From the start we knew that we wanted to use solid hardwood flooring on the second level of our post frame home. A lot of our inspiration came from our first house, the Safford House that Paul's great-grandfather built. We wanted as much of the Mad County Build to feel like it could still be here 100 years from now.
Here are some reasons we chose our flooring:
We can tell the difference when we're walking on solid hardwood vs engineered
You can refinish it an almost indefinite amount of times making it possible to survive generations
White oak has beautiful grain and a more neutral undertone than red oak so we could go with a clear finish instead of a stain color
Cabin grade gave us instant character and charm without diminished quality
Price
We might seem crazy to you, but we know when a floor is solid hardwood and we LOVE it. Here in the midwest engineered flooring is promoted because we have drastic temp/humidity changes throughout the year. Keep in mind with solid hardwood you'll want to be able to regulate your humidity a little more closely. We understand that, we've done that in other homes, and we're confident we can minimize the swelling/shrinking of the wood.
The flooring we have is cabin grade Ambient White Oak Natural. It's essentially a matte clear sealer over the natural wood. It's 3/4" so it can be refinished time and again.
Oak is very durable and has beautiful grain. We are using red oak for our cabinets and mantle, but wanted white for our floors and minimize the red undertones since we wanted to keep with a natural look.
Initially we did have some nerves ordering cabin grade white oak because we knew that a single sample wouldn't give us the entire scope of what the floor would look like. ReallyCheapFloors.com has a great write up and video explaining cabin grade. It made us a lot more comfortable with our choice! You can find that HERE.
The price point on cabin grade flooring is no comparison to select grade pricing. It made this all the more affordable, and even less than a lot of other flooring options! Inventory fluctuates more, but if you let the team at Really Cheap Floors know that you're in the market for something they'll keep an eye out for you when stock becomes available!
When ordering flooring, you're almost always told to order for waste. With cabin grade the recommendation is 10%, but honestly we had almost NO waste! The varying board lengths allowed for us to cut less. We actually have a lot leftover and we aren't mad about it! It's going to get used!
We will absolutely be ordering from ReallyCheapFloors.com for future projects and using cabin grade hardwood flooring. 100% thrilled with how these turned out. If you're interested in cabin grade flooring, contact ReallyCheapFloors.com and mention Marshall Remodel for a 5% discount!
https://youtu.be/fJejm87Ba4s