Red oak flooring

[Cruiser_79]

I have a load of red oak logs and want to mill them for flooring. I also milled Red Alder, after drying I will decide or I keep the oak or alder for flooring in the new to me house next year. 
Personally I like flat sawn boards more than quarter sawn, but what is 'common' for oak flooring? Some people say quarter saw as much as possible, others say use flat sawn cause it is stronger. What's your opinion? 
Quarter sawing takes some more time and give me a lot more waste I'm afraid.

[Don P]

In red oak I prefer the look of flatsawn. Quarter has more impact resistance and less shrinkage across the width of the face but not enough difference to make the decision one way or the other IMO.

[alan gage]

I'd think do whatever you aesthetically prefer since that's probably the most important factor in this case. If you like flat sawn do flat sawn. That's what the vast majority of floors are anyway.

Personally I like quarter sawn. I like it more for the vertical grain rather than the figure.

Alan

[scsmith42]

I'm a big fan of quartersawn, but to each their own.  One thing that's really nice about QS is that you can use boards 2X wider than flat sawn but with the same amount of wood movement.  For instance, most flat sawn floors are limited to 3-1/2" width or so or you risk seasonal gaps between boards.  With QS, you can double that to 7".

Weather you go QS or FS, one nice possibility about making your own flooring is the opportunity to mill single length strips to span the entire room.  We frequently make flooring boards up to 24' long, and if you ever enter a room with long widths of clear flooring it has a totally different ambiance than a typical floor made up of short strips.

[Cruiser_79]

I'm a big fan of quartersawn, but to each their own.  One thing that's really nice about QS is that you can use boards 2X wider than flat sawn but with the same amount of wood movement.  For instance, most flat sawn floors are limited to 3-1/2" width or so or you risk seasonal gaps between boards.  With QS, you can double that to 7".

Weather you go QS or FS, one nice possibility about making your own flooring is the opportunity to mill single length strips to span the entire room.  We frequently make flooring boards up to 24' long, and if you ever enter a room with long widths of clear flooring it has a totally different ambiance than a typical floor made up of short strips.

3.5'' is a bit narrow indeed. I wanted to use at least 4'' or even 5''. To use single length boards is a good idea, that would look really good I guess. I have some 24' logs, but I'm afraid I can't bring 24' boards in the house in one piece :D And I'm afraid some people won't agree with cutting a hole in the outer walls 
I will quarter saw some logs to check the looks of it. Now I can mill them myself so I have all the oppurtunity to make something unique. 
Thanks for the comments!

[Stephen1]

I am in the process of flooring for my new house. I did QS Cherry, and QS Red Oak. I like QS Cherry the best, vertical grain is very nice. The RO is random widths and lengths as I was practising the RRQS. All the RO logs were urban salvage 20" plus logs but not perfect in shape. They were a lot of work and some still need to be edged before I put them in the kiln next.  

 
I also listened to some advice on here from scsmith42 for long boards. Everything is 13' long 1x6 and 1x8. I also did poplar/aspen vertical grain for my vaulted ceiling in the kitchen.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

The popularity of QS oak, especially red oak, flooring is because it shrinks and swells half as much as flatsawn.  So, there will be much fewer issues involving cr@cracks between the pieces.  It also allows the drying process to have pieces of oak between 5 to 9% MC, which reflects the poor kiln equipment and poor operator procedures. Flatsawn also cups much more than QS....cupping is another common issue with new floors.