Surface Blog

Atlanta-area builder offers high praise for Carlise floors in his blog

• Posted by
• Jane Eklund

Shane Roach of Village Square Homes in Marietta, Georgia, in the Metro Atlanta area, raved about Carlisle floors in a recent blog post discussing a house his company is constructing in a nearby city.

“Our custom home project in Brookhaven is coming along nicely and soon interior finishes will be underway,” he wrote. “There are many wonderful design elements we’ve chosen for this home, but this week we placed the order for one of my favorites: Wide-plank wood flooring from Carlisle. Our homeowners have chosen a beautiful Eastern White Pine with a Gingerbread finish and a hit or miss post-finishing process. Carlisle floors are known for wide planks and long board lengths.”

Roach and his crew will be installing White Pine planks with 11-inch face widths and lengths from 4 to 16 feet.

He note’s that Carlisle’s “‘hit or miss’ finishing creates a wonderful age and character to the floor, recreating the (cherished!) imperfections of early American floors due to milling equipment used in turn-of-the-century saw mills. Be sure to check out Carlisle if you are considering a new wood floor for your home. They are a . . . company in New Hampshire with a passion for wood products, sustainable forestry practices, and support for small mills and operators who are passionate about their craft.”

Click here to read the blog post.

Many thanks to Shane for sharing his enthusiasm about Carlisle floors! We’re looking forward to seeing the Brookhaven project as it progresses, and will link to Shane’s blog as he posts photos of the floor installation.

Posted on Sep 22, 2011 AT 11:03 PM in Home Building & Contracting • (2) Comments

For design pros: The right specs lead to success

• Posted by
• Jane Eklund

Here’s a posting designed for design professionals. It comes from our latest Email Newsletter. (Note: click here to subscribe to the newsletter.)

To Spec or Not To Spec

Maintaining the integrity of the interior design for any project is critical to its overall success. Design professionals labor for hours to select and specify the right flooring product that will help them achieve the vision they and their clients have in mind. Professionals choose Carlisle for a variety of reasons; yet, choosing a Carlisle floor does not always ensure it will be used.

You can guarantee the right product is used by outlining a detailed product specification, with all the pertinent details. Oftentimes we see architectural specs reading “Carlisle” only to be auto-populated with the wrong information, or the specs are very vague. Without the right details, a product spec can lead to a poor outcome: It gives suppliers creative liberties to find any product that is “close” in look and feel. Yet, they won’t be using the same wood, resulting in a dramatically different look. For example, writing “Old Growth Center Cut White Oak” in a specification order ensures you get the right product, rather than listing simply “White Oak.”

— It will result in the wrong grade being ordered. Listing “Country Grade” is open to interpretation, while listing “Original Grade,” which is Carlisle’s proprietary grade, will ensure you get the right look.
— It will result in inferior products being used that do not perform as promised. You could end up with a floor that cups, crowns, or has other negative movement. Your spec should read “air and kiln dried,” and should identify the correct wood grade.

— It will result in the floor having narrow widths and lengths. Carlisle floors are crafted in very wide widths and long lengths to reduce seams by up to 50% in a space.
— It will result in a floor that cannot perform on radiant heat or concrete slab. More than 50% of Carlisle floors made today are being installed on these and other subfloors.
— It will result in a floor that is not the same color or finish. This affects the overall look of the floor and its sheen, and it compromises the design.
— It will result in a floor that will now need to be finished on site rather than by Carlisle. This will create more work, additional expense, and runs the risk of not being done properly for the desired outcome. We finish more than 30% of our floors today, guaranteeing the most predictable outcome.
— The floor will not have the same maintenance schedule. This could make it more costly to maintain over the years, less durable, and result in a shorter life span.
— If the wrong floor product shows up on site, there will be delays and additional expenses. Consider the time and energy wasted to get things fixed.

— Most importantly you run the greatest risk of all — unhappy clients.

There is no doubt that writing the correct specification can take time, but ending up with the wrong product is a headache. So save time, avoid the aggravation, and contact your Carlisle Personal Design Consultant, who will write the spec for you and ensure you have all the pertinent details. We will also work with all contractors and sub contractors on the project to facilitate the ordering and installation process so your project is a success. We do it every day for clients all over the world.

Click here to see an example of a Carlisle specification.

Posted on Sep 20, 2011 AT 10:45 PM in Home Building & Contracting • (2) Comments

Visit us in New York City!

• Posted by
• Jane Eklund

If you live in New York City or you’re headed there for a visit, we hope you’ll stop by our newest showroom. Our Big Apple branch opened last spring in the Architects and Designers Building in the heart of the city. You’ll find us at 150 East 58th Street, 5th Floor. Or give us a call at 646-666-8276.

Here are a few photographs of our big-city digs, taken just before our New York City Grand Opening.

Click here for information on all of Carlisle’s showrooms.

Posted on Sep 15, 2011 AT 05:18 PM in Hardwood Flooring • (2) Comments

Heart Pine floors help turn ‘condemned’ building into theatre in Bay St. Louis, MS

• Posted by
• Jane Eklund

In 1966, the building that stands at 398 Blaize Street in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, was selected as the setting for a film called “This Property is Condemned.” In 2011, after major renovations, the building is the new home of the Bay St. Louis Little Theatre. Founded in the living room of John and Mary Bell in 1946, the theatre soon moved to a building made from two war-surplus barracks. Fifty-seven years later, the theatre’s home was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. That’s when the troupe, with the help of fundraising and grants from the Mississippi Arts Commission and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, purchased and renovated the Blaize Street building.

Here at Carlisle, we’re delighted that our floors — Heart Pine to be exact — were part of the project. They now grace the second floor hallway of the building, which houses office, rehearsal, and performance space for the theatre. Unabridged Architecture worked on the design, and J.O. Collins, Contractor, did the construction work. Carlisle Sales and Design Rep Peter Switzer of our Stoddard, N.H. headquarters coordinated the floors from our end.

Take a look at before and after photos! And if you’re in the neighborhood, stop by the Bay St. Louis Little Theatre for a performance of “Driving Miss Daisy.”

The theatre’s exterior: before, left, and after, right.

The second-floor hallway, before renovations.

The second-floor hallway, after renovations — complete with Carlisle Heart Pine floor.

Posted on Sep 14, 2011 AT 02:09 AM in Restoration Projects • (3) Comments

Crafting ‘the best looking floor of all time’

• Posted by
• Jane Eklund

Read this great profile of one of the terrific craftsmen who work in our Swanzey, New Hampshire mill. The story appeared in the most recent issue of our e-mail newsletter. (Note: you can subscribe to the newsletter here.)

Craftsman Profile: Cliff Faulkner

Since childhood, Cliff Faulkner’s life has always revolved around wood, from delivering firewood to learning about all the different species. As a young boy, Faulkner and his father would drive into the woods with a tractor and a truck bed to cut cordwood, which are short pieces of debarked tree used as firewood, and deliver it throughout their local community of Fitzwilliam, NH. As a result of spending his days in the woods with his father, Faulkner’s knowledge and passion for wood and the different species greatly increased evolving into his current lifetime profession.

After high school, Faulkner began working at a local wood mill on the green chain sorting lumber, collecting desired boards and stacking them onto a cart. Within six months he was promoted and moved inside the mill. Within the mill, Faulkner worked the trim saw for close to three years where his talent was quickly noticed. He soon progressed to operating the dry kilns, making wood usable by removing its moisture, which he did for five years.

Looking for an opportunity within another company, as well as his need for a larger career challenge, Faulkner joined the leading makers of wide plank floors, Carlisle Wide Plank Flooring based in New Hampshire. Bringing with him years of experience in wood flooring and more than eight years of experience in bulk wood sales, Faulkner was pleased to join a team of enthusiastic workers who shared his same passion for wood. He found that Carlisle craftsmen worked as a unit both inside and outside of the mill. As a very tight group, the craftsmen expand their relationships outside of their work environment having after hour’s gatherings.

Faulkner is a loyal and passionate Carlisle flooring employee, having installed white oak flooring in his own home, which he says adds a more rustic look. Pleased with his custom Carlisle flooring, Faulkner keeps in mind the quality he expected in his own home when crafting a floor for others. At Carlisle, since he assembles the orders of hardwood floors, Faulkner is very selective when choosing planks, keeping in mind each individual job, making sure they are compatible in size and appearance.

“My primary goal is to craft the best looking floor all of the time, no matter how big or small,” Faulkner explained. “I take immense pride in giving all of my customers the finest wood floor that I can create.”

Faulkner enjoys working with hardwoods daily, especially hickory since it has great wood character. In fact, wood character is Faulkner’s favorite thing about working with wood. He loves being able to see how a tree grew, noting where its branches were or if it had burrowing insects. By selecting interesting milled pieces of wood like this, Faulkner helps to create what he calls a conversation piece for the home. Faulkner believes that wood flooring is all about the quality of the end product, how it looks installed.

In closing, for other craftsmen, Faulkner has one piece of advice—“If it is good enough for you, then it is probably good enough for the client.”

Posted on Sep 12, 2011 AT 05:14 AM in Hardwood Flooring • (3) Comments