Carlisle Wide Plank Floors

Surface Blog

• Monday Morning Mailbag: Delivery of prefinished White Oak floor delights this customer

  Posted by Christine Halvorson

  We got this nice note the other day to our Sales & Design associate Laura, from a customer who had just had her brand new pre-finished floor delivered to her home to be installed.

  The customer, Marlies Venier, had found Carlisle online and ordered 1,600 square feet of the pre-finished White Oak, in 7-inch widths. The boards were finished with a saw kerf effect. (See more about our handmade surfaces here.)

  Venier, it seems, had had water damage in her home and needed to replace the floors. She placed her order after working with Laura to get some samples. Here’s what she wrote to us the day her floor arrived at her home in mid-December.

  Hi Laura,

  Just finished unloading the floor, we love it, it is beautiful, the nicest floor we have ever seen. Thank you for being so great through the whole process, so excited to have a Carlisle floor! Have a great New Year…All the best in 2010.
  Cheers,
  Marlies Venier

  We always love to get notes like this, especially when the customer comes to us through an unhappy circumstance like flood-ruined floors!

  Pre-finished wide plank floors are still relatively new to Carlisle. We find that those who choose it love the convenience of being able to install it immediately upon arrival and not have to go through the staining process. You can read more about our pre-finished floors here.

  Posted on January 11, 2010 at 01:03 PM in Customer Stories • DIY • (0) Comments

• Nice character, rich brown tones draw customers to Hickory wide plank floors

  Posted by Christine Halvorson

  Wendy and Ken Gendron of Ashburnham, Massachusetts (not so far from Carlisle headquarters in New Hampshire) discovered us in “This Old House” magazine and got in touch about two years ago. They recently sent us these nice photos of their completed floor.

  

  After visiting our shop back then, the couple had decided on a “50/50” blend of Country and Select Hickory, in 6- to 12-inch widths. This means their boards would have some real character traits, but wouldn’t appear too rustic. What they loved about the samples was the rich brown tones that come from the heartwood of these trees. That heartwood in Hickory is not easy to come by, as our Don Carlisle will tell you. Only a few trees in a Hickory stand would be likely to yield heartwood that strong, plus have the length and width that we need—the odds might be 1 or 2 out of 100!

  The Gendrons installed and finished the floor themselves. In the second photo above, you can see how it looked before the Urethane was applied. Anyone with basic do-it-yourself skills can install a Carlisle floor. We always send along complete instructions before the order arrives. After that, we’re available seven days a week for questions. See our complete guide to installing our floors here.

  See other examples of Hickory and read more about this fascinating wood.

  Posted on January 7, 2010 at 03:40 PM in Customer Stories • DIY • (0) Comments

• Will your remodeling investment pay off?

  Posted by Christine Halvorson

  According to Remodeling Magazine’s 2009-10 Cost vs. Value Report, a major kitchen remodel costs $57,215 with 72 percent of those costs recouped in a sale of the home. Of course, the recoup numbers are down significantly from just a few years ago because of the current economic crisis and the ongoing credit crunch. So, it’s probably a scary time to think about remodeling your home. Real estate conditions vary widely throughout the country and even within very narrow local markets. But, one of the things we like to point out to people about installing a Carlisle floor as part of a remodeling project is that the floor “pays back” in several ways.

  

  A Carlisle Wide Plank Floor can improve the home’s beauty and increase its value at the same time. Because a Carlisle floor is made from the heart of a 100-year-old (or older) tree, it will last for generations, which generally can’t be said about any other flooring product. Carlisle wood is selectively harvested from well-managed forests or, as in the case of our 100 percent post-consumer reclaimed antique wood, is recycled from an old barn or mill. The initial investment in a Carlisle floor more than pays for itself over the years given its durability and dollars saved on maintenance. Unique methods of fine milling and periodic finishing with Tung Oil make these floors virtually maintenance free.

  Remodeling is pretty much how Carlisle got started in this business in the first place. In our neck of the woods in New Hamphisre, people wanted to add rooms onto historic homes—some dating back to Colonial times—and wanted the flooring to match. We fulfilled that need, and then some.

  If a remodeling project is in your future, yes, today’s economic conditions are scary, but you just might add a little bit of “insurance” to your future resale with the addition of a Carlisle floor.

  Posted on December 24, 2009 at 12:56 PM in DIY • Home Building & Contracting • (1) Comments

• Among other things, this Carlisle floor matches the family Golden Retriever

  Posted by Christine Halvorson

  

  Warren and Tassie Crellin of Townsend, Delaware have been married 21 years and had always dreamed of building a log home. In March 2008, they purchased an 11- acre, partially wooded farmette. “We spent months clearing the necessary trees to make room for our dream home,” Tassie writes. “Finally, in January 2009 the logs were delivered and construction began.”

  Tassie reports that she first saw Carlisle floors in her Log Home Living magazine.

  “I first contacted Carlisle back in November 2008 and was connected with Shanon Sterrett. She was extremely helpful in helping us pick out the perfect floor for our rustic look. We ended up with 10-inch wide planks in hit-or-miss pine flooring. The roughed up texture really blends with the log walls. Not to mention, the wear and tear that two boys and two dogs provide!” Tassie wrote. “I love the hit-or-miss imperfections because any scratches or dings simply blend right in once touched up with stain and simply add to the ‘character’. Our stain color is a combination of 2 parts Concord Honey/1 part Ginger Bread. We love it! It also matches our Golden Retriever, Maddie.”

  The Crellins moved into their new home on Halloween of this year, after having sold their previous home rather quickly and needing to stay in a camper or five months. “Now we can barely see our beautiful floors for all the boxes,” Tassie wrote. “They are gorgeous and we are very happy with how they turned out.”

  Warren and Tassie actually did all of the staining and oiling (a total of four coats) of the new floor in their 1,200-square-foot rec room, just to save on time. They left the rest of the floors to their builder and his crew. “The floors were easy to install and the overall staining process wasn’t bad,” she writes.

  “We really enjoyed working with Carlisle and Shanon was always there to guide us through the decision process, making sure our flooring was just what we wanted!”

  The photo above shows Warren installing the flooring in our rec room. Below are a few more photos from the family album.

  Posted on November 30, 2009 at 12:23 PM in Customer Stories • DIY • (0) Comments

• Carlisle floors no problem over radiant heat

  Posted by Christine Halvorson

  If you are thinking about a new or re-do flooring project, but have some concerns about installing wood over radiant heat, just take on this mantra: “No worries.”

  Carlisle has a wealth of experience — and endorsements — in the application of its wide plank flooring over radiant heat systems in homes.

  One such endorsement comes from Shawn Sweeney of Sweeney Design Build in Shelburne, Vermont:

  “I recommend Carlisle Wide Plank Floors to all my clients because of the stability of their wood over such a wide range of installation conditions and temperatures. Especially for radiant applications, it is far superior to any other wood floor — wide or narrow— on the market.”

  Another endorsement comes from Warmboard Radiant Subfloor one of the more popular manufacturers of radiant heat.

  Lots of homeowners like the efficiency and cleanliness of radiant heat, but may wonder how that distribution of heat directly under a floor might affect the floor over time.

  Here are some things to remember:
  ·Wood breaths and moves, so once you’ve chosen the correct, properly cured Carlisle application for your home, it will constantly adapt to its ever-changing environment, yet will remain flat and stable;
  ·The quality of our boards makes a big difference: Ours are cut from heartwood for a strong, straight vertical grain and they have low moisture content– another reason why heartwood is more stable;
  ·We have a lot of experience — more than 40 years — of installing wood floors over radiant heat in all types of environments from one coast to the other;
  ·And we’ll guarantee the work: If at any time during the life of your Carlisle floor there is a problem relating to the quality of our wood or our manufacturing process, we will handcraft a new floor for you free of charge.

  For more information, check out our website section entitled Installing Over Radiant Heat.

  Posted on November 26, 2009 at 10:08 AM in DIY • Hardwood Flooring • (0) Comments

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