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.

DIY: New England-Style Farmhouse

Posted by Megan Sprague

Check out this great do-it-yourself project out of Trabuco Canyon, California. Donnelle & Tony Koselka decided to purchase our wide Eastern White Pine floors to complete the look of their New England-Style Farmhouse. Originally, Donnelle & Tony chose Marmloeum for their living room, but after some thought realized that a solid wood floor would be more reminiscent of the look they were trying to achieve. While searching the internet and flipping through several magazines, they came across Carlisle Wide Plank Floors. They thought the wide Pine floors would truly fit the New England feel they were hoping for. After speaking with Dan ONeill in our West Hollywood office, they made the jump. Dan helped them understand how long wide boards can extended their home visually, and enlarge the prospective of their living space.

With the help of Dave Delfs, a local installer, the pine floors were easy enough to install. Dave used the Bostik’s 2-part glue system directly over the existing floor. The truth is in these before and after photos! Such an easy change drastically brought the Koselka’s the look they were dreaming of. Donnelle recites, “While I loved our unusual Marmoleum floors (cork-based lineoleum), the wood floors complete our New England-style farmhouse. What a difference the pine makes!”

With a slight eased edge to emphasize the dimensions, warm honey tones of the tung oil finish, and the slow natural distressing that comes with life, it was a perfect fit…especially for their little dog, Riley.

Are you dreaming of a New England-Style home? Click here for more photos and information.

Already a Carlisle customer…want to upload photos of your DIY project? Click here:

Posted on June 23, 2008 at 01:22 PM in DIY • (2) Comments
Kitchens Continue to be a Remodeling Hot Spot

Posted by Lesley Anderson

You know that phrase, "if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen"? Well, remodelers are heeding the opposite, making the kitchen the hottest place in the house for renovations, and it's not too hard to see why. The kitchen has become more than just a place where food is prepared. It's become the family and social gathering place. No matter how big or small the home, people always seem to end up in the kitchen. Sometimes it's to keep the cook company during a family get-together, or to lend a helping hand. Other times, it's to gather around a bowl of snacks or to do homework after school. When you think about it, the kitchen really is the life force of modern living, so it's only reasonable that during the recent housing dip, people are turning to renovate their own homes instead of purchase new ones. Kitchen renovations top the list of home improvements, according to Remodeling Online.

As a result of this kitchen craze, kitchen manufacturers are cranking out more and more high-quality, eco-friendly options for DIYers and contractors alike. The green movement seems to have hit at a perfect time, since buyers are now looking to not only save the environment, but save money and be able to feel that they're doing their part by working on home projects themselves. Now, instead of simply renovating the look and feel of a kitchen, owners are becoming more invested in the long-term affects of their kitchen renovations by carefully choosing environmentally friendly materials and appliances.

Recyclable materials like glass and quartz are becoming more common in kitchen countertops, and of course you knew we'd mention hardwood flooring! Wood is one of the best examples of nature's renewable resources! Many people often think that once a piece of wood has lost its lustre that it's destined for firewood, but this isn't the case. Reclaimed wood in particular adds character and beauty to kitchen cabinets, and you can also have the satisfaction in knowing you're using a natural, renewable resource for your home that will last for generations. With so many different finishing options available, you could turn virtually any wood surface into something to suit your lifestyle.

Not far behind kitchens on the renovation list are bathrooms. Ironically, kitchens and bathrooms are two rooms we've talked about on the blog that seem further from the front of people's minds when thinking about hardwood flooring, but they can actually be some of the most affordable hardwood flooring projects since their square footage is generally smaller than that of a living room or bedroom. Have you recently renovated your kitchen? What were your biggest priorities in reshaping and refreshing your decor?

Posted on May 21, 2008 at 02:00 PM in DIY • Green Building • (0) Comments
DIY: Walnut Bathroom Renovation

Posted by Megan Sprague
As a proud member of Carlisle’s marketing team, I wanted to share my most recent do-it-yourself project—the installation of my very first Carlisle floor! I chose Walnut because of its beautiful brown tones with highlights of golden honey and the nice figuring in the grain patterns.

I began my project in September 2007 when my boyfriend Dan and I first decided to embark on the demolition of our current bathroom. We knew straight off that it was going to be a fairly large undertaking, but we also knew it had to be done. After two days of destroying, hauling pieces of old sheetrock, insulation and tile out by the truckload we were finally down to the rafters.

As we have delicately built the bathroom back up we decided to make our project as custom as we could afford. Firstly, we’ve done the entire project ourselves: plumbing, electrical, everything! (We did have the extra hands of our dads helping out, which is great.) Dan invented his own radiant heat system—it’s a built-in subfloor unit with PEX tubing (which we purchased on EBay inexpensively). We were able to install our Carlisle floor directly on top of our radiant heat system. We also did a tile inlay underneath our toilet and in front of our bathtub, and it was really easy to make both the tile and the walnut work nicely together during the installation—we had zero hiccups.

One of the best parts during our renovation was applying the tung oil to our floor. We thought the wood was stunning before we started the finishing process, but as we added the coats of tung oil we were amazed at how it heightens the swirling grains and warm chocolaty tones.

A few holidays, snowmobile season and a litter of Weimaraner puppies later and we are still working on our bathroom! We are hand making our vanity and that’s our current stage of the process. Stay tuned for the vanity and completion of my bathroom

Posted on April 22, 2008 at 10:54 AM in DIY • (0) Comments
How to Install Wide Plank Wood Floors over Concrete

Posted by Don Carlisle
Wood over concrete? Yes, it can be done! For the longest time, homeowners were warned that wide plank wood floors installed over concrete would result in moisture problems. But that’s not so anymore. A concrete sub-floor is no reason to deny yourself beautiful wood floors. Nowadays, they can go virtually anywhere.

It is true that wood is affected by climate change: wood fibers expand and contract with fluctuations in relative humidity. However, this movement and the resulting moisture problems can be controlled with proper installation techniques and the use of high quality wood products. If you’re going to be installing over concrete, it becomes even more critical that you understand what part of the tree the boards are cut from and the manner in which the boards were processed; both of these factors are vital to your overall satisfaction with the floor. Wood cut from the center of a tree contains a higher percentage of vertical grain, which makes it less susceptible to movement and thus a higher quality material.

Before you embark on this installation process, we recommend certain rules of thumb to manage moisture and ensure the stability of the wood:

1. Be sure the wood supplier has properly dried the wood. (We recommend 6-12 months of air drying followed by a period of kiln drying.)

2. Let the wood acclimate in the home or business for 7-10 days.

3. During acclimation in your home or business, keep relative humidity at 45 percent.

4. Make sure the wood flooring has proper stress reliefs (These ridges on the underside of the wood relieve tension in wood, reduces board movement, and provides
a greater glue surface).

There are two options for installation of wide plank wood floors. Both options are driven by the height allowance between the slab and door. To determine height, measure the distance from the top of slab to the bottom of the exterior door or measure the transition to other flooring surfaces. Check accuracy by swinging door completely in both directions.

Here are some step-by-step installation guidelines once you know the height allowance:

Option One: Gluing directly to concrete -- 1/2 to 3/4 inch height allowance

Using either Bostik’s Best or Sika adhesive product, spread one layer of adhesive onto the concrete per manufacturer’s instructions and place your Carlisle planks, milled to 1/2 to 3/4 inch thickness directly onto the adhesive. Allow 12 hours drying time before finishing your floors.

Option Two-A: Concrete slab with plywood sub-floor – 1 inch height allowance
Place a layer of 6mm polyethylene onto the concrete as your moisture barrier. Using a Hilti Direct fastening tool, shoot concrete nails into 1/2 inch plywood to apply directly onto concrete. Install Carlisle Wide Plank Floors, milled to 1/2 inch thickness by blind nailing and gluing.

Option Two-B: Concrete slab with plywood sub-floor – 1 1/2 inches or more height allowance
Lay down 3/4 inch plywood and then follow the directions above.

The cost associated with both options for installing wood over concrete is similar. However, due to the cost of the adhesives, it can be slightly cheaper to use the plywood method. It’s also possible to install Carlisle floors over concrete slabs with radiant heat. The installation process calls for using a floating plywood sub-floor. Proof that this method of installation has gained industry acceptance is its prevalence in high end commercial applications. For instance, the Park Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C., used Carlisle White Oak wide plank wood flooring over concrete in the public space of their main level. Given the resources for high quality wood, like Carlisle Wide Plank Floors, and the variety of mastic adhesives available today, you too can install wood floors over concrete in your home.

Posted on April 8, 2008 at 02:08 PM in DIY • Home Building & Contracting • (2) Comments
Ask the Flooring Guy

Posted by Rick Menard

In the June, 08', issue of TimberHome Living, on page 12, there is a section called "Ask the Flooring Guy." I was asked to contribute to this section with questions ranging from "What is handmade flooring?" and "How is it different from other hardwood flooring?" to "What is antique wood and how does it differ from reclaimed wood?"
I always find these sections very helpful in educatiing the consumer because there are so many myths out there about flooring, especially when it comes to wide plank. With the average price of homes rising every year, homeowners want to make sure they are going to have the floors they have always dreamed about. Additionally, they want to have confidence that the value and stability of the floor is everything they had hoped for.

Posted on March 25, 2008 at 02:56 PM in DIY • (0) Comments