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.

Unique, challenging Carlisle floor is satisfying to all involved

Posted by Christine Halvorson

A trip into our Chicago design showroom by an architect and his client a while back has led to an astonishing floor in the client's Florida home. The architect and customer decided to go with a very unique style and technique in our Carlisle floors--a White Oak wood that would be painted (yes, painted) with white paint. That white paint would then be scrubbed off, hand-sanded and then given a water-based top coat that provides a clear and matte finish. Sound like something you'd want to try? Well, this project of 2,000 square feet took about 450 person-hours to complete! Yet, we think you'll agree that the end result is pretty amazing.

Why would you start out painting that lovely wood, you may ask? Well, this process would allow for a little of the white paint to remain behind, in the "low-lying" areas of the wood grain, while the surface retained the natural oak color. The result is a nice, light white color. This is not the kind of thing that is done every day, but it's definitely what the customer wanted. The builder, Kelly at D.C. Twin Company in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, had not worked with us at Carlisle before and ended up sending us a nice note about her experience when the project was done:

"Hello! Okay, this is the most amazing floor and beams we have ever had privvy to do..It was very, very tricky, grueling and laborious work....These photos do not do justice for these richly casual, incredible floors. When we started on site, every carpenter, painter, and builder told us we could not do it...[the customer] is absolutely elated, surpassed her vision. In fact, she is having her custom-made rugs re-cut on-site so they don't cover her new floors! ... it was so worth the difficult work, and thank you again for giving us the opportunity, we are really really proud!"

Well, gosh. We're always happy when our customers are happy, but we're also really happy when we make a new friend among the home-building community! Thank you, D.C. Twin!

Posted on May 29, 2009 at 02:06 PM in Hardwood Flooring • (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.

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Posted on April 20, 2009 at 01:36 PM in Hardwood Flooring • (0) Comments
Sometimes Carlisle floor projects evolve along the way

Posted by Christine Halvorson

Adam, from our Stoddard sales offices, sent along these photos one of his clients had sent of their project to install pre-finished floors in their kitchen. The floor was all 8-inch nominal widths, with a 50/50 mixture of our Two Grades. It was finished with Residential Amber Coat, with no eased edge or end-matching applied. The clients were Rona and Steven Goldfarb of West Orange, New Jersey, who had begun talking with Carlisle about their kitchen renovation last February. Adam reports they first were interested in the Chestnut chevron pattern, but as they talked, the project evolved into what you see in these photos. (Adam points out the Goldfarbs were some of the nicest people he's ever worked with!) The floor was milled down at our mill in Swanzey, New Hampshire, and Adam sends a shout-out to them for doing such a great job.

Posted on March 20, 2009 at 07:29 AM in Hardwood Flooring • (0) Comments
Customer happy to have some leftovers with new Eastern White Pine floor

Posted by Christine Halvorson

One of our customers in Virginia completed the installation of an Eastern White Pine floor, pre-finished with Plymouth Pumpkin. The floor is 6" to 10" widths. We were a little late with the delivery of the floor because of a massive ice storm the state of New Hampshire had right around the holiday season. (You may have heard about it? Click here, if not). We're grateful that Mr. Young was incredibly nice about the whole thing and that he sent along this note and photo featuring his new floor. Thanks, Mr. Young!
The floor is beautiful, we cannot imagine a better color, and with all
those long boards it went down soooo fast....The folks living here clearly did NOT measure the floor but quoted the size from memory - and it is 15x16 not 18x16, so we have quite a pile left over. With luck, we might get a small bedroom re-floored.-- Russell Young

Posted on February 11, 2009 at 12:17 PM in Customer Stories • Hardwood Flooring • (0) Comments
Random width flooring has look all its own

Posted by Christine Halvorson

Dan O'Neill from our West Hollywood Design Center in California sent us these shots he got from one of his clients, Greg Stewart, up in Regina, SA, Canada. Greg had a random width floor installed in his cabin using 4" to 8" pre-finished CG Hickory with a BU stain. Dan says a random width floor can really have a special look and these photos show that off.

Posted on February 10, 2009 at 08:53 AM in Hardwood Flooring • (0) Comments