Newsletter: May 2011

Carlisle Wide Plank Floors is pleased to announce the grand opening of its new showroom in the sophisticated Architects & Designers (A&D) Building located in the heart of New York City. Known in the industry for offering the longest and widest wood flooring planks available, Carlisle showcases its premium wood floors in an expansive 2,086-square-foot showroom.

On May 16, designers and industry professionals celebrated the showroom grand opening with Carlisle’s CEO, Michael Stanek, and other key company executives. Designer Robin Wilson was inside the showroom signing copies of her new book, Kennedy Green House. The first 200 guests to arrive received a complimentary signed copy of the book.

Carlisle in the News!

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To Spec or Not To Spec

Maintaining the integrity of the interior design for any project is critical to its overall success. Design professionals labor for hours to select and specify the right flooring product that will help them achieve the vision they and their clients have in mind. Professionals choose Carlisle for a variety of reasons; yet, choosing a Carlisle floors does not always ensure it will be used.

You can guarantee the right product is used by outlining a detailed product specification, with all the pertinent details. Often times we see architectural specs reading “Carlisle” only to be auto-populated with the wrong information, or the specs are very vague. Without the right details, a product spec can lead to a poor outcome: It gives suppliers creative liberties to find any product that is “close” in look and feel. Yet, they won’t be using the same wood, resulting in a dramatically different look. For example, writing “Old Growth Center Cut White Oak” in a specification order ensures you get the right product, rather than listing simply “White Oak.”

1. It will result in the wrong grade being ordered. Listing “Country Grade” is open to interpretation, while listing “Original Grade,” which is Carlisle’s proprietary grade, will ensure you get the right look.

2. It will result in inferior products being used that do not perform as promised. You could end up with a floor that cups, crowns, or has other negative movement. Your spec should read “air and kiln dried,” and should identify the correct wood grade.

3. It will result in the floor having narrow widths and lengths. Carlisle floors are crafted in very wide widths and long lengths to reduce seams by up to 50% in a space.

4. It will result in a floor that cannot perform on radiant heat or concrete slab. More than 50% of Carlisle floors made today are being installed on these and other subfloors.

5. It will result in a floor that is not the same color or finish. This affects the overall look of the floor and its sheen, and it compromises the design.

6. It will result in a floor that will now need to be finished on site rather than by Carlisle. This will create more work, additional expense, and runs the risk of not being done properly for the desired outcome. We finish more than 30% of our floors today, guaranteeing the most predictable outcome.

7. The floor will not have the same maintenance schedule. This could make it more costly to maintain over the years, less durable, and result in a shorter life span.

8. If the wrong floor product shows up on site, there will be delays and additional expenses. Consider the time and energy wasted to get things fixed.

9. Most importantly you run the greatest risk of all - unhappy clients.

There is no doubt that writing the correct specification can take time, but ending up with the wrong product is a headache. So save time, avoid the aggravation and contact your Carlisle Personal Design Consultant, who will write the spec for you and ensure you have all the pertinent details. We will also work with all contractors and sub contractors on the project to facilitate the ordering and installation process so your project is a success. We do it every day for clients all over the world.

Click here to see an example of a Carlisle specification.

3 Things to Know about Installing Wood Flooring over Radiant Heat

Carlisle Wide Plank Floors are the ideal wooden floors to install over a radiant heat system throughout your home. Due to the high quality wood used to make Carlisle flooring, combined with the company’s unique drying and manufacturing process, homeowners can have extreme confidence in using a solid wide plank up to 20 inches wide over radiant heat. Take into consideration, however, the following three things that you should know before installing wood flooring over radiant heat.

1. You must know where your wood comes from. Was your Oak floor harvested from the south or the north of the United States? Specifically what region? Growing conditions determine grain density of a timber. The tighter the grain, the less movement your floor will experience. Thankfully, Carlisle works with small sawyers who source logs from the optimal growing regions for each wood species. You can have confidence your Carlisle floor will have a tight growth structure, thereby minimizing movement when installed over radiant heat. We suggest asking the people who are making your floor if they can tell you exactly where the wood is coming from. You must know in order to make an informed decision.

2. You must know what part of the tree is being used. The oldest and slowest grown portion of any timber is at the very bottom, center of the tree. By sawing from this area, the wood will have greater grain density, as well as greater vertical grain. Vertical grain can expand and contract, but it is less prone to cupping or crowning. Therefore, the more vertical grain you have in each plank, the less likely the wood will make these types of movement. Because a Carlisle floor is sawn exclusively from this portion of the timber, we are confident that even our widest 20 inch boards will perform exceptionally well over radiant heat.

3. You must know how your floor was made. In today’s market, most floor manufactures claim to be mill direct. Yet, would it be possible for you to visit their mill and see your floor being made for you? If so, you will know that the people making your floor are making it just for you, giving it the precision and care it deserves. At Carlisle, we encourage you to visit our mill in New Hampshire and see how often our craftsmen handle each board. Why is this important? Certain character and grain may not be appropriate for radiant heat applications. Since we take the time to scrutinize each and every board, we ensure all of our floors can be installed in any environment. We check everything from making sure the correct side is milled for greatest stability to reviewing the moisture content in individual planks. Nothing is overlooked, and customers see that when they watch us work.

There are many things that will make your installation successful, and our Design Consultants are ready and willing to answer any questions you have. Keep in mind…it all starts with the wood. If that isn’t right, nothing after it will matter!

Craftsman Profile: Cliff Faulkner

Since childhood, Cliff Faulkner’s life has always revolved around wood, from delivering firewood to learning about all the different species. As a young boy, Faulkner and his father would drive into the woods with a tractor and a truck bed to cut cordwood, which are short pieces of debarked tree used as firewood, and deliver it throughout their local community of Fitzwilliam, NH. As a result of spending his days in the woods with his father, Faulkner’s knowledge and passion for wood and the different species greatly increased evolving into his current lifetime profession.

After high school, Faulkner began working at a local wood mill on the green chain sorting lumber, collecting desired boards and stacking them onto a cart. Within six months he was promoted and moved inside the mill. Within the mill, Faulkner worked the trim saw for close to three years where his talent was quickly noticed. He soon progressed to operating the dry kilns, making wood usable by removing its moisture, which he did for five years.

Looking for an opportunity within another company, as well as his need for a larger career challenge, Faulkner joined the leading makers of wide plank floors, Carlisle Wide Plank Flooring based in New Hampshire. Bringing with him years of experience in wood flooring and more than eight years of experience in bulk wood sales, Faulkner was pleased to join a team of enthusiastic workers who shared his same passion for wood. He found that Carlisle craftsmen worked as a unit both inside and outside of the mill. As a very tight group, the craftsmen expand their relationships outside of their work environment having after hour’s gatherings.

Faulkner is a loyal and passionate Carlisle flooring employee, having installed white oak flooring in his own home, which he says adds a more rustic look. Pleased with his custom Carlisle flooring, Faulkner keeps in mind the quality he expected in his own home when crafting a floor for others. At Carlisle, since he assembles the orders of hardwood floors, Faulkner is very selective when choosing planks, keeping in mind each individual job, making sure they are compatible in size and appearance.

“My primary goal is to craft the best looking floor all of the time, no matter how big or small,” Faulkner explained. “I take immense pride in giving all of my customers the finest wood floor that I can create.”

Faulkner enjoys working with hardwoods daily, especially hickory since it has great wood character. In fact, wood character is Faulkner’s favorite thing about working with wood. He loves being able to see how a tree grew, noting where its branches were or if it had burrowing insects. By selecting interesting milled pieces of wood like this, Faulkner helps to create what he calls a conversation piece for the home. Faulkner believes that wood flooring is all about the quality of the end product, how it looks installed.

In closing, for other craftsmen, Faulkner has one piece of advice - “If it is good enough for you, then it is probably good enough for the client.”

Carlisle White Oak Flooring featured in Luxe Interiors + Design

A recent issue of Luxe Interiors + Design features a photograph of a recent home renovation by a talented California design team.  The designer was looking to incorporate a modern look, yet wanted to retain a nice family-friendly feel.

“I felt this could be accomplished through using more imperfect finishes, things with knots and distinctive grains and color variation,” said Billy Rose of Billy Rose Design & Development in Los Angeles.

So, for example, the Carlisle Wide Plank Floors have a hand-scraped edge, and the hand-carved Robert Kuo marble tile in the master bath also has a sort of handmade quality that encourages a tactile experience.

Click here for a link to the photograph.