The floor
- Species
- Engineered European white oak, light rustic grade
- Format
- 3/4 inch engineered, 4 to 10 foot lengths, micro bevel on all four sides
- Width
- 7 inch
- Finish
- Prefinished in our shop: two coats of white-pigmented primer under two coats of clear matte topcoat
- Builder
- Janckila Construction
A white oak floor finished to look unfinished
The spec was engineered European white oak in a light rustic grade, 3/4 inch thick and 7 inches wide, in lengths from 4 to 10 feet with a micro bevel on all four sides. The homeowner and builder wanted the oak to look untouched, as close to raw wood as a finished floor can get, and white oak left to itself drifts yellow under most clear finishes. We prefinished the boards in our shop with two coats of a white-pigmented primer under two coats of a clear matte topcoat. The white in the primer holds the yellowing back, so the boards keep their natural pale color and still have a wear layer on top.
Matching the floor to the walls and ceiling
Another 4,500 square feet of the same white oak went to other trades for wall and ceiling cladding. Because it was finished in our shop with the same system as the floor, the color matches from underfoot to overhead instead of the floor and the ceiling reading as two different woods. That kind of match is hard to get when the flooring contractor and the cladding supplier finish separately.
How the Aspen white oak came out
A low-yellowing white oak palette running through the house, floor, walls and ceiling together. The clear matte topcoat keeps the wood looking raw while giving it protection against wear, which is what a new build at this level needed. Most of our work sits within an hour of the shop in Cokato, so an Aspen address is unusual for us. The finish approach is the reason it is here: it applies to any white oak floor a homeowner wants kept pale.
