Carlisle Wide Plank Floors

Surface Blog

• Radiant Heat Installation: Questions Answered

  Posted by Megan Sprague

  In response to a few questions on the NWFA Listserve:
  

  Your question regarding radiant heat is a great one.  This type of heating continues to grow all over the country.  Currently close to 30% of our solid hardwood floors are installed over radiant heat and in some markets the numbers are even higher than that.  I would have all the confidence in the world putting our Antique Oak over radiant heat as we do it every day; however, you do have to be careful as the Antique Wood Market is very fragmented and the quality can range drastically.
   
  Radiant heat—in and of itself—is not bad for wood floor.  All floors, including antique wood, should be kiln dried and during this process they are subjected to much higher heat than any current radiant heat systems, especially given the radiant heat systems of today.  You have the advantage of running your tubes closer to the floor which means it should be able to run at a lower temperature and still achieve the heat your require.
   
  However, there are still many variable that will affect the temperature of your system: how close together are the tubes? How high are the ceilings? How many windows are there? Etc.  Often people cut costs and reduce the tubing/wall insulation which forces the system to run at  higher temperatures, which may cause a variety of problems if the temperature is too high.
   
  All in all, I see the problems with wood floors and radiant heat falling into the following categories:

  
  1. Far and away the most common problem is that the radiant substrate is not acclimated (allowed to come up to the temperature you plan to live at) prior to installing the floor with the Radiant Heat system turned on after the install.  When the heat comes on it will push any excess moisture out of the substrate and into the finished floor.  This will cause the floor to temporarily expand and potentially buckle.  However, if the radiant system is turned on in advance of installing the floor it will eliminate the moisture before the wood is installed.  Regardless of having radiant heat or not…the moisture content of your subfloor should be within 2% of the moisture content of your finished floor before starting the installation.  This can be achieved by turning on the radiant heat.

  
  2.  The second most common problem is Improperly dried wood flooring.  This is especially common with antique wood as people think kiln drying is not necessary given its age. However, we have 200 year old wood that still has a moisture content of up to 18%.  The trick is how to get all of the pieces at an even moisture content.  Simply kiln drying it won’t work as it will dry some of the boards to the proper moisture level of 8%, but the higher moisture content material won’t be dry enough.  To fix this problem, we actually introduce moisture into all of our antique wood to bring it up to the highest common denominator and then dry it down, to guarantee consistency.  Without using this technique, you may put boards into your floor with a 15% moisture content that, when they dry out, will cause large gaps to appear.

  
  3.  The third most common problem is using a poorly engineered radiant systems.  People cut initial installation costs and spread the tubes out.  The systems then have to run water through the tubes at a much higher temperature (120+°F) where, in a system that is properly engineered and installed, would run at 90°F.
   
  Simply put, heat is not the “enemy” of wood, water is.  If heat is causing excessive drying then gaps will appear, but if subfloor and finished floor achieve “live in conditions”  prior to installing the floor the heat will not move any moisture and therefore will not affect your floor.
   
  Acclimate your subfloor. Acclimate your system. Use a well designed radiant system and —most importantly—use a high quality wood floor that is properly dried and you can have the same successful results we have in over 1200 radiant heat install per year.
  
  

  Posted on September 24, 2008 at 09:13 AM in Hardwood Flooring • (1) Comments

• Carlisle Hardwood Walnut Flooring featured in Architectural Digest

  Posted by Megan Sprague

  Carlisle's Wide Plank Walnut in Wisconsin Lakeside Home Featured in the October issue of Architectural Digest!
  
  Architect Thomas R. Jones designs his parents, Ray and Janette, a cabin of their dreams on shores of Lake Superior. A beautiful combination of elaborate floor to ceiling windows, curved timber frame roof and other natural materials such as Carlisle’s wide plank walnut floors. Seen on page 170, the walnut floors are a natural fit with the Douglas fir beams and ledgestone.
  
  

  Posted on September 12, 2008 at 03:02 PM in Hardwood Flooring • (0) Comments

• Wide Plank Floors Rise With The Tide: An Interview with Maine Home+Design’s Joshua Bodwell

  Posted by GuestBlogger

  By Albert Waitt

  Joshua Bodwell is a Maine writer and the Associate Editor of Maine HOME+DESIGN, a magazine dedicated to “capturing the interiors, exteriors, and heart of Maine homes.”  From Revolutionary War-era farmhouses to rehabbed industrial lofts in downtown Portland, Josh Bodwell has seen and written about them all.  The Surface caught up with the ever-busy Bodwell to get his thoughts on wide plank flooring. 

  You've seen a lot of great homes in your position as associate editor at Maine HOME + DESIGN, have you noticed the increased use of wide plank flooring?

  Wood flooring is almost ubiquitous in great Maine homes. In a state that is so valued for its forests and connection to the outdoors, it is not surprising. Many Maine designers—whether they are architects or interior designers—use wood flooring to re-knit a home to the land beyond its walls.

  Why do you think wide plank flooring is becoming so popular?
   
  I think the rise in wide plank flooring’s popularity can be attributed to several factors.

  First, I would note the obvious: it looks great. From a design standpoint, the long, continuous lines achievable with wide planks can be used as a room’s key design element.

  Next, I would have to speculate that the power of nostalgia plays a big part when homeowners in Maine—whether they are year-round residents or second home owners—select this type of flooring for their project. This theory is based upon the dozens of conversations Maine HOME+DESIGN staff has had with countless people in the home building and design field. We hear time and again that there is just something so warm and memorable about wide plank flooring—I personally always relate it to the wide pine floors in my grandparent’s 150-year-old house.

  Lastly, in a time when “sustainability” is on the tips of many tongues, using pine flooring that comes from forests that are being forested with sustainable practices is very appealing to consumers. Utilizing reclaimed wood for flooring is even better—this is not recycling, but upcycling, by which I mean, taking something that is already made and giving it a new, more valuable and sustainable life.

  Statistics show that demand for antique flooring has doubled over the last ten years. Are you seeing more homes with reclaimed wood, antique floors, as well as more recycled or salvaged materials in general? 
  

  Yes, we see homes all the time with reclaimed wood, antique floors. In fact, two weeks ago I was visiting with the wildly talented furniture maker Eric Ritter of Ritter Furniture and we spent a long time talking about the reclaimed wood floors that he had laid in his 175-year-old colonial farmhouse.

  Recycled and salvaged materials are constantly popping up in Maine homes. I think the state has a long history of this sort of smart frugality. These days, there are reasons beyond frugality to use such materials. Again, as I stated previously, consumers are becoming more savvy about where the components of their home come from, how they are manufactured, and how they impact the earth. Antique flooring scores high with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, or LEED, and many people give serious credence to their advice.

  What kind of aesthetic do you find wide plank flooring giving homes on the coast? In the interior of the state?

  As I said earlier, wide plank flooring seems to be a perfect fit for the Maine design vernacular—in the interior of the state, it offers echoes of old barns and farmhouses; along the coast, it epitomizes our ideals of the perfect beachside cottage.

  The aesthetics possible with wood flooring are, as I also said earlier, limitless. A few examples of homes we’ve featured in Maine HOME+DESIGN come to mind:

  Back in May, 2007 we featured a home in a piece entitled “Island Elegance.” In that home (which included Douglas fir walls and ceilings) the antique southern yellow pine floors gave the small island home an added level of sophistication.

  In June of that same year we featured an early 1880s farmhouse in South Freeport where the homeowner (who is also an interior designer) picked old wide-pine-board floors and gave the space an almost French countryside aesthetic.

  Lastly, a Goose Rocks Beach home featured in our new issue, “Land of Leisure” (August, 2008), has gorgeous wide pine floors throughout. While some could argue that pine isn’t “strong” enough to withstand the wear and tear of sand-covered feet, the homeowner and architect felt strongly that the natural aging of the wide pine would add beautifully to the beach cottage-meets-farmhouse aesthetic that they were aiming for.

  Posted on August 13, 2008 at 01:35 PM in Hardwood Flooring • Home Building & Contracting • (2) Comments

• Interior Design and Hardwood Flooring:  Spotlight on designer Krista Stokes - Part II

  Posted by GuestBlogger

  By Albert Waitt

  Krista Stokes is one of Maine's hippest designers and the proprietor of Favela Chic Salvage Boutique and Design.  She was of 14 professionals chosen to work at the exclusive Hidden Pond Resort in Kennebunkport, ME, where she created the "Lazy Days" cottage.  Her work there was pictured in the Boston Globe and chronicled throughout New England. 

  The Floor

  No Knock on Wood

  Krista:  Go for the hardwood, wide plank floor because of "the feel" of it.  And the way it sounds.  The feeling of wood is what I go for-everything else is secondary.  You can do anything you want with it.   It's a really versatile tool.  You're not pigeon-holed into anything. 
  

  Taking Wide Planks One Step Beyond

  Krista:  I love going into a place that has a floor laid in an unexpected way.    It gives people a chance to make the statement:  "You know, I actually thought about my floor."   Anytime you can say that in your home in a nice and easy way, it's great design. 

  For example, you can always take what one would expect a hardwood floor to be and change it.  This ranch I'm doing now is really long.   It already goes on forever.  So instead of doing the floors lengthwise, we said let's cut the room in half and lay the planks short-wise.  You enter through the French doors and on the other side of the room is York Harbor.  The floor takes the distance of your eye and shortens it.  Now you walk in the door and the wood takes your eye outside to the harbor because the floor is pointing you that way. 

  If I were a Carpenter:

  Krista:  Carpenters can lay your planks at an angle, do an original design, a compass rose, or parquet your floor.  You can do anything you want.  The sky's the limit if you can find somebody who likes to work with wood for wood's sake or craft's sake.

  The Décor

  Come Together:

  Krista:  Hardwood flooring is the most versatile thing in your house.  It will do whatever you want it to.  It's all about the décor. 

  You can take the same heart pine wide plank floor and:

  Put a chrome table, with chrome and black leather seats, on that floor.  Paint the wall bright red and hang motorcycle parts on it.  Place a juke box in the corner.  If you like that sort of thing, you'll be thinking, "Sweet."  You've got a floor that is perfect for the room.
  
  Then take all that away, and hang ship wheels on the wall.  Place an old farmer's table in the center of the room, and put up a fireplace mantle with a boat on it.  And wow, the floor's perfect for that room.

  Clear those pieces out and bring in some Angela Adams elements like an area rug or print, an espresso nut dark wood table with white leather chairs, and a bowl of fruit and a side board.  Now you're contemporary and funky, yet traditional.  And the floor is still perfect.  

  As long as you are following other rules that balance out your design and balance out the objective of what you want the room to feel like, you're going to be successful with a wide plank floor.  Everything adds up to create the atmosphere you want. 

  Posted on August 12, 2008 at 02:05 PM in Hardwood Flooring • Home Building & Contracting • Home Decor • (0) Comments

• Interior Design and Wide Plank Flooring:  Spotlight on Krista Stokes - Part I

  Posted by GuestBlogger

  By Albert Waitt 

  Krista Stokes is one of Maine's hippest designers and the proprietor of Favela Chic Salvage Boutique and Design.  She was of 14 professionals chosen to work at the exclusive Hidden Pond Resort in Kennebunkport, ME, where she created the "Lazy Days" cottage.  Her work there was pictured in the Boston Globe and chronicled throughout the region. 

  The Surface sat down with Krista to discuss aspects of decorating for spaces with wide plank flooring.  For the record, the interview was conducted in a public place.  It was also repeatedly (and pleasantly) interrupted by a number of Krista's clients who couldn't pass by without saying hello and talking about their homes.  It's clear that Krista has the makings of a fan club on the Maine coast.   And she has a philosophy when choosing flooring materials:   

  It's the Wood:

  Krista:  For me, it's the wood.  It's part of the earth.  When you walk into a room and see beautiful hardwood floor, it's a feeling that you get.  I love the light reflection of it.  I love the sound of hardwood.  It's a great way to give a space energy.  The wood has traveled long and hard.  Regardless of its history, whether it came out of an old farm in Ohio or a forest in Brazil, it's traveled. Just to bring that into the home means a great deal.

  Floors Tell Stories. 

  Krista:  I recently went through a big debate with some clients.  The wife really wanted a wide plank floor.  The husband wasn't thrilled.  They have a dog and he didn't want the dog's nails to scratch the floor.  I said, "Listen guys, it's life. Let life screw up your floors.   Don't get your floors and then want them to stay the way they are."  

  Floors all tell stories.  It's getting harder and harder for us to instill history with the next generation.  A lot of people want to leave a history for their children, but don't want to relinquish the control of modernity.

  But, it's okay.  Don't sweat it.  It's a floor. It's supposed to be walked on.  Kids are going to run across it.  It's supposed to have dogs' paws on it.  The wood has survived this long and it will survive much longer than us humans.  The first thing you notice when you walk into a room with a wide plank floor is, "Wow, what a great floor."  If you see where a child's toy car left a skid mark, then you might think, "Hey, what happened?"  It's family history.

  Posted on August 11, 2008 at 02:00 PM in Hardwood Flooring • Home Building & Contracting • Home Decor • (0) Comments

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