“What’s wrong with red oak?” I ask myself. There’s a change about, and I’m noticing it now because it affects my clients and my business. Here’s a strange tale, and if anyone can add to my understanding, I’d be grateful. Drop a comment so we all can learn.
It started in early December. I was called to an older home, purchased by a family that loves old houses. Apparently the prior owner was either a flipper or was heavily influenced by media to put plastic over oak, because it had LVP from front to back. I couldn’t see the oak floors, but the tell-tale vent blocks were all around the home. (In California, code is that 1.5% of the home’s square footage with wood flooring has to be reflected in the combined area of vents around the perimeter of the home, so you can tell from the outside if the home was built with wood flooring).
I gave the client a quote based on being able to actually refinish the floors underneath, and we worked out a plan to do a test and remove a portion of the LVP in the dining room and living room to make sure. The client wanted to do the demo work himself, which I have no problem with. The client texted me just before Christmas to come over and see what was revealed.
It took only a moment to realize the service life of the floor was gone. It was originally ⅜-by-1 1/2-inch solid No. 1 common red oak, which was extremely common in this area in Southern California. Since these floors were thin when they were new, they cannot be sanded as many times as a ½-inch solid floor (or a 3/4-inch floor, which was uncommon here). The tops of the grooves were gone in many places, and someone had put 16d sinker nails in various places to silence squeaks:
The clients were heartbroken because they, like so many, did not want to be living on plastic floors for one moment longer.
As a side note, I have found when solid floors are over-sanded, the tops of the grooves become sliver-prone, and it’s easy to snag one when wearing socks and get impaled in the blink of an eye. These are not fun, hurt like crazy and can even be carriers of bacteria that put a risk of infection at the top of this list. Since the clients were now living on such a floor, I told them to only wear shoes in the home until they sorted out what they wanted to do next. Carpet, laminate, new wood—whatever, just wear shoes until the new flooring question is answered.
I mentally put this client into my “Lost” folder and moved on.
I was called back in March and was told to move on replacing the wood in the whole home. They accepted my appeal for 2-inch versus 1 1/2-inch (a big savings both on the material price and the labor cost), and all I needed to do now was to order a pallet, deliver it, install it, sand it, finish it, and hopefully get another five-star review.
But that’s not what happened. I could not find ½ inch-by-2-inch No. 1 red oak anywhere, even though that has always been the standard floor here. One fairly large distributor said they only sell select now. I countered back with intent to pay half upfront, but they refused. They told me, “No one wants No. 1 anymore,” and suggested I talk my clients into buying into the trend. I got upset at this and didn’t handle it well.
I was determined to get to the bottom of it. It seemed that there was an overlying thought that clients are not able to choose for themselves what they want, and we have to “force” them into choices. I reject that on its face. If a client wanted a funky species of floor, installed on a 31.4-degree angle with cheap finish from the paint store or big box store, that’s what they get.
This client in particular has an advanced education and knew more about the available choices just through online searches than you might have guessed. He was sharp, and he wanted to stay true to the original format for restoring his home’s flooring. Installing ¾-inch-thick strip wasn’t an option due to the height differences it would create matching up with other flooring, the cabinets and at doorways. So, my search for the 1/2-by-2-inch No. 1 red oak began.
I called a mill on the East Coast everyone reading knows the name of and was told that No. 1 red oak is an “accumulation product,” and that it’s hardly ordered by anyone and is not on their schedule to mill—at all. I told them, “Well, I need it—I can give my distributor an order right after our call. Would that change anything?” They said no (I hate being told “no”, by the way).
At this point, I wondered, “Why?” In my head I had visions that the mills grab their chainsaw and saunter into the woods, drag out a tree and slice it up into lumber, but that’s not how it works—not even close.
I think there are two things to note here:
- The preconceptions of the mills vs. market demand.
- How much power I have to simply order regular wood flooring (which isn’t much).
Not wanting to leave my client hanging, I called another large mill everyone has heard of and was told nearly the same woeful tale, but this mill has No. 1 red oak orders being processed, and is happy to make whatever the distributors want. Satisfying these orders takes time, however, and my client will have to play the waiting game, because this mill, like the others, mainly gets orders for select from the distributors. They have more orders for red oak than white oak, but, like the other mills, No. 1 red oak is an “accumulation product.” This descriptive adjective was new for me. The reality is that No. 1 Common ain’t “common,” and you must mill a certain amount of lumber to satisfy the NOFMA grading rules for No. 1 common flooring—the grade of lumber they buy to mill flooring is that clean.
I had to update my client on how the industry works, and he decided to wait for the 1/2-by-2-inch No. 1 common red oak. He had to wait months, and it seems the fundamental reason was based on information the mills are getting from distributors—who never actually talk to the buying public. I care nothing for what the media says, or what the focus groups say, if I consistently get requests from my customers for “not Select,” and “not white oak.” Consider my plight when I am told by distributors to “straighten out” my clients and inform them of the “trends.”
This story ends well, since the client got his ½ x 2 No. 1 red oak flooring delivered last Friday to acclimate:
For my part, I always intend to make the client’s visualizations come true once I can “see” what they see. That’s my primary concern (excluding silly demands like delivering the flooring and installing the same day to satisfy a timeline demand). Within reason, I let the client “steer” the project because they know what they like better than I do. The simple choice of No. 1 red oak was not a tall feat, but wow, what a rude revelation to find out the distributors themselves are trying to steer buyer perceptions by stating the mills are calling the shots (which is exactly not the case, as detailed above). The mills for their part think the distributors are “in touch” when they are not—I am (as in, we, the contractors, all are). We are the bleeding edge of buyer perceptions because we talk to the clients. I don’t go to the internet to see what buyers want. I ask the clients and get the real scoop (fancy that), and then I try to make their dreams come to life.
