Carlisle Wide Plank Floors

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

Timothy McKeon of Chicago had a big project on his hands. A much-loved family farmhouse in Swartz Creek, Michigan— which had served as the center of family reunion activity for years under the leadership of his father, Charles E. McKeon— really needed a facelift and some renovations in order to accommodate the clan. The house has been in the McKeon family for 110 years and, as Tim put it, they wanted it to survive for another 110. You can read all about this extensive renovation project and see dozens of more photos at the McKeon Centennial Farm website here.

“We needed to keep what was already there and then to supplement what was there with a product that matched,” he said.

The renovation project would involve a hodge-podge of different floors in different rooms that would suddenly have to work well with new floors in new rooms. Some of the existing floors had thick-planked oak that had been under carpeting and needed to be exposed and refinished . Some other rooms had fir floors—or perhaps they were a low-quality pine—that were “not very pretty,” McKeon said. And, another room had some stock planks that were 18-inches wide. Those McKeon knew were a perfect match for Carlisle’s wide planks. Additionally, a great room—quite large—was to be created and he knew narrow floor boards just weren’t going to work there.

At the urging of his builder, McKeon had used Carlisle Wide Plank hard pine in a second home he owns in Michigan. So, back in mid-July of this year, he put in a call to Carlisle’s Chicago Design Center and got Stephanie Buckley, our design and sales consultant there. Stephanie and McKeon walked through all the various possibilities that would work with his patchwork quilt of floors and finally settled on Heart Pine with a medium Bradford Umber stain and not too wide and not too narrow. For the great room this was best, he said. “We needed something that would hold itself up in that room,” he wrote.

But, our floors were more than the original budget for this renovation project allowed, McKeon said. Yet, as he watched the original house be dismantled and rebuilt, nearly board by board, he knew he really needed Carlisle floors to lay down in the Great Room, a brand new bedroom and two new hallways. “It’s quality, beauty, historical similaries far exceeded any other product for this purpose,” he wrote to us.

Posted on December 10, 2009 at 11:43 AM in Restoration Projects • (0) Comments

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