Dual band mesh?

A little new to setting up mesh on openwrt. My current experiments involve using 2.4g for the backbone and 5g to connect client devices. Is it possible to also allow clients to connect to 2.4 on the same mesh?

I know it's possible on proprietary firmware. My Google devices that I'm starting to install openwrt on transmit the same SSID on both bands and it somehow negotiates the best one per device. Mouth looking for something that advanced. Just need something for a few older devices that are 2.4 only. Would this just need a wire run to a separate device just running in access point mode with no mesh?

If you mean "can my 2.4GHz radio support both AP mode and mesh mode simultaneously?", then, generally, yes.

You can check by doing:
iw list | grep -A3 "valid interface combinations"

If you see a line similar to this:
* #{ managed } <= 1, #{ AP, mesh point } <= 16,
ie mentioning both "AP" and "mesh point" then you can configure both on that interface.

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Going to have to mess with this. I'm currently on the road with a RPI 3 that has both the internal wifi and a usb dongle. I'm using the 2.4 on the dongle to connect to what ever wifi is where I'm at and using 5g on the internal for my devices. I tried the above just out of curiosity and nothing I have with me will do it. I'll check the Google devices when I get home.

Not surprisingly, my Google wifi devices will support AP and Mesh in combination. Looks like it will do it on both bands, too so I could theoretically have AP and Mesh on both 2.4 and 5GhZ.

Is there any disadvantage do doing this? I have a feeling this is how the OEM Google firmware works on these devices but would there be any kind of performance hit doing this?

Yes you could but in a domestic situation there will be no advantage.

Choosing the band to use for the mesh will usually be down to considering the pros and cons of each band in your location, for example 2.4GHz will have longer range and better penetration of walls etc., but 5GHz will have larger bandwidth.
It is up to you to decide - probably after trying both and comparing performance.