Floor decision Pine vs Oak
I am trying to decided on what flooring to use. I am going to use reclaimed flooring. I have kids and I don’t want a really soft wood prone to scratching. What type of wood floors are usually found in Brownstones? Pine or Oak? The brownstone we just purchased only has the subfloor. So we…
I am trying to decided on what flooring to use. I am going to use reclaimed flooring. I have kids and I don’t want a really soft wood prone to scratching. What type of wood floors are usually found in Brownstones? Pine or Oak? The brownstone we just purchased only has the subfloor. So we will be covering that with the new floor.
one manufacturer’s hardness scale:
http://www.countyfloors.com/about_janka.html
We had a great experience buying reclaimed wood flooring from Pioneer Millworks in upstate NY (google them). We bought mostly douglas fir and a little heart pine. Unquestionably, the heart pine is much harder. This is what they told us upfront and it’s borne out in how the floors have held up. The heart pine is, of course, more expensive. But the douglas fir has worked very nicely too. We have it throughout our parlor floor — we also had just subfloors when we moved in. We have a few dings from chair legs and high heels in the dining/kitchen area but nothing bad — and believe me, I’m very fussy. We love the color of both woods (nice mellow reddish/brownish/orange tones) and get many compliments. Agree with above poster than good installation is critical. Pioneer Millowrks only supplies the flooring. Btw, they have many species available including oak. Ask for Jared.
When you say pine- do you know which species? There are about 20 species of trees called pine.
If it is reclaimed it is likely that it is long leaf yellow pine (aka southern yellow pine) which is old growth. This means the rings will be closer together producing a wood harder than harvested red oak. Search for “Janka Hardness Scale” to compare different species of wood.
Also, the way it is sawn will affect how hard the face is. Quartersawn much stronger than flat sawn.
I put in a reclaimed pine plank floor and my dogs scratched the sh*t out of it. It IS a beautiful floor, but very soft.
Be very, very careful when selecting a floor and floor contractor. I had three friends replace floors in they year before we did our floor and all three had significant problems. Oner chose a low budget contractor to install oak and the floor didn’t fit properly, and looks ugly.
Another who is very wealthy opted for Brazilian Cherry in her upper East side brownstone and she had problems with bubbling of lacquer. The third had a contracter do less (two coats) than he had promised to do and now they get water stains because the wood wasn’t correctly sealed.
After these three incidents we bought an apartment with very ugly parquet flooring that was swollen and popping up everywhere. We ended up choosing a guy we’d read about in NY Magazine, Janos SPitzer. He was more expensive than some of teh others but his team did a superb job. We ended up with Santos Mahogany, all eight foot planks, and the floor is spectacular. I think floors can be a really bad thing to economize on and I have no regrets about spending more than I’d planned here.
Bamboo if you are concerned about sustainability issues. The light color also brightens up your typical dark brownstone rooms (and looks better imo).
I would also consider other woods I just don’t know much about them. I’m just looking for others opinions or experiences.
OP
well pine is pretty soft. there are things you can do to harden it, but if you are really worried about the hardness of the wood, oak is much harder.
i can’t speak for all brownstones, but my house has pine floors that were originally sub-floors. i just had them refinished and they look really good, but if i were putting in new floors i’m not sure i would do pine OR oak.