Quartersawn Oak Flooring

An introduction to quartersawn Oak flooring.

Quartersawn Oak flooring is wood flooring made with timbers cut from White Oak or Red Oak trees that are grown throughout the eastern part of the United States. Quartersawn White Oak or Red Oak flooring is cut in a specific way to produce straighter grain lines that run the length of the floorboard. Floorboards may also be cut using rift sawn or plain sawn (flat sawn) techniques.

Flat sawn is the most common form of cutting timbers – boards are cut from the timber in parallel cuts that resembles slicing a loaf of bread. While floorboards cut with the flat sawn method are less expensive, they produce a wider variety of grain patterns as the surface of each board cuts across the tree’s growth rings at many different angles.

With quartered Oak, the tree is cut in quarters and each quarter is sliced at a 60° to 90° angle to the outer surface, intersecting the tree’s growth rings more uniformly. This quarter sawing technique produces straighter grain lines with less variation and unique ray flecks in the grain while producing more stable planks.

What is wide plank quartersawn Oak flooring?

Wide plank quartersawn wood flooring is made with Oak floorboards that are cut using the quartersawn technique at widths that may be between 5″ and 12″, with lengths up to 14′. A wide plank floor has a much more luxurious, spacious and less busy feel since there are far fewer seams between floorboards than in a standard commercial floor, where floorboards are cut at a maximum width of 3″.

What are the advantages of quartersawn Oak flooring?

Quartersawn Oak flooring has a distinct and elegant look, enabling the Oak floor to truly become a central design feature of a home or business interior. Quartersawn Oak flooring inherently has more stability than flat sawn timbers due to the orientation of the grain.

What is rift sawn vs. quartersawn Oak flooring?

Like the quartersawn method, the rift sawn method is designed to produce more stable boards with straighter grain lines. Because every board is cut at a 90° angle from the outer surface of the tree and intersects the growth rings with greater consistency, rift sawn Oak flooring has the straightest, most consistent grain patterns with fewer flecks and imperfections.

What is the difference in price between plain sawn, rift sawn and quartersawn Oak flooring?

Rift sawn Oak floorboards are the most expensive, as the cutting technique is more time-consuming, and more wood is wasted during the process. Plain sawn flooring is the least expensive, as it is the most efficient way to cut the timbers. Quartersawn wood floors offer a compromise in cost and quality.

Customizing your quartersawn Oak flooring at Carlisle.

At Carlisle Wide Plank Floors, selecting the method with which your floorboards are cut is just the first of many options for customizing your wide plank floor.

Wood, grade and width
In addition to quartersawn Oak flooring, we offer floors in other hardwoods like Ash, Birch, Cherry, White and Brown Maple, Hickory and Walnut, as well as Heart Pine and Eastern White Pine floors and several options for reclaimed hardwood flooring.

Many of our floors come in a choice of grades that allow you to get the exact look you desire. Our Original Grade features more variation in color, knots, flecks and grain patterns, which gives a floor a more rustic look. Our Heirloom Grade is designed to provide a more refined look, with less variation in the wood. And our Signature Grade is a nice balance and blend of the other two grades.

Once you’ve selected the wood and grade, you may customize the width of the boards. Varying the widths adds a compelling visual element to the floor, while keeping the same width produces a more even and uniform look.

Structure and finish
Quartersawn white Oak flooring and many other floors at Carlisle can be designed as solid wood flooring or engineered floors. Solid wood floors are cut from a single piece of timber, while engineered floors are made with multiple layers of material glued to a hardwood or pine veneer. This construction prevents the boards from dramatically expanding or contracting during large changes in humidity. The engineered structure may not be appropriate for projects that experience relative humidity consistently below 30%.

Carlisle products like quartersawn white Oak flooring can also be ordered as prefinished Oak flooring, which is sanded, stained and sealed at our facility before delivery to your home or business. While unfinished wood flooring must be finished after installation, prefinished flooring lets you skip the mess of sanding on site and the inconvenience of vacating your property while the sealants are applied.

Texture, color and pattern
Texturing your quartersawn wood flooring can add additional character and visual interest. At Carlisle, we offer a variety of ways to texture or distress new floorboards to give them the appearance of antique wood that has been lived on for generations. From adding saw marks and hand-scraped edges to giving boards a timeworn or footworn appearance, texturing adds an instant sense of character and history to any room.

Carlisle Weekend Cottage White Oak Flooring

Simplifying installation of quartersawn Oak flooring.

At Carlisle, our craftsmen are experts at crafting wide plank quartersawn Oak flooring to your exact specifications, simplifying installation in residential and commercial settings. Installing Carlisle Oak flooring is easier than installing most other floors, as using wider and longer boards means there are fewer boards to install overall. Carlisle floors can be installed using industry-accepted methods like nails, staples and/or glue, or through direct glue down.

We recommend the 2012 Wood Flooring Installation Guidelines and Methods published by the National Wood Flooring Association as the guide for installing Carlisle floors successfully. We also provide helpful tip sheets for installers and our team is available anytime by phone to answer questions and provide assistance.

The Carlisle difference: exceptional quartersawn Oak flooring.

Carlisle craftsmen have been producing quality wood floors more than 50 years. From world-class museums and trendy boutiques to upscale restaurants and exceptional homes, our one-of-a-kind products can be found in a wide variety of interiors throughout the world. The remarkable quality of our floors is the reason for our success. Every Carlisle floor is a masterpiece in wood, handcrafted to perfectly reflect the owner’s aesthetic and sense of style. A Carlisle quartersawn Oak floor or rift sawn Oak floor is destined to become a defining feature of any space, and a warm reminder of where you are every time you walk through the door.