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.

Heirloom/Select Walnut contributes some fabulous floors to a fabulous Long Island home

Posted by Christine Halvorson

Take a click over to the website of Denise Kuriger Design, LTC, to see our Carlisle Heirloom/Select Walnut on the floors of a spectacular home. The home is in the Hamptons on Long Island and the floors were installed by Jimi Chahalis of Showcase Wood Floors. The floors were created with 5-, 8-, and 10-inch widths, using a selection or grading process to capture just the right characteristics in the wood that the the customer prefers. The floors are finished in Tung Oil.

Posted on March 19, 2010 at 09:46 AM in Home Building & Contracting • (0) Comments
Near New York? See us at the Architectural Digest Show March 19-21

Posted by Christine Halvorson

Carlisle Wide Plank Floors will be in booth #935 at the upcoming Architectural Digest Show in New York City. The show goes from March 18-24, but from March 19 through the 21, the doors are open to the public. The event takes place at Pier 94, 12th Avenue at 55th Street, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

While you’ll certainly want to see our floors in action, and talk to our Carlisle staff who will be there, the show if full of lots of interesting things to do. You could attend cooking demonstrations and tastings, or attend a seminar on getting started with your dream design project.

But, we really recommend you come visit us! For complete show details, go here: http://www.archdigesthomeshow.com

Posted on March 16, 2010 at 03:13 PM in News & Events • (0) Comments
How Heirloom Hickory hardwood floors are crafted

Posted by Christine Halvorson

Here’s an example of our Heirloom Hickory, placed in a home in Colulmbia, Maryland by Jim and Toni Johns. The Johns found Carlisle online and then decided to make a visit to our Washington D.C. showroom to see the samples up close. In January they placed their order and just last week they sent us these photos of the completed project.

Sales and Design Consultant Adam Whitney says that Toni Johns wanted to create a Colonial look, but also wanted a very hard wood, so Pine was not her preference. Once Adam and the Johns decided Hickory was going to do the trick, Adam made sure the boards were graded (selected) to have minimal knots. This is called “Heirloom Grade” and it means that those boards came from the very bottom tier of the tree.

“In mature, old growth timber, this is where there are the fewest branches, so it creates a cleaner look,” Adam says.

Carlisle further graded the Hickory is selecting the boards, and in the installation of the floor, to maximize the use of heartwood, which gives a more consistent color tone throughout the whole floor. That means that with this 7-inch board, Carlisle started with a 9-inch board and used a straight-line rip saw to take off some edge grain.

Then, the floor was prefinished before shipping off to the Johns, using our Gingerbread stain.

Thanks to the Johns for sending us these photos!

Posted on March 15, 2010 at 08:59 AM in Hardwood Flooring • (0) Comments
Monday Morning Mailbag: Customer in love with Heart Pine

Posted by Christine Halvorson

We got a note and photograph from customer Lisa Cahill recently and thought we would share them. Lisa had ordered 2,200 square free of 6- to 10-inch wide Heart Pine for her home. She selected a blended grade and the boards were finished only with Tung Oil, no stain. Below is a photo of how the floor looks in her remodeled kitchen.

Lisa writes: “I love my floors!!! Thanks, again, for all of your help. I actually used the leftover flooring and had a desk top made for my kids homework room.”

While writing to us, Lisa mentioned that she used a “magic eraser” to remove a shoe mark on the new floor. Unfortunately, the magic eraser had the effect of rubbing off the Tung oil, and she wanted advice on how to fix that. Our designer, Stephanie Buckley, advised her to re-apply a little Tung oil just to the affected area. Normally, scuff marks can be removed with a little white vinegar on a cloth.

Carlisle’s Heart Pine comes from a 30,000-acre plantation in Alabama, owned and operated by the Crosby family. It’s available in widths ranging from 4 to 17 inches, and lengths averaging 11 feet.
Read more about Longleaf Heart Pine flooring.

Posted on March 8, 2010 at 01:47 PM in Customer Stories • (0) Comments
Ten years too long to wait for Eastern White Pine wide plank floors? Nope

Posted by Christine Halvorson

Ten years ago June Peoples of Washington state got a sample of our Eastern White Pine stained with Antique Pumpkin. This year, she finally got a chance to order the floor for her living room and did all the installation work herself. After completing the project, she was kind enough to send us a couple of photos and a nice note. The boards were done in 11-inch widths. She writes:

I wanted to wait until I finished room completely before sending you the final pictures. Most importantly I wanted to send you my sincere thanks for all your help and advice throughout the process. This is one of those projects where you get out of it what you put into it: hand selecting and placing each board, two coats of hand rubbed stain on my hands and knees, pilot drilling and placing the iron nails one at a time, four coats of tung oil. Not to mention, removing carpet, repainting the room and painting and replacing the baseboards…the result is better that I expected. Even prettier than the gorgeous sample I kept for ten years. Absolutely love it. The only down side is I have to deal with the envy and jealousy of my neighbors who settled for the floor-in-a-box from Home Depot.

Next year my bedroom…

Posted on February 26, 2010 at 07:53 PM in DIY • (0) Comments