R.L. Colston  3/4" x 5" Oak Flooring

Comments about 3/4" x 5" Oak Flooring:

I have done just about everything in remodeling and construction, but I have only installed hardwood flooring once before. They tell you upfront and you need to know going in that there are many short pieces and many pieces that have knots, splits, burn marks, missing tongues, missing grooves and the widths vary slightly. My wife and I installed the 3/4 x 5 utility oak in our "cabin" (when we say cabin people get the idea that its some kind of shack, its more like a cottage in the woods).

The floor takes a little more planning and perhaps has more waste than if you buy the first quality wood flooring. Here is the thing. At this price even if you had 30-40%% waste you will not spend as much as you will on first quality flooring. The imperfections give the wood character and make it more beautiful than it would have if it were first quality.

First I sanded the crayon marks off. Then I sanded only the roughest parts of the wood by hand (we did not want a perfectly smooth floor). I filled the open knots with the resin (usually used with fiberglass mat for making repairs to fiberglass). Some of the knots I filled to the top and others I only filled part way to keep some of the character. I also filled some splits and end laps where the ends were not quite square and did not fit tightly. I swept, then vacuumed the floor, then went over it with a tack cloth to get all the remaining dust.
I used an applicator mop head made for applying polyurethane and put on one coat of satin finish oil based polyurethane. When it had dried completely I lightly sanded the floor by hand (I didnt use a machine because again I didnt want a perfectly smooth floor). I then put on a second coat. Looking back I could have had less waste if I had set up some kind of jig on a drill press to make holes to insert dowels every 6-8 inches where the tongue should have been and a jig on a table saw to make a groove where they were missing
We think it came out great and it has gotten many positive comments from the people that have seen it.

Comments about 3/4" x 5" Oak Flooring:

The end result is beautiful. Great way to save money and have a thick durable beautiful hardwood floor. But it takes much more time and hard work to install. You will have to weed through the unfit pieces, some pieces you install will be short pieces, and you will have to use a lot of wood filler. After all of that, sand, and finish coat it and it will look beautiful. If you cant afford the higher quality this is worth it.

Comments about 3/4" x 5" Oak Flooring:

used the 5" oak to build my island bar , i liked the rustic look and topped off with clear coat epoxy

Comments about 3/4" x 5" Oak Flooring:

To start let me say that I have never laid hardwood in my life. I am a DIY person with some experience. I have tackled many projects that were "too hard for me". When I picked this product up at the Crosslanes, WV location there were some pros there ordering some flooring. They were both schocked and a little tickled at my 1300 sq. feet plus order of Utility flooring. They even laughed a little out loud when they found out I had never done this before(I am a scrawny 30 yr. old who looks a little younger than that). They gave me their number, "when you run into problems call me". The Lumber Liquidators rep was friendly and helped me get the 1.5 tons of wood loaded onto a trailer.

Let me also say I knew I was getting myself into something big here. We are remodeling a home that we got well below appraisal because it was a repo that was not well cared for. We love hardwood but I could not afford to lay the prefinished stuff throughout this home.

This was extremely difficult to lay. As advertized there are lots of short pieces(at least 50% of the total sq footage), lots of missing tongues, burns, sharpie marks, and worm holes. The biggest problem with this flooring is the irregularity of board widths. Between the wide and narrow pieces there could be as much as 3/16 of a difference in width. That is huge when laying this many boards, especially when you are dealing with a lot of short pieces. Because of this I have lots of small gaps and rows that sometimes appear to wave slightly especially when I got the the end of a 25 foot room.

I had little to no waste because we looked at this as a way to have a "reclaimed lumber" look to our floors which are outrageously expensive. We laid the ones with rough saw marks in highly visible areas. Not everyone likes this look but we think it is beautiful. In a world where people think of laminate when you tell them you are laying hardwood(almost everyone I mentioned what I was working on assumed this) something that is rough looks much more real and beautuful. I filled the many holes with home made wood filler and hand sanded the rough boards the get rid of any splintering.

Finishing off the floor I stained it with an ebony finish which took like a dark walnut on this dense wood. First I used a floor orbital sander(the drum sanders scare me). Then after sanding and staining I did three coats of poly and the floors look gorgeous.

For the price I couldnt have gotten anything as beautiful as this any other way. The job was tremendous and extremely difficult. I will say that in my opinion this floor would not look as good without a dark stain. It hides all the cracks and crevices that would otherwise stand out against a light floor.

Comments about 3/4" x 5" Oak Flooring:

I laid some 2 1/4 " utility white oak with good success. This product was totally different and had much more waste and majority of the pieces were smaller than 16" The floor looks great, but be prepared to spend 30% more time on the install and be prepared to do a lot of filling and throw a lot of wood away. A good product if you are not in a hurry. For the cost though you may be better off to do a pre-finished board, floor should probably be priced less for all the extra work required.

Comments about 3/4" x 5" Oak Flooring:

Great product for the price. Looks beautiful when finished. I finished this room for [...], it looks great and was easy to install. This was the first time i had ever attempted anything like this. Between watching videos on YouTube and the folks at Lumber Liquidators, all of my questions on how to install this were answered. I love this flooring. We stained it Dark Walnut from Minwax.

Comments about 3/4" x 5" Oak Flooring:

I did the whole house by myself. The floor looks great! Requires more planning and designing but the effect is amazing. Not too much waist if you plan well (about 20%). Definitely more difficult to install then prime quality wood but once you get hang of it's breeze. Mixed oak, colors, knots gives it vibrance and look that you can see in catalogs.
Love it!

Service and delivery comments:

People in the store were very helpful. They explained to me all the issues that I might have with the boards. Customer service every time I needed it. Product arrived on time.

Comments about 3/4" x 5" Oak Flooring:

For the Price you cannot beat it!!! Over-estimated for the scrap and have a lot left! If you like the look of rustic looking floors, you will love it!!!! They look like the original floors!! It is beautiful!!! We are do it your-selfers and with the right tools it was easy to install!!!

Comments about 3/4" x 5" Oak Flooring:

the product is affordable, durable and great finish!

Comments about 3/4" x 5" Oak Flooring:

i floored my entire house with this stuff. i ordered the extra specified and found i had more than i expected to be usable. so i did everything but the bathroom.