R.L. Colston  3/4" x 4" Oak Flooring

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

My husband and his buddies are avid do-it-yourselfers and it was a little challenging for them do to the amount of flooring laid (1600 sqft). The product is great hardwood and seems like it will be very durable. It is as the description said, some short pieces, burn marks, missing tounges/grooves or both. We finished ours with Rubio monocoat and love it. It is one coat and your able to walk on it in 24 hours.

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

see previous review entitled "Alot of Work!"

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

We ordered 4000 SF of product for a 3000SF home. It was just about right.

The knots and colors are gorgeous! The floors will no doubt be the focal point of the house.

We filled the knots with Fiberglass Resin after testing nearly every other product on the market from stainable trowelable fillers to squeeze in glue type. The resin allows each hole to have some depth instead of just being a solid color. Mix up a small batch and dribble into each hole and crack. It sets up quickly and is sandable in two hours. In a few of the larger ones we dropped in treasures:). My husband is a car guy, so we put a little car in one. You can only really see it if youre looking for it.

Make sure to use the proper face masks when working with resin, and use in a well ventilated room.

Finally, we used Pure Rubio Monocoat without stain or color. There is already so much color in the wood, that any stain(in our opinion) would end up being too dark. It goes on in one application. No VOCs. If you are apprehensive about it, research and find out how durable and easy it is to work with. It finishes up with a hard matte surface. Not glossy at all. You see the true beauty of the wood.

I would caution you to not use splits or peeling (we called them Potato Chips). Discard those regardless on how perfect the board is otherwise. Sanding and finishing them is not possible. The finishing pads get stuck on them and rip the pad (and sometimes the board) apart, making you spot finish areas.

One other bit of advice. When you first begin; sort the unuseable boards as you duscard them. The pile becomes a onster quickly, and makes using them difficult.. We sorted by: ends cuts; good grooves; good tongues; firewood- splits that either side cant be used, potato chips(horizontal top splits), shredded wheat (bad loose grain) and any board that doesnt have something useable on. Then you can use the boards for piecing at walls.

Ill post up a few pictures when my computer gets set up:)

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

This floor went down beautifully; I haven't finished it but even unsanded and unfinished it's full of character and very attractive. There were not nearly as many unusable boards as I was worried there might be, except for those crushed by the delivery method of bundles. I can't wait to sand and finish. This floor would work perfectly in any home in New Orleans or the south, and/or any house that likes a historic look to it. The Oak is a classic home material and this high character oak looks much more like the wood that would have been used previously in our homes down here!

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

My wife and I just built a timber framed house from an 1840's barn. We were looking for ways of cutting cost so we went with the utility grade flooring in oak. It was A LOT of work, but the end result was gorgeous. There are a tremendous amount of shorts in bundles as described, and I would include a 15% waste factor into any flooring estimates. Other than that, you can't beat the results for the cost.

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

You must expect most pieces to be 11" - 14" in length. There are VERY FEW long pieces, and most are un-usable because of machine burns. We began by sorting the flooring into like size lengths, then sorted out what we felt were disgard pieces. As we progressed, we were using more and more disgard pieces because we were running out. Plan for a minimum of 30% - 40% more than you need because truly, much of what you get will not be usable. My honest suggestion is to take a upgrade in what you buy. I love the knot holes and "rustic" quality, but I do not love that there is so much irregularity in width & depth. You can barley call these "engineered".

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

I needed a low-price option for re-doing the floor in our master bedroom and I wanted wood, not carpet because of allergies. I also wanted something durable, yet something that I didn't have to worry about spoiling - kids and pet dogs.

I read the reviews posted here and I was concerned whether I could handle this project. I prepared myself for the worst. I was very prepared and pleasantly surprised.

The area I did was approx 12'x15' and a 5'x7' walk-in closet. I opened several bales and found many small pieces, as the description states. As the project progressed I found that I actually had many overly large pieces to work with - many over 5' in length. I had about 5% complete waste - great for the fireplace. On the pieces that had no tongues?... I ripped them and I used them in the doorway openings by the reducers.

Starting the project was time consuming because I had to hand-nail the first 3 rows because the staple gun couldn't fit in tight to the wall - this took me several hours. Once I was able to use the staple gun, the project went very fast. I think in all I spent about 24 hours installing the floor (first-timer).

The finishing was the fun part. I used a golden oak stain, one coat. For the top coat/protectant I used Tung Oil. Three coats and I sanded between coats 2 & 3. I LOVE the finish and it is everything I hoped it would be and then some!!! My little girl put a scuff in the floor and I buffed it out with a clean rag. Easy peazy, lemon squeezy.

I found the knots and other 'defects' a bonus. They added more character. I filled some and colored them with a darker oil pen & blended with a black Sharpie - yes, I used a black Sharpie marker. The effect was great!

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

The flooring wasn't as bad as I initially thought it would be after reading reviews. There were lots of shorts but I had quite a few longer pieces. The big problem with the pieces longer than 3' were they were warped or bowed and difficult to install. I put this floor down in our 9'x10' utility room and saved the less than perfect pieces for under cabinetry areas. I am very pleased with the product[...] I wouldn't recommend this floor for big areas ( kitchen, living, dining) but is perfectly usable for utilitarian areas and other small rooms. After all, it is utility grade and you do get what you pay for.

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

More then half of my order was pieces that where only 8" in lengths. The longest pieces where only 36" long. This added so much more labor to the job that it offset the cost saving. I would have paid more per square foot to receive longer lengths.

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

Cons: I used utility grade through LL before. When they say "shorts (12"-8')" clearly implies the range of the pieces. This just is not the case over 1/3 of my 1300SF were 12" or less!, (yes I counted). Even the dock man at LL stated his amazement AND makes a struggle to get a straight lines on install. Someone in purchasing needs to check quality control from the mill and what LL is being sold...

Pros: Still love the character and color. just cannot beat the look although the too high many shorts gives this last job parquet look in some areas. Extra work to fill the holes with filler in bottom then epoxy for clear look THEN sand down for normal finishing is a lot of work but can't beat the look.