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.

Premium Heart Pine wide plank floors in living room leads to possible Country Pine next

Posted by Christine Halvorson

Gregg and Marsha Martin in North Carolina installed a Carlisle floor in their living room back in 2006 and now they’re back considering another floor for their house. They were kind enough to send us this photo of the Premium Grade Heart Pine they had put in their living room then. It was finished with Autumn Leaf and Tung Oil. Now they are back for more, considering the installation of a pre-finished floor.

Posted on September 17, 2009 at 09:22 PM in Customer Stories • Hardwood Flooring • (0) Comments
One happy Carlisle customer helps out another

Posted by Christine Halvorson

Our customers sometimes rely on each other for advice on their flooring, as evidenced by an exchange among two Texans and personnel here at Carlisle. We love it when customers agree to be “references” for us. It’s sort of like we’re applying for a job—which we are, kind of!

So, Rodney Stephenson of Hempstead was thinking about a rustic wide plank floor that would have to be glued directly to a concrete slab. He also had questions about the softness of the pine.

With the help of Carlisle, he got advice from customer Jonnie Steffek in Richmond, who had installed her floor not that long ago. She told Rodney about an installation of Eastern White Pine.

Said Jonnie: “I went with the unfinished wood rather than pre-finished. My reason for that is, I like floors to show wear/pathways/knot holes.”

Carlisle supplied information to the client about gluing to the slab and the softness issue.

Jonnie wrote: “As far as being ‘soft’, that may be; however, in my book, ‘dings’ add character. I had a friend long ago, that would buy an antique, then refinish it to the point that it looked like it came direct from a furniture store…We have a few antiques scattered throughout the house, but they are old, and they look old.”

Jonnie invited Rodney over to her neck of the woods to see her floors for himself. We are indebted!

Posted on August 27, 2009 at 08:23 PM in Customer Stories • Hardwood Flooring • (0) Comments
Red Oak highlights rustic kitchen

Posted by Christine Halvorson

Nancy, a customer in Stow, Mass., did her kitchen floor with pre-finished Red Oak and the result, as you can see from the photos, is striking.

The flooring, done in 10-inch widths, mixes beautifully with the other touches in the kitchen, especially the 1850s-era reproduction cast iron cookstove.

In combination with the floor, the kitchen, the cabinets, the appliances and the cabinetry give it all a rustic, homey look and feel.

After completing the floor and living with it a few weeks, Nancy wrote us to ask how best to clean it. Should she use vinegar and water? Yes, we answered! That’s the best way to clean our floors.

Posted on August 26, 2009 at 09:03 PM in Hardwood Flooring • Home Decor • (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.

Read More…

Posted on April 20, 2009 at 01:36 PM 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