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• Remodeling Market-Including Hardwood Flooring Demand-Holds up During Housing Slump

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  By Matt Cardin

  By now it's evident to everybody with a pulse that America's current housing crisis is one for the history books. This is, to put it mildly, a serious situation that's severely impacting much more than just the housing industry.

  That's why it's reassuring that one segment of the industry is still holding up its economic head, namely, the $1.5 billion remodeling market. For obvious reason, this news is significant to readers of Surface with their interest in wide plank hardwood flooring, home remodeling, etc.

  Back in 2006, during the early innings of the housing crisis, Marcia Jedd reported for HGTV (in "Remodeling Market Adjusts to Housing Slump") that remodeling was not only surviving but quite possibly thriving. "Remodelers," she wrote, "take heart: In a housing downturn that is exceptional in many aspects, remodeling is holding its own. In fact, by some accounts, business is booming." She quoted Kermit Baker, Ph.D., director of the Remodeling Futures Program at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, as saying that while the remodeling market was definitely feeling the pinch, small remodeling projects of the home improvement sort, such as windows, roofs, flooring, decks, and small additions, would experience strong demand.

  That was two years ago. In hindsight it's apparent this projection was fairly accurate. The most recent information presented by the National Association of Home Builders in its Remodeling Market Index (RMI) shows that after declining only slightly in the fourth quarter of 2007, remodeling activity held steady during the first quarter of 2008, showing only minor weakness in tandem with the overall housing slump and appearing poised for a recovery in 2009-long before most economists are predicting anything similar for the overall housing market. And between then and now a slew of reports and articles, many of them easily obtainable by Googling combined search terms like "housing slump" + "remodeling," has indicated that while spending on remodeling projects has slowed, in many cases the wider housing bust is actually driving the remodeling market, which in any event shows strong growth prospects. Needless to say, we'd love to hear from readers about their own experiences and observations in this area.

  Posted on August 5, 2008 at 07:41 AM in Hardwood Flooring • Home Building & Contracting • (0) Comments

• Heat Your Feet without a Nasty Carbon Footprint: Radiant Heat and Hardwood Flooring:

  Posted by GuestBlogger

  By Matt Cardin

  It's no secret that radiant heat is one of the fastest growing green trends in the construction business. Its location underfoot means it transfers heat directly to the individual instead of dispersing it into the air. Radiant heat systems also reduce the amount of heat lost when external doors are opened. And as anybody who has walked on a heated floor can tell you, they're unbelievably wonderful in cold weather.

  Now it turns out that radiant heat combined with hardwood flooring results in an especially efficient heating situation that dramatically reduces a building's carbon footprint. We're not talking about some sort of special voodoo between the wood and the heat that makes them act differently. We're just talking about simple common sense. As documented and explained copiously by Carlisle and others, hardwood flooring is the only type that's 100 percent ecologically sustainable. The green benefits of radiant heat, for its part, are undisputed. So pairing them is a simple matter of 2 + 2 = 4.

  As described in an April 15 press release from the National Wood Flooring Association, "Eco-conscious consumers can reduce their carbon footprint even further by installing radiant heat under wood floors.  Because wood floors are sustainable and renewable, they increase radiant heat's benefits." Of particular interest to people thinking about going this direction is the fact that radiant heat can work with wide plank floors. A Google search combining them turns up many recommendations to use strip flooring, but these are a bit like the old saw that you can't install hardwood floors over concrete, when in fact you can. Using radiant heat effectively beneath wide plank flooring simply calls for an installation process involving a floating plywood subfloor.
  

  Note that Carlisle has an FAQ about wood flooring choices where the first question deals with this very issue. Readers who are interested in both hardwood floors and environmentally sound living could do worse than to consider Carlisle's emphatic assertion that radiant heat is "our favorite heat source with our floors!"

  Posted on August 4, 2008 at 02:33 PM in Green Building • Hardwood Flooring • Home Building & Contracting • (0) Comments

• Family Trees: A Father-Son Sawmill Operation Brings Eastern White Pine from the Forest to Your Wide

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  By Tarryn Guarino 

  For Peter Glidden, a long and busy work day begins at sunrise -- and he wouldn't have it any other way. For him, there is no typical "day at the office" -- he and his father Larry operate a small, family owned sawmill in rural Maine. And that means Peter's work days are as unique as each of the eastern white pine timber planks he mills alongside his dad.

  "We sort of stumbled into this business about four years ago, and it's been nothing but busy ever since," he explains. "My dad, Larry, he came home with the first portable mill. He used to say he couldn't saw enough wood in a year to make a picnic table . . . but not anymore!"

  So, what's the best part of owning and operating your own sawmill?

  "I really [enjoy] going out to view and buy the wood," Peter says. When the big trees come down, local foresters contact the Gliddens to come out and take a look at the timber. The premium pine is chosen from trees that have fallen naturally, a process known as selective harvesting. This is an environmentally friendly practice that provides perfect timber, while remaining sensitive to the natural growth of the forest and avoiding deforestation. Peter has no problem scouting out choice timber from these fallen pines.

  "I hand pick everything, based on the quality of the wood and what I know we need," Peter explains. To create the handcrafted wide planks for Carlisle, he personally selects the wood he knows will provide the perfect finished product. The Gliddens operate two small sawmills, and while the work can be a bit noisy, the job also allows for plenty of time outdoors in the natural wilderness.

  "The actual sawmills are indoors, but we do a lot of our work outside," Peter explains. Whether heading out into the forest to survey some potential timber, or admiring the finished boards outside of the workshop, the Gliddens are truly connected to nature -- and their craft.

  Peter's genuine love of the land and the wood is clear from the moment he starts talking. When asked about his favorite part of the job, he answers without any hesitation, "The craftsmanship, definitely. I take a lot of pride in the grading of our wood. It's all hand done. Eastern white wide planks are a great quality wood, and I take a lot of pride in the work that we do."

  To see the Glidden family's sawmill firsthand and learn a bit more about their work, check out their http://www.wideplankflooring.com/video.aspx?cat=Relationships&Num=0).">video on the Carlisle Wide Plank Floors website.

  Posted on July 16, 2008 at 02:17 PM in Green Building • Hardwood Flooring • Home Building & Contracting • (0) Comments

• Green Cleaning: Eco-Friendly Solutions for Your Home (and Floor)

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  By Nancy Shohet West

  Until very recently, it was something of an oxymoron - two irreconcilable opposites - to look at cleaning products as environmentally friendly. Many of us are accustomed to thinking that clean equals germ-killing, and killing germs might not be compatible with preserving all other life forms. When you go into a hospital, you smell bleach; when you pick up clothes at the dry cleaner's, you smell...well, we're not sure what the smell is, but it definitely connotes a pristine wardrobe, even if it's not an aroma found in nature.

  In other words, in the past it was almost taken for granted that in order to rid surfaces and substances of pollutants - whether the item to be cleaned was wood flooring, dishes, household appliances or clothing -- a certain amount of eradicating might be necessary. Sometimes you have to prioritize, we believed then, and let your ecological principles lapse a little if it meant getting your home germ-free.

  Fortunately, that kind of thinking has changed. With more and more people feeling guilty about pouring chemicals into the groundwater every time they mop a floor or polish an antique, the demand grew for environmentally friendly cleaning products, as this article on green cleaning explains. So now, it really is possible to do both: preserve the environment and protect your home from germs and dirt.

  Of course, the best way to keep things clean is not to let them get dirty in the first place. Your most environmentally correct choice when it comes to a cleaning substance is to avoid cleaning substances altogether. In the case of floors, there is a lot you can do to prevent the need for stringent cleaning. Bearing in mind that the three most powerful foes of wood flooring are dirt, sand and water, consider these very easy tips that promote "holistic" - i.e., non-chemical - cleaning:

  • Encourage the removal of shoes as people enter your house by placing a mat or a durable runner made of indoor-outdoor carpeting just inside your front door. Even more generous is to have extra pairs of slippers handy in a basket by the door for visitors.

  • Sweep your hardwood floors regularly, using a natural or nylon bristle broom with slightly frayed ends. Doing this every day if possible will make a huge difference in terms of the quantity of grit that gets ground into your wood floors on a regular basis.

  • Clean up liquid spills right away, including water, which often comes into the house in the form of snow clumps.

  • Dry-mop with a terry-cloth dust mop. Dry-mopping provides the benefits of buffing and polishing without the harshness of cleaners.

  • If you have pets, keep their toenails short.

  • Avoid dragging heavy objects across your wood floors.

  • Place felt casters under furniture legs.

  When you do need to go the extra mile and wet-mop or polish, there are several environmentally friendly products designed for use as wood floor cleaners. For example, Floor Kleener from Earth Friendly Products has been specially developed for cleaning a variety of flooring, including sealed hardwood floors. Another good example is Envirorite Hard Floor Cleaner, which uses soy in place of chemical substances and can also be used on sealed hardwood flooring surfaces. Envirorite boasts the added advantage of being safe for people with allergies, asthma, and chemical sensitivities, which is also important if you have babies or toddlers crawling on your floors. You can find these products and more at the Floor Cleaners and Kokopelli's Green Market websites.

   

  Posted on July 15, 2008 at 02:22 PM in DIY • Green Building • Hardwood Flooring • (0) Comments

• If These Hardwood Floors Could Talk:  Secrets of Antique Lumber and Reclaimed Flooring

  Posted by GuestBlogger

  By Tarryn Guarino

  There is something really amazing about an antique floor. If the wood beneath your feet could tell a story, what would it have to say? Who has walked these boards before us?

  

  To find out exactly how exactly these wide planks get from an old barn to our bedroom floor, I spoke with Rich Marilla at Old Dominion Antique Lumber.  The company purchases materials that are salvaged from old barns or antique structures and repurposes the wood for use in new homes and buildings. This practice has the added bonus of being environmentally sustainable, which means Carlisle's antique timber floors are FSC 100% Chain-of-Custody certified.  But before this antique wood can be resettled in a new home, it must first get a mini-makeover.

  Posted on July 14, 2008 at 02:55 PM in Green Building • Hardwood Flooring • Home Building & Contracting • (0) Comments

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