Surface Blog

Carlisle’s prefinished hardwood floors save the day in massive renovation project

• Posted by
• Christine Halvorson

By now, the renovations had proceeded nicely and there was a time crunch to finish the project. It was mid-August and they needed to begin installing by mid-September. Stephanie ultimately suggested McKeon go with Carlisle’s pre-finished option, where the boards would be finished in our own sample shop and delivered ready to install. She said they had some planks just delivered that were 1-inch wider than McKeon had originally settled on, but would offer it at the same price.

“The floor is just stunning. Gorgeous! It worked perfectly with all the other floors in our house, which was really three houses put together and attached to our new addition.”

“I really came to see the beauty of pre-finished as an option. It came and was ready to install, so we had a big savings in time and labor.”

In the end, McKeon writes, “I didn’t want to throw any of the scraps away, so I used them to create a display shelf above my kitchen cupboards. You can’t see them, they’re just holding decorative items—but I love knowing they are there.”

McKeon’s father was born in that farmhouse and had four siblings, all of whom are now scattered everywhere and each have had their own children, of course. Each year in June, his father staged a family reunion called Farm Fest and, again, each fall they gathered for what became known as Autumn Fest. McKeon’s deadline to get the renovations done became Autumn Fest on Columbus Day weekend, 2009.

Some neighbors down the road from the McKeon farmhouse were invited to come see the renovations. They were so impressed they may consider using Carlisle for renovations of their own. McKeon is ready to be a kind of coach to them if they do so. “I’m ready to take on another project and I would certainly use Carlisle again,” he said.

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Posted on Dec 10, 2009 AT 01:12 AM in Restoration Projects • (2) Comments

Carlisle’s Ash Flooring in a Traditional Farmhouse

• Posted by
• Chad Cassin

Shannon worked with Michelle & Roland Hankey to design a Wide Plank Ash Floors for their new home in Remington, VA. They built a new home, wanted a wide plank floor to achieve a Traditional Farmhouse look, but came to us late in the process so they had to find something that would work for their budget. She designed a floor for them in 3-12” Wide Planks. By mixing the wide widths with the narrow widths they achieved the perfect farmhouse look, and kept the cost down. To save even more money they installed and finished the floors themselves!

I am sending you some of our photos…We love our floors and we love the look it gives our home. My hardwood floor installer, AKA husband, is out of town for another week. When he gets back we will write our account of the installation process. We do have a fair amount of flooring left over and will be ordering a bit more to do another room in the near future…”

Ash with Bradford Umber Stain

Posted on Dec 10, 2009 AT 12:18 AM in (0) Comments

Even the delivery gets praise with Carlisle’s custom hardwood floors

• Posted by
• Christine Halvorson

We always like to provide great customer service at every step of the process when people buy our custom hardwood floors, but we rarely get praise just for the delivery method we use!

Carolyn and Scott MacGlashan of Maryland were a little anxious about a tractor trailer delivery of their new floor, our unfinished Hickory.

Adam Whitney, who is our guy in Carlisle’s Washington, D.C. showroom, assured them that the delivery would be just fine and, indeed, it was stellar, as the photos attest.

The MacGlashans wrote Adam that our “selection of Con-way Freight as their delivery agent was a most enjoyable experience. The driver, Mr. Troy Carls, is to be commended, to include his most friendly manner, and pride of creating a satisfied customer.”

And they like what they see so far, saying they are “especially pleased with the grade, various width boards, and especially the majority of long board lengths” that came in the delivery. The next step is installation.

We look forward to their report — and their pictures — when they’re done.

Posted on Dec 06, 2009 AT 11:59 PM in Home Building & Contracting • (0) Comments

Inspiration for choosing Carlisle pre-finished floors came from the dogs

• Posted by
• Christine Halvorson

Former Carlisle customers who installed our wood flooring and stained it themselves have returned as customers. But, because of their dogs, they decided to go with pre-finished this time.

Marsha and Gregg Martin of Raleigh, N.C., had used our Longleaf Heart Pine Flooring on a previous project about three years ago and did the staining themselves.

This time around, they reported, with three dogs in the house they couldn’t imagine going through the week-long staining process that our unfinished floors would involve. (But, rest assured, our floors stand up to dogs, as you’ll see below.) The Martins chose a pre-finished floor in Autumn Leaf and, as the pictures attest, the results are spectacular. And the Martins may not be done yet. “Never know,” they said in an e-mail, “we may talk to you again soon.”

But, while we’re on the subject of dogs, if you’re thinking of installed hard wood floors in your home and you have some rambuntious dogs in residence, you should know that the our wood floors finished with Tung Oil are very durable. The oil penetrates into the wood and strengthens and protects your floor from within. Its pliability allows the finish to “give” with scratches from Spot’s nails, effectively withstanding hours of fetch and tug-of-war.

One of the greatest benefits of Tung Oil is its ease of maintenance, especially for dog owners whose floors require more upkeep. Tung Oil makes your floor stain- and water-resistant, allowing for easy clean-up when Fido drips water from one end of the kitchen to the other. For daily cleaning, simply vacuum up the dog hair and damp-mop the paw prints using warm water and vinegar. Depending on how active your pooch is, you may want to refinish your floors every few years. To freshen up your floor, simply clean it and mop on another coat of Tung Oil. Sanding is never required, and you can also spot-apply the Tung Oil to touch up Buddy’s favorite play area on the floor. It truly is that simple! We have designed our floors and Tung Oil finish to be lived on and enjoyed by the entire family. The result is a floor that is both beautiful and low maintenance, which our extended Carlisle family dogs can attest to!

Posted on Dec 02, 2009 AT 11:42 PM in Hardwood Flooring • (0) Comments

Explaining “Chain-of-Custody” for Carlisle’s reclaimed wood floors

• Posted by
• Christine Halvorson

Many of our customers come to us asking for reclaimed wood for their future floor project. Our antique or reclaimed wood comes from old barns or abandoned mills, mostly along the eastern seaboard. We work with suppliers who find the structures and view the wood they contain with a critical eye. That’s important to us as we assure that our customers get a high quality product from a structure that may have been standing some 200 years ago!

When we purchase reclaimed wood, we seek certification for it—called a “Chain of Custody” certification—from the Forest Stewardship Council. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an independent, not for profit, non-government organization. The mission of the Forest Stewardship Council is to support environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests.

Here’s how the Forest Council described the “Chain of Custody” certification:

“FSC Chain of Custody is an information trail about the path taken by products from the forest or, in the case of recycled materials, from the reclamation site to the consumer including each stage of processing, transformation, manufacturing, and distribution where progress to the next stage of the supply chain involves a change of ownership.

FSC certification of such management systems is designed to provide a credible guarantee to customers, whether business, government or end consumer, that products which are sold (i.e. invoiced and possibly labeled) with a specified FSC certificate code are originating from well-managed forests, controlled sources, reclaimed materials, or a mixture of these. FSC Chain of Custody certification thereby facilitates the transparent flow of goods made from such materials through the supply chain.”

The certification requires us at Carlisle to document the location of the original structure, when it was built and how it was used. What that all comes down to is a guarantee that our reclaimed wood is a quality product about which customers should have no worries. The certification ensures the integrity of the wood.

Once the antique structure is purchased, it is carefully dismantled and our suppliers select the best, most stable wood to become a Carlisle floor. The wood is cut into usable lengths, sliced into one-inch thick planks and then stacked, kiln-dried, graded and shipped to our Stoddard, New Hampshire headquarters. Once it arrives here, we inspect it again for quality, grade, character, volume and moisture content before we craft it into somebody’s custom floor. Throughout the process, it is tracked for FSC compliance.

*Read more about certifications and our environmental efforts here.*

Posted on Dec 02, 2009 AT 12:03 AM in Green Building • (0) Comments