Newbie question: We would like to repair the 45 year old hardwood
floors in our Silicon Valley Bay Area home and add some new oak
flooring to our newly built extension. Our original flooring is made
of 5/16 thick solid oak strips.
We are looking for a source of Red Oak Solid Wood Unfinished strips of
2 sizes:
1. 5/16 inch thick strips - width 2 or 2-1/4 - for older parts of home
2. 3/4 inch thick strips - width 2 or 2-1/4 - for newly built
extension bedrooms

The idea is to replace all warped strips in the older parts of the
home with unfinished 5/16 inch thich strips and lay down 3/4 inch
thick unfinished strips in our newly built extension rooms, before
sanding and refinishing the old floor and the new one to one uniform
color.

5/16 thick unfinished flooring is hard to find. HomeDepot does not
carry 5/16 thick strips.
We located 2 lumber mills in the bay area that will sell 5/16 strips :
Southern Lumber @ $4.50/sq ft! And Minton's lumber @ $.87/linear foot!
The prices are way over the top as we found an online source of
prefinished Bruce Hardwood (natural reflections) for $3.1 / sq ft.
1. Why is unfinished wood more expensive than prefinished wood?
2. Do any of you pros on this board know where we can buy Unfinished
Red Oak Solid Wood flooring for reasonable prices? We prefer Select
grade, if at all there is a choice.
My husband swears that there should be reasonably priced unfinished
red oak flooring somewhere out there.
Please help, we have spent so many frustrating weekends visiting all
the Bay Area lumber mills in vain. We are willing to drive down a
couple of hundred miles if we can locate a good source. Or order on
the internet. Thanks in advance for your help.

thanks, Ed


"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message digy.com...
"ash_bayarea" wrote in message


5/16 thick unfinished flooring is hard to find. HomeDepot does not
carry 5/16 thick strips.
We located 2 lumber mills in the bay area that will sell 5/16 strips :
Southern Lumber @ $4.50/sq ft! And Minton's lumber @ $.87/linear foot!

Not bad prices, really.

The prices are way over the top as we found an online source of
prefinished Bruce Hardwood (natural reflections) for $3.1 / sq ft.
1. Why is unfinished wood more expensive than prefinished wood?

The pre-finished stuff is mas produced. It has a place in life, but it does
not compar to a real floor, IMO. Bruce floors have a beveled edge that is a
dust and dirt collector, but they are made that way to hide a lot of
otherwise errors in installation. Some of the Bruce (and similar) floors is
a veneer, not solid wood. Sort of like the way plywood is made. That is not
a bad thing, but it is not real hardwood solid floors.


2. Do any of you pros on this board know where we can buy Unfinished
Red Oak Solid Wood flooring for reasonable prices? We prefer Select
grade, if at all there is a choice.
My husband swears that there should be reasonably priced unfinished
red oak flooring somewhere out there.

You already found them. You just have to realize that oak is not cheap from
any source. There is more to this than meets the eye. Check out some other
hardoowd dealers in the area. Do not compare Home Dept quality with real
life flooring, They are not the same.
Ed

http://pages.cthome.net/edhome

5/16 inch thick strips - width 2 or 2-1/4 - for older parts of home
5/16 thick unfinished flooring is hard to find.
We located 2 lumber mills in the bay area that will sell 5/16 strips :
Southern Lumber @ $4.50/sq ft! And Minton's lumber @ $.87/linear foot!

I assume you don't need much, just to repair some damaged pieces?
Suggest buying standard 3/4" oak strip, plane it down to 3/8", then use
a table belt sander to get it to exactly match the thickness of your older
5/16" (which may only be 1/4" if it's been sanded and refinished over the
years).

2. Do any of you pros on this board know where we can buy Unfinished
Red Oak Solid Wood flooring for reasonable prices? We prefer Select
grade, if at all there is a choice.

Home Depot sells NOFMA-certified select red oak (3/4"x2-1/4") for
about $2.59/sf, #1 common for $2.29/sf (less if you have a coupon
or if its on sale or if you buy enough to do a house; I got 20% off).
I don't understand Ed's comment about quality - each strip has the
NOFMA stamp on the bottom, and is the best stuff I've every used -
their select had not one defect in it, and the #1 common was almost
free of defects (about one per bundle).
- Rod

Hi Rod,

The 20% off discount @ home depot is most interesting. Can you please
let me know how to get such a discount? I will be buying a lot of wood
flooring (3/4 thick) for the newly built extension in my home and it
would be great to know. Thanks.

ash_bayarea

(Rod Farlee) wrote in message ...
5/16 inch thick strips - width 2 or 2-1/4 - for older parts of home
5/16 thick unfinished flooring is hard to find.
We located 2 lumber mills in the bay area that will sell 5/16 strips :
Southern Lumber @ $4.50/sq ft! And Minton's lumber @ $.87/linear foot!

I assume you don't need much, just to repair some damaged pieces?
Suggest buying standard 3/4" oak strip, plane it down to 3/8", then use
a table belt sander to get it to exactly match the thickness of your older
5/16" (which may only be 1/4" if it's been sanded and refinished over the
years).

2. Do any of you pros on this board know where we can buy Unfinished
Red Oak Solid Wood flooring for reasonable prices? We prefer Select
grade, if at all there is a choice.

Home Depot sells NOFMA-certified select red oak (3/4"x2-1/4") for
about $2.59/sf, #1 common for $2.29/sf (less if you have a coupon
or if its on sale or if you buy enough to do a house; I got 20% off).
I don't understand Ed's comment about quality - each strip has the
NOFMA stamp on the bottom, and is the best stuff I've every used -
their select had not one defect in it, and the #1 common was almost
free of defects (about one per bundle).
- Rod

'nuther Bob wrote:

On 11 Jul 2003 20:44:36 -0700, (no1herenow)
wrote:

(For you HD shoppers, my strategy is to go to a large lumberyard, get
a written quote lower than HD's price; they will beat it by 10%, and
then you use the coupon). Unfortunately, they have now limited the
total savings amount. I used to buy bundles by the hundreds that way.

Where do you get "the coupon" ? Is it good for other material
purchases or is this something only for flooring ?

Bob
if you talking about home depot giving you a 10 percent off the price of
something someplace else???? its for an ADVERTISED Price.......
not a price that was quoted on a recepit.....

"ash_bayarea" wrote in message
om...
Newbie question: We would like to repair the 45 year old hardwood
floors in our Silicon Valley Bay Area home and add some new oak
flooring to our newly built extension. Our original flooring is made
of 5/16 thick solid oak strips.
We are looking for a source of Red Oak Solid Wood Unfinished strips of
2 sizes:
1. 5/16 inch thick strips - width 2 or 2-1/4 - for older parts of home
2. 3/4 inch thick strips - width 2 or 2-1/4 - for newly built
extension bedrooms

The idea is to replace all warped strips in the older parts of the
home with unfinished 5/16 inch thich strips and lay down 3/4 inch
thick unfinished strips in our newly built extension rooms, before
sanding and refinishing the old floor and the new one to one uniform
color.

While I don't know if this will help in your specific situation, check
around for a building supply re-use or recycle center. These places take
the best pieces of a demolition and make them available for use by others.
We visited one today and there were lots of strip flooring (some finished,
some not)

Good Luck!

--
Jim Sullivan