I was looking at a prefinished (poly) strip floor a couple days ago that had splits near the ends of several of the installed boards. The material was about 3″ wide, T&G all four edges. The grade was called “Traditional” which allowed for some imperfections and variations in the color and grain.
The specie was all red oak, but the color varied from the very pinkish end of the spectrum to the green tones with all sorts in-between, including a liberal sprinkling of dark-brown natural and mineral staining.
The splits occurred in only the green-hued oak, not in the reddish or brownish ones, or even in the more distressed boards. It was all installed at the same time and the splits are randomly distributed, located on the first floor above a finished walkout basement.
Explanations? Jon?
Replies
It sounds like a cheaper engineered rotary cut flooring! It’s probably splitting because it’s rotary cut and close to a knot that has been cut off.
Does it look bad?
Are you sure it's all red oak and not a mixture of red and white?
We make flooring that is hand scraped, distressed and we put fake splits on the ends, then sell it for big bucks.
Jeff in so cal
Edited 10/18/2002 3:30:36 PM ET by FLOMAN47
Splintie,
Sounds like somebody found a way to turn the scrap pile into $$$.
I've never cared for the look of "aged" wood, whether in furniture or other wood products. I think it's nice to let it age naturally, with the distressing coming from years of wear and memories.
Jeff
jeff k: When i say distressed, i don't mean artificial clobberings, just that they didn't chuck any pieces with marks from where a fence had been nailed to it once upon a time, as opposed to running it over with a 4x4 with chains on a gravel drive. On the other hand, the installer didn't see fit to toss the strips with prefinished planer burn marks, either...not so great.
Floman: It's all red oak and it's solid wood; i saw spare pieces of it, 3/4" thick, not the cheaper 3/8" stuff. I've gotten the greenish-looking red oak before--customers did NOT like it one bit. I suspect the green color may have something to do with where it's raised, but i searched on "Quercus rubra" plus variations on "green" and couldn't find anything. As to whether it looks bad....well, it seems an average quality product, but i don't care for prefinished and all those grooves so i'm not a good person to answer that.
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