Surface Blog

Welcome to Surface, a blog by Carlisle Wide Plank Floors. Join us in discussion about hardwood flooring wood grains & styles, home decor, green building products, trends and more.

Carlisle adds new floors to Vermont’s historic Hermitage Inn

Posted by Christine Halvorson

We were quite honored to have supplied the floors for the Hermitage Inn in West Dover, Vermont recently. The top photo shows the dining room of the inn, and the bottom shows the pub area.

The inn was looking for a floor that was historically accurate to the time period -- the structure dates back to the 1840s--and that was sustainably harvested to be in step with the inn's Green Initiative. As Glen Renagan, our sales and design consultant, says, we were able to meet the inn's needs on both counts. We did about 2500 square feet of the restoration project in Carlisle's 10 to 17-inch Old Growth Eastern White Pine and another 2,500 square feet was in the 8 to 12-inch Old Growth Heart Pine. Read more about how Carlisle's floors are sustainably grown.

Posted on April 29, 2009 at 01:41 PM in Green Building • (0) Comments
All-American oak floor from Carlisle makes its way to New Zealand

Posted by Christine Halvorson

The team of designers in Carlisle's West Hollywood offices, including Dan O'Neil, recently got involved with something a little out-of-this-world. Okay, it was only half-way out of this world, all the way around the globe from Carlisle's headquarters to New Zealand and a home flooring project where the home owner wanted something a little out of the ordinary. He needed something that was big enough and unique enough to set off his marvelous view (see below).

The team created a series of samples and sent them, as well as photos and emails, to the homeowner. Ultimately he settled on a 12-inch wide, super long-length version of our White Oak flooring. The surface was finished with a light wire brush as well. The floor will ultimately be finished with some natural oils to keep them supple and able to move with the seasonal changes and the moist climate of New Zealand. The oils will keep them looking good as well, according to O'Neil. The boards were shipped by sea and allowed to acclimate to their new environment before they were installed, as usual. The photos here were taken by Peter Jones, who helped with the installation.

Posted on April 27, 2009 at 01:40 PM in Customer Stories • (0) Comments
Red Oak makes an excellent choice in this kitchen

Posted by Christine Halvorson

An architectural consulting firm Carlisle works with, New England Architectural Consulting, LLC, sent along this photo of a recently completed kitchen floor project. It was done in 8 to 12-inch Select Red Oak, with a waterbased finish on it. The photo shows the kitchen not quite ready for occupation.

Posted on April 24, 2009 at 01:38 PM in (0) Comments
Why Carlisle’s oak is different from other oak

Posted by Christine Halvorson
about heartwood here.) Slower growing trees also produce boards with much tighter knots and character. Have you ever asked if those knots will fall out? Well, the answer is no, if it's a Carlisle floor!
The other major reason our floors look so different is the fact that we use center cut wood. Center cut means every board is taken from the center or cant of the log, never from the exterior section or branches. One could take flooring boards from these other parts of the tree, and some other companies do, in fact, do this.

Also, we use only the first 16 to 18 feet of the White Oak logs we get at Carlisle. An average northern grown oak tree is about 80 feet tall. We use only the first 16 feet, about 20 percent of the tree, to make our floors. By taking our boards from the lower portion of the logs--this is the oldest portion of the log--it will have the best grain, the tightest grain, the most heartwood and, again, the tight character. You could procure boards from the upper portion of the log or from the limbs, but you will get zero heartwood and your grain will vary wildly. You will compromise stability and density.

Consider the difference in the images below. As my grandmother would say "The proof is in the pudding."

The first two photos are Select Grade and Common oaks, as shown by the Wood Flooring Manufacturer's Association as the standard against which to measure. The bottom to photos show Carlisle's center cut White Oak and our grading standards.

Read More…

Posted on April 20, 2009 at 01:36 PM in Hardwood Flooring • (0) Comments
Samples of Antique Hickory make for satisfied customer

Posted by Christine Halvorson

We thought you'd enjoy see these photos of a recently completed project. They show Carlisle's Antique Hickory, set down in 8-inch widths and prefinished with Amber stain, and were sent to us by Laura Leier, our Sales and Design Consultant in Denver. We worked with a builder--Todd Gourley of Powder River Construction in Breckenridge, Colorado--on this project and he has already ordered another floor from us! We give a lot of credit here at Carlisle to the folks who work in our sample shop. They carefully match stain and wood to the customer's needs and send out samples for approval. This process ensures a very satisfied customer when the project is complete.

Posted on April 17, 2009 at 01:35 PM in Customer Stories • (0) Comments