawn to quarter sawn.
From woodweb:
[blockquote]Plain sawn lumber has growth rings that are less than 30° orientation to the surface of the board. This produces the indistinct oak grain pattern that you typically see in cabinets and less expensive furniture and flooring.
Rift lumber is lumber whereby the growth rings are 30° to 60° orientation to the board surface which produces vertical grain that is often mistaken for true quartersawn.
Quartered sawing produces lumber whereby the growth rings are positioned at a 60° to 90° angle to the board surface.[/blockquote]
With the grain structure of oak, however, true quartersawing can produce flakes — perhaps appealing, perhaps not. What I would do were I in your shoes would be to examine the quality of the actual boards you received (I look for straight grain in appealling, minimal textures) and procede from there…it’s possible you may like the rift sawn boards better.
–an architect in Brooklyn
You should get what you asked for and tell us who the vendor is.