CHOOSING A WOOD FLOORING SPECIES

quality unmatched by anyone

Wood Flooring Species Procured with Purpose

Choosing the right floor can be difficult, especially with nearly unlimited options. That’s why Carlisle has consolidated our species into similar characteristics to help guide you through your floor building journey. There’s a wide variety of flooring options on the market today, including both domestic and imported wood floors. At Carlisle, we’re proud to curate only the highest quality local species available. In doing so, this allows us to develop the extraordinary lengths and widths of each board, signature characteristics of a Carlisle floor.

When it comes to species, we focus on quality, offering 12 different species as well as six reclaimed wood flooring options. Although most domestic species have an expansive grown range, we’re proud to work with an exclusive group of sawyers. By doing so, we can ensure each species experiences ideal growing conditions in the area of the country where it can thrive. Typically this means Northern climates where the timbers grow slower, allowing them to produce a much higher quality denser timber. Regardless of what species you choose, you can have confidence in the presence and performance of your floor.

Design With Color in Mind

Certain woods such as White Oak, Red Oak, White Maple, Cherry, and Eastern White Pine tend to be more consistently in the natural color tone of the wood. Although all naturals products exhibit a specific range of color, these species create a tighter range of color overall. If you’re considering a lighter color floor and prefer more consistent color tones, you should start with these species. When considering darker tones using these species, you’ll achieve greater color consistency as these wood types overcome most natural variation found within the wood.

Conversely, species like Hickory, Walnut, Ash, Birch, Brown Maple and most reclaimed woods exhibit much more considerable color variation. This mostly due to the contrast of heartwood to sapwood. Heartwood is the darker center of the tree where nutrients are no longer moving from root to leaf and back again. Sapwood is typically lighter, and color and is the still active feeding system of the timber. If you use a natural finish or a lighter stain color on these species, you will maintain the variation in tone and create a more organic natural floor. Typically this combination is used in more relaxed natural earth tone interiors where heavy stains or paint rarely alter the color palette.

Design With Color in Mind
The Detail's in the Grain

When considering the right floor, woods like Red Oak, White Oak, Hickory, Ash, and Heart Pine have a stronger grain. Since the pores of the wood are more visible, this makes the grain pattern more visible. When the stain’s applied during our prefinishing process, it penetrates deeper into the more porous areas of the grain, enhancing the visibility of the natural pattern. Lighter stain color will not make the grain as apparent as darker colors. If swirl and flow of the grain appeal to you when looking at your floor, consider one of these species. They’re sure to continue piquing your interest for years to come.

Species such as Cherry, White Maple, Brown Maple, Birch, Walnut and Eastern White Pine have grain with noticeably close pores. These species have a flow to their grain that is beautiful but less prominent than the open pore species. The darker you stain these species, the less you will see the grain. Upon closer examination, you’ll want to focus on color and the subtle flow of grain lines.

Design Consultation

The Detail's in the Grain

Quality Wood Floors Customized to Your Individual Style

Here’s the excellent news….you can’t go wrong. Our Wide Plank Specialist with walk you through the best options for your project, and provide you samples of any species you’re considering in your design. Handcrafted one at a time, our sample stain combination can be customized to whatever you can imagine. In the end, they’re sure to become the centerpiece for your home for years to come!

See Our Wood

Learn more about our other custom flooring options.