Carlisle Wide Plank Floors

Surface Blog

• 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

• The Industrial Forest: Harvesting Wide Plank Flooring

  Posted by GuestBlogger

  By Albert Waitt

  Carpenters often refer to salvaged materials as coming from "the industrial forest."  This somewhat comical slang indicates a growing awareness in the building industry of the importance of recycling classic wood and lumber.  The US Forest Service reported:

  "The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the equivalent of 250, 000 single-family homes is disposed of each year in the United States. This represents nearly 1 billion board feet of salvageable structural lumber per year, equivalent to about 3% of the current US softwood harvest. Much of the lumber available for salvage through deconstruction is from decades of old-growth harvest and represents a resource largely unavailable from any other source.  As a result, much of the wood is of higher structural and aesthetic quality (higher density, slower grown, fewer defects) than is the lumber produced today." 

  Hardwood used in wide plank flooring can be salvaged from a wide range of sources.  It has come from turn-of-the-century homes, old hotels, dilapidated mills, and even a 120 year-old, decommissioned 15 story grain elevator containing "the equivalent of an entire forest of antique, old-growth white pine in its walls."  Where once this wood might have been seen as junk and discarded or burned, it is now recognized for what it is:  An extremely rare natural commodity. 

  The wood salvage industry has expanded to harvest this bounty. The 2005 Forest Service study identified approximately 1400 businesses involved in salvaging, restoring, and building with reclaimed wood.  It is a number that has steadily climbed. 

  Demand for reclaimed antique wood has also grown as homeowners have become aware of the look and ambiance it can provide.  A National Hardwood Floor Association survey found that 56% of decorators and designers noted an increase in the demand for antique wood flooring over the past two years. 

  To meet this need, the hardwood flooring industry looks to the industrial forest.  It's there that they can glean materials that are nearly impossible to find anywhere else.  The American chestnut tree is nearly extinct, but one can enjoy the warmth it offers a home through salvage and restoration.  Old growth pine harvested from a turn-of-the century farmhouse will show a dense wood grain with a tight ring pattern that just doesn't appear in virgin lumber.  The aesthetics offered in reclaimed antique flooring are inimitable.

  Barns that were once left to fall and rot are now seen as a valuable resource.  Old houses that may have crumbled in disrepair are mined for irreplaceable flooring and fixtures.  If one wants to create a period feel to a room or home, the most effective way to do so is with the materials of that period.   Thanks to the industrial forest, the floors of the past live on today-and look as beautiful as ever.

  (Survey results are available from The National Hardwood Floor Association:

  http://woodfloors.org/consumer/contact.aspx) 

  Posted on August 10, 2008 at 01:45 PM in Green Building • Hardwood Flooring • Home Building & Contracting • (1) Comments

• Installing Hardwood Flooring: One of the Safer DIY Projects

  Posted by GuestBlogger

  By Phil Johnson 

  I'm not a big Do-It-Yourself guy. Generally, my DIY activities are limited to painting, wallpapering and unclogging the toilet. Other than that, my main handyman skill is writing a check. It's no surprise, then, that the thought of installing my own wide plank hardwood floors seems about as doable as building the space shuttle.

  However, after a little research, I've come to think this is the kind of project that even I could handle. At the very least, it's less life threatening than other home improvement projects like:

  Plumbing – Plumbers use blowtorches. Can you say, "burn unit"?

  Electrical – They use electricity to execute convicts. No thanks.

  Roofing – I'm not afraid of heights; I'm afraid of falling from heights.

  So far as I can tell the odds of installing hardwood floors and living to tell about it seem relatively high!

  If you're thinking of installing a hardwood floor yourself, there's lots of helpful information out there about it – even videos tutorials! After careful review, I get the feeling that, with a little patience and free time, I could actually handle it.

  For starters, nowadays you can buy prefinished flooring – even for wide plank flooring – eliminating the need for sanding, staining and sealing. Since using a drum sander sounds about easy as operating a Zamboni, this reduces the project complexity – and potential medical co-payment costs - quite a bit.

  Next, the tools involved aren't all that complicated. They include – among other things – a hammer, a crowbar, a floor nailer and a miter saw. Now, sure, a power saw sounds a little dicey, but I figure you can lose a digit or two and still maintain a high quality of life.

  As for the actual hardwood floor installation, it sounds quite reasonable, and has been described as a weekend project. It involves some variation of the following basic steps:

  Remove any existing baseboard – Heck, even I can take stuff apart.

  Prepare the floor base – You can put hardwood flooring on top of a plywood sub-floor, an existing hardwood floor or even concrete! Usually, you put down a plastic or felt vapor barrier to keep the moisture out.

  Install the floor - Start laying planks or boards from one wall, nail them in place using said floor nailer (try not to do this) and work your way across the room. Be sure to stagger the seams where the boards join!

  Edge special room aspects - If the room has floor vents, fireplaces, or some such thing, make sure to edge them, which requires a few extra cuts, no biggie.

  Replace baseboards, sweep up and enjoy your new floors! At this point you may want to enjoy a celebratory beverage of your choice (in my case that'd be beer).

  The more I think about this, the surer I am that I'm going to have give this project a go! Now I just need to convince my wife that I won't maim myself doing it …

  Posted on August 8, 2008 at 07:19 AM in DIY • Hardwood Flooring • Home Building & Contracting • (0) Comments

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