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.

A word about engineered floors, from Don Carlisle

Posted by Christine Halvorson

And because our engineered boards are also the longest and widest in the industry (sound familiar?), they’re amazingly strong and stable—without the “jigsaw puzzle look” that’s typical of most engineered flooring.

Best of all, they’re right in terms of the environment. Our construction and installation adhesives are virtually VOC-and formaldehyde-free, as are our traditional Custom Coat™ stains and topcoats. So there’s no “off gassing” and degraded indoor air quality, either during installation or in the years to come.

Because Carlisle Engineered Floors are amazingly stable and moisture resistant, they are ideal for both concrete and radiant heat applications—both of which are fast-growing markets for us.

So what’s it all mean? Simply that we now are able to offer the cost-effectiveness and ease of installation which have become synonymous with engineered flooring, plus all the solid advantages that Carlisle has long been noted for.

Pretty exciting stuff, if you ask me.

Don Carlisle, president

Read more about Carlisle’s engineered floors here.

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Posted on November 5, 2009 at 11:47 AM in Wood Grains & Styles • (0) Comments
J. Crew turns to Carlisle’s reclaimed wood to make its retail stores stand out

Posted by Christine Halvorson

agreed and Peter got the Carlisle mill crew on the task of meticulously grading the boards. “I’m thinking some 35 pairs of eyes probably inspected and re-inspected the board choices for the first J. Crew floor,” Peter said.

In the end, no one could tell the difference between the two woods, thanks to the grading and to the WOCA white oil. “The guys in the mill just love this type of work. They love the challenge of it,” Peter said.

Carlisle completed the Madison Avenue floor for J.Crew—done up in 4-inch wide planks and installed in a Herringbone pattern—in August of 2008.

Shortly thereafter, the project manager for the Madison Avenue store contacted Peter again. This time they were thinking of J. Crew’s Malibou, California location and wanted a pre-finished floor to save time. Peter agreed that Carlisle would apply the stain at its custom shop and ship the floor ready to install.

“But it turned out to be tough to get the hand-rubbed look they wanted using a pre-finished stain,” Peter explained. Again, they mixed two woods to keep costs down—Premium Old Growth White Oak and Antique White Oak, for a total of 6,000 square feet.

“We just worked through all the problems,” Peter says, “and that’s what makes this a good relationship.”

Which takes us back to New York City. Carlisle was enlisted for two more J.Crew stores—one at 1200 Madison Avenue and one at 44 Broadway. For 1200 Madision Avenue, they chose a mixture of Antique Oak and White Oak, and for 44 Broadway, a hand-graded Milled Barnwood was used. Another store planned for the Stroughton/Hampton area will also use Milled Barnwood.

Peter says the J. Crew stores are a challenge he relishes. “You have to work fast. You have a short time period to get in there and get it installed right,” he said. “When retail is closing for remodeling, they’re not making any money, so there isn’t any down time.”

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Posted on November 3, 2009 at 03:16 PM in Stains & Finishes • Wood Grains & Styles • (0) Comments
Carlisle’s Quarter Sawn White Oak: It’s A Grain Thing.

Posted by Christine Halvorson

White Oak is a very unique wood because its grain lends itself to a variety of different looks, depending on how it is sawn.

Normally, a log is plain sawn, i.e. it is first cut into a rough square by taking off four sections of the outer bark and sapwood, and then sawn with a series of parallel cuts — as if a loaf of bread were cut lengthwise to yield long slices. Grain-wise, this typically gives a floor a little bit of everything: straight lines as well as a variety of swirls and “cathedral patterns” — several swirls inside one another. This is the way most floors are cut.

Quarter sawn cuts generally only apply to Oak and a few other hardwoods. They are made by first cutting the log into four pie-shaped wedges and then making a series of cuts which are more or less perpendicular to the tree rings, which produces straighter grain. Without getting too technical, let’s just say that quarter sawn White Oak produces more “rays” or “flecks,” which is the hallmark look of Mission furniture/cabinetry. In addition to being visually interesting, this grain pattern produces extremely stable boards.

Various stains can then be used to further enhance the grain or make it more subtle.

This Long Island, New York residence features a beautiful mixture of quarter sawn, rift sawn and plain sawn White Oak. Note the contrast between the various grain patterns.

Posted on October 29, 2009 at 03:23 PM in Wood Grains & Styles • (0) Comments
Hit-or-Miss is a not a miss in this family cottage

Posted by Christine Halvorson

Roya and Ian Young, a custom-cabinet maker by trade, chose Carlisle’s Eastern White Pine to create a great, casual look in their cottage. The floor was done with a hit-or-miss technique. Hit-or-miss is just one many handmade surfaces that Carlilse’s woodworking team can create.

Posted on September 9, 2009 at 01:44 PM in Wood Grains & Styles • (0) Comments
Unique, challenging Carlisle floor is satisfying to all involved

Posted by Christine Halvorson

A trip into our Chicago design showroom by an architect and his client a while back has led to an astonishing floor in the client's Florida home. The architect and customer decided to go with a very unique style and technique in our Carlisle floors--a White Oak wood that would be painted (yes, painted) with white paint. That white paint would then be scrubbed off, hand-sanded and then given a water-based top coat that provides a clear and matte finish. Sound like something you'd want to try? Well, this project of 2,000 square feet took about 450 person-hours to complete! Yet, we think you'll agree that the end result is pretty amazing.

Why would you start out painting that lovely wood, you may ask? Well, this process would allow for a little of the white paint to remain behind, in the "low-lying" areas of the wood grain, while the surface retained the natural oak color. The result is a nice, light white color. This is not the kind of thing that is done every day, but it's definitely what the customer wanted. The builder, Kelly at D.C. Twin Company in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, had not worked with us at Carlisle before and ended up sending us a nice note about her experience when the project was done:

"Hello! Okay, this is the most amazing floor and beams we have ever had privvy to do..It was very, very tricky, grueling and laborious work....These photos do not do justice for these richly casual, incredible floors. When we started on site, every carpenter, painter, and builder told us we could not do it...[the customer] is absolutely elated, surpassed her vision. In fact, she is having her custom-made rugs re-cut on-site so they don't cover her new floors! ... it was so worth the difficult work, and thank you again for giving us the opportunity, we are really really proud!"

Well, gosh. We're always happy when our customers are happy, but we're also really happy when we make a new friend among the home-building community! Thank you, D.C. Twin!

Posted on May 29, 2009 at 02:06 PM in Wood Grains & Styles • (0) Comments