R.L. Colston  3/4" X 3-1/4" Select White Oak

Comments about R.L. Colston 3/4" X 3-1/4" White Oak:

Pro's: The floors are installed and finished and look great!

Cons: Sloppy milling created several problems in this project
1) high waste (25% not including my mistakes). Not due to knots (select grade is good), the quality control at the mill is not good.. bashed boards, sloppy milling, curves in boards, etc.
2) Boards varied in width, needed to separate into 3 piles ( -, =, +) sizes.. over 1/16" even spread from narrowest to widest boards. Once we figured that out it went in ok
3) some boards varied in height (about 1 out of 50), needed to drum sand several passes to level the floor..this is very difficult to do smoothly

over all I"m satisfied with the results, but i spent 2x the time I expected getting it to look right

If you are picky or inexperienced this is not a product for you.

If doing it again I would shop for a better milled product.

this is my 2nd review of this product, my first honest review did not post.

Service and delivery comments:

good customer service at store, nice guys and helped me load

Comments about R.L. Colston 3/4" X 3-1/4" White Oak:

Used a white deck paint to wipe on a light color coat, then used a white wash to even out look, installed and coated with 4 coats of Poly. Love the look, that of a Maine Boat House.

Comments about R.L. Colston 3/4" X 3-1/4" White Oak:

Many bundles of this wood were very good. There were some bad pieces in each pack, but I think that's to be expected. But, it seemed like every 6 bundles or so, there was just a bad pack. In this bad pack, there were many defective pieces of wood (bowed, dented, broken tongue/groove, chipped edges). Also 2 of my bundles looked as if they had fallen off of the truck and has mud all over them. When I paid the extra money for select, I expected to not have to deal with these types of problems. Unfortunately the word select only means that I didn't get any knots on the top side, but otherwise the quality of the wood wasn't any better.

All in all, I would buy again, but I'd add a few extra percent for the amount of waste wood that I'd buy.

Comments about R.L. Colston 3/4" X 3-1/4" White Oak:

great product

Comments about R.L. Colston 3/4" X 3-1/4" White Oak:

Please note the difference between my product review and the service comments.Product Comments -Overall, not a bad product with two important caveats. First, you need to go in knowing that this is an unfinished wood product and as a result, you can get close, but not exact color uniformity even in the top grade - it's called character.Second, the waste percentage in this product is far higher than the claimed 5-10% (depending on who you talk to). [...] I had original oak floors that directly connected to those areas so a factory finished product would have drawn attention to the difference.My Experience:Being pretty handy and having done some reading on the subject, I have no doubt this would have been an easy do-it-yourself install with a rented nail-gun; however, I had a time crunch so I had this professionally installed, sanded, stained, and finished coinciding with a sanding and refinishing of my existing hardwood floors.I had a measured 290 sqft area and was advised by the LL sales staff to purchase 5% over to account for waste/scrap. My contractor was dubious about the quality of Lumber Liquidators products and tried to steer me elsewhere or at least buy extra. So I stayed with LL and bought 323sqft to get about 10% over. About halfway through the job we realized the number of boards with cracks, holes, large knots, and deep black stains was far higher than 10% and we were going to run out even if we cut out the bad and used a bunch of 1 foot sections (which would look silly!). One pack was so bad that after discarding the first 8 boards, we packed the whole thing back up to request an exchange.In the end I had to make a trip back to buy 3 more packs (23sqft) because of the high waste percentage in this product - I ended up buying 380sqft of boards to cover that same 290 sqft area (to be fair, I still have an unopened 23sqft pack but they don't do returns so...)The end result with a natural oak stain was a stunning floor with beautiful wood grain and character that no laminate could approach. The match to my 50 year old existing floors was stunning despite transitioning from a 2 1/4" width to a 3 1/4 width.Bottom line:The good boards are quite good but there are a good number of bad ones mixed in, even in the top grade like I used. If you can stomach/afford to buy 20% extra or you simply down't care about knots, cracks, and black streaks then this product will yield a beautiful floor with wonderfully interesting wood grain patterns if you use a natural, light, or slightly red stain. With the previously mentioned color variance, this also will dissapoint those who are enamored of the totally uniform factory finish but that's the nature of the beast and a matter of taste.[...]

Comments about R.L. Colston 3/4" X 3-1/4" White Oak:

very little waste very impressed with the quality.

Service and delivery comments:

picked up at the store most of it in very good shape.

Comments about R.L. Colston 3/4" X 3-1/4" White Oak:

I ordered about 60% select and 40% Natural. I dont notice a difference except perhaps the grain is tighter in the short pieces of the select, but I wanted tighter grain in the long pieces and I wanted more longs. Its good wood but if I did it again I'd get 30 select and 70 natural. Same basic length distribution between the two so I dont personally think you get more long pieces or less shorts, but thats just my impression. As I said, the grain tends to be wavy and open rather than nice tight strait lines shown in the pictures. It is all beautiful grain with nice character. Knots are virtually nonexistent both select and natural 1. where they occur they are very small and tight giving a nice character without compromised integrity. The pieces arrived in good condition. very few pieces have damaged or missing tongue or grooves. I expected more longer pieces. About every other bundle has one longer than 7 feet. every one has one or two longer than 5 feet. I get 6-7 pieces longer than 48 inches per bundle. LOTS in the 30-55 inch. About half a bundle is under 48 inches which makes for lots of expensive firewood (under 20 inches not used in my floor). Ill use the nicest patterned of the under 30 inch pieces only. Im laying the longest pieces in the adjoined living/dining to show them off and create the illusion that the whole floor is made with long pieces. Using almost exclusively longer than 36 inch here and trying to use all the 48"+ up. Im saving the pieces under 48" for the bedrooms. It will be a very beautiful floor. Just get plenty of extra to give you more selection of long pieces, or plan to use lots of short pieces. Even with all the waste you still get a great product for a great price.

Comments about R.L. Colston 3/4" X 3-1/4" White Oak:

Great value for the money but too many small pieces and not enoough long (over 3') pieces. Also, too many pieces with bad ends that had to be cut off to make square ends to match up.

Comments about R.L. Colston 3/4" X 3-1/4" White Oak:

Beautiful wood! No knot holes. So far does not appear to be shrinking.

Comments about R.L. Colston 3/4" X 3-1/4" White Oak:

Product was a disappointment. When installing the boards were slightly different size widths, leaving gaps. Returned entire load (1700sq ft).