Believe it, or not, there’s a very simple way to make your own wood floor cleaning solution—right in your own kitchen!
Next time you wash your wood floors (after you’ve vacuumed or swept them clean), try adding a few cap-fulls of white vinegar to your bucket of hot water. It’s that simple! There’s no need to add any soap or floor cleaners to the solution, simply the vinegar and water.
I have even heard of some people adding 8-10 drops of an essential oil to the vinegar/water solution—this gives the room a nice, fragrant smell without adding any harsh chemicals like some of the store bought cleaners. Consider peppermint or lavender!
Choosing to make your own wood floor cleaning solution is very cost effective, simple and great for the environment. Try it out the next time you are doing your weekly chores.
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: July 23, 2008 at 11:27 AM
Filed under: DIY - Do It Yourself, Hardwood Flooring, Megan Sprague
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Tags: Cleaning, DIY
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I had a pretty cool thing happen today — I called one of our customers earlier this morning to give her the name of a referral in her area where she could see our flooring in person. Then, I found out another person was willing to be a referral, too, so I called the customer back to give her the additional name. Well, she had already made an appointment to see the first referral’s flooring tonight. Not only that, but when she was being given directions she was asked if she knew where ‘Oak Street’ was? She said she sure did, and it turns out the referral that she is going to see tonight lives three doors down from where the customer is building her new home!
Now she gets to see our floors AND meet her new neighbors…
I’d say we really do offer the best customer service — what do you think?
Author's Name: Jen Fox
Posted Date: at 10:31 AM
Filed under: Customer Service, Jen Fox
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Jani and Scott Casto first found Carlisle while they were building their family home in Wheaton, Illinois. They decided to give Carlisle a call for their flooring needs and met design consultant Jason Wolfe. After sharing multiple samples of our custom floors, Jani and Scott settled on our beautiful wide plank birch floors—in widths of 6”, 8” and 10”. “Scott loved birch’s fire and Jani loved the watery flow of it’s grain”, as Jason thinks back to his wonderful talks with the Casto’s.
When it came time for the floors to be installed, the Casto family decided to use Joe and Eric Boos of Country Hardwoods—a preferred wide plank installer of Carlisle. Eric recollects, “The overall experience on the jobsite was wonderful. There were some tough aspects to the install, a couple of funny fireplaces with built-in cabinets that made things a little tough. I would have to say my favorite part of crafting this floor was the freedom the Casto’s gave us to craft the floor the best way possible.”
The Casto’s have since had a few years to live on their floors. Our marketing team just had the opportunity to visit them! During the third week of June, the marketing team and photographers took a trip to Wheaton and shot some beautiful photographs of their home (seen below). The Casto Family was very generous to welcome us into their stunning home—thank you!
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: July 22, 2008 at 11:04 AM
Filed under: Hardwood Flooring
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By Tarryn Guarino
For Peter Glidden, a long and busy work day begins at sunrise -- and he wouldn't have it any other way. For him, there is no typical "day at the office" -- he and his father Larry operate a small, family owned sawmill in rural Maine. And that means Peter's work days are as unique as each of the eastern white pine timber planks he mills alongside his dad.
"We sort of stumbled into this business about four years ago, and it's been nothing but busy ever since," he explains. "My dad, Larry, he came home with the first portable mill. He used to say he couldn't saw enough wood in a year to make a picnic table . . . but not anymore!"
So, what's the best part of owning and operating your own sawmill?
"I really [enjoy] going out to view and buy the wood," Peter says. When the big trees come down, local foresters contact the Gliddens to come out and take a look at the timber. The premium pine is chosen from trees that have fallen naturally, a process known as selective harvesting. This is an environmentally friendly practice that provides perfect timber, while remaining sensitive to the natural growth of the forest and avoiding deforestation. Peter has no problem scouting out choice timber from these fallen pines.
"I hand pick everything, based on the quality of the wood and what I know we need," Peter explains. To create the handcrafted wide planks for Carlisle, he personally selects the wood he knows will provide the perfect finished product. The Gliddens operate two small sawmills, and while the work can be a bit noisy, the job also allows for plenty of time outdoors in the natural wilderness.
"The actual sawmills are indoors, but we do a lot of our work outside," Peter explains. Whether heading out into the forest to survey some potential timber, or admiring the finished boards outside of the workshop, the Gliddens are truly connected to nature -- and their craft.
Peter's genuine love of the land and the wood is clear from the moment he starts talking. When asked about his favorite part of the job, he answers without any hesitation, "The craftsmanship, definitely. I take a lot of pride in the grading of our wood. It's all hand done. Eastern white wide planks are a great quality wood, and I take a lot of pride in the work that we do."
To see the Glidden family's sawmill firsthand and learn a bit more about their work, check out their video on the Carlisle Wide Plank Floors website.
Author's Name: Guest Blogger
Posted Date: July 16, 2008 at 3:17 PM
Filed under: Green Building and Eco Friendly Products, Hardwood Flooring, Home Building and Contracting, Home Flooring Choices
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Tags: Eastern+White+Pine, Environmental Logging, Hardwood Flooring, Responsible Forestry, Selective Harvesting, Wide Plank Flooring
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By Nancy Shohet West
Until very recently, it was something of an oxymoron - two irreconcilable opposites - to look at cleaning products as environmentally friendly. Many of us are accustomed to thinking that clean equals germ-killing, and killing germs might not be compatible with preserving all other life forms. When you go into a hospital, you smell bleach; when you pick up clothes at the dry cleaner's, you smell...well, we're not sure what the smell is, but it definitely connotes a pristine wardrobe, even if it's not an aroma found in nature.
In other words, in the past it was almost taken for granted that in order to rid surfaces and substances of pollutants - whether the item to be cleaned was wood flooring, dishes, household appliances or clothing -- a certain amount of eradicating might be necessary. Sometimes you have to prioritize, we believed then, and let your ecological principles lapse a little if it meant getting your home germ-free.
Fortunately, that kind of thinking has changed. With more and more people feeling guilty about pouring chemicals into the groundwater every time they mop a floor or polish an antique, the demand grew for environmentally friendly cleaning products, as this article on green cleaning explains. So now, it really is possible to do both: preserve the environment and protect your home from germs and dirt.
Of course, the best way to keep things clean is not to let them get dirty in the first place. Your most environmentally correct choice when it comes to a cleaning substance is to avoid cleaning substances altogether. In the case of floors, there is a lot you can do to prevent the need for stringent cleaning. Bearing in mind that the three most powerful foes of wood flooring are dirt, sand and water, consider these very easy tips that promote "holistic" - i.e., non-chemical - cleaning:
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Encourage the removal of shoes as people enter your house by placing a mat or a durable runner made of indoor-outdoor carpeting just inside your front door. Even more generous is to have extra pairs of slippers handy in a basket by the door for visitors.
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Sweep your hardwood floors regularly, using a natural or nylon bristle broom with slightly frayed ends. Doing this every day if possible will make a huge difference in terms of the quantity of grit that gets ground into your wood floors on a regular basis.
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Clean up liquid spills right away, including water, which often comes into the house in the form of snow clumps.
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Dry-mop with a terry-cloth dust mop. Dry-mopping provides the benefits of buffing and polishing without the harshness of cleaners.
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If you have pets, keep their toenails short.
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Avoid dragging heavy objects across your wood floors.
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Place felt casters under furniture legs.
When you do need to go the extra mile and wet-mop or polish, there are several environmentally friendly products designed for use as wood floor cleaners. For example, Floor Kleener from Earth Friendly Products has been specially developed for cleaning a variety of flooring, including sealed hardwood floors. Another good example is Envirorite Hard Floor Cleaner, which uses soy in place of chemical substances and can also be used on sealed hardwood flooring surfaces. Envirorite boasts the added advantage of being safe for people with allergies, asthma, and chemical sensitivities, which is also important if you have babies or toddlers crawling on your floors. You can find these products and more at the Floor Cleaners and Kokopelli's Green Market websites.
Author's Name: Guest Blogger
Posted Date: July 15, 2008 at 3:22 PM
Filed under: DIY - Do It Yourself, Green Building and Eco Friendly Products, Hardwood Flooring
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Tags: Eco-Friendly, Environment, Germ Removal, Green Cleaning, Hardwood Flooring, Wide Plank Floor
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By Tarryn Guarino
There is something really amazing about an antique floor. If the wood beneath your feet could tell a story, what would it have to say? Who has walked these boards before us?
To find out exactly how exactly these wide planks get from an old barn to our bedroom floor, I spoke with Rich Marilla at Old Dominion Antique Lumber. The company purchases materials that are salvaged from old barns or antique structures and repurposes the wood for use in new homes and buildings. This practice has the added bonus of being environmentally sustainable, which means Carlisle's antique timber floors are FSC 100% Chain-of-Custody certified. But before this antique wood can be resettled in a new home, it must first get a mini-makeover.
Continue reading "If These Hardwood Floors Could Talk: Secrets of Antique Lumber and Reclaimed Flooring" »
Author's Name: Guest Blogger
Posted Date: July 14, 2008 at 3:55 PM
Filed under: Green Building and Eco Friendly Products, Hardwood Flooring, Home Building and Contracting, Home Flooring Choices, Wood Grains & Styles
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Tags: Antique Hardwood Floor, Recycling, Sustainable Building, Wide Plank, Wood Floor Reclaim
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By Nancy Shohet West
It was allegedly the Duchess of Windsor who said that no woman could be too rich or too thin. The Duchess probably did not do her own decorating, but if she did, she might well have added that no house could be too tidy or too elegant.
A lot of homeowners would agree that there's no such thing as a too-perfect home. Don't we all want our abodes to look ready for the photographers from Architectural Digest to arrive at any time? Hardwood floors gleaming, fresh flowers perfectly arranged in their cut crystal vases, glossy magazines at just the right angle on the coffee table.
Except that many of us who have attended upscale house tours or even realtors' open houses would concede that there is such a thing as a forebodingly beautiful house. Remember the grandmothers of previous generations who would put plastic slipcovers over the "good" furniture - making them completely unusable? Most interior designers agree that the tradition of museum-quality home décor is long gone. Just as many homes now forego formal dining rooms in favor of well-lit, welcoming kitchens with a center island around which hosts and guests alike can cluster, the trend in home décor is veering away from the too-perfect look.
So suppose you already know how to do the hard part: the beautiful presentation. Your hardwood floors gleam with a burnished glow, your end tables stay clutter-free, and no one ever leaves coffee mugs or sports bottles in the foyer. (Really? Maybe you'd consider doing an on-site neatness training for my family. But I digress.) Now that you've accomplished that challenging goal, it's time to make your home look not just magnificent but also used and enjoyed - by a real live family. Below are a handful of decorators' tips:
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Small rugs accent polished hardwood floors nicely, breaking up the perfect-ness with a splash of color and texture. But you can also get color and texture by choosing a wide plank hardwood flooring style with so-called "imperfections." Note the knotholes and wavy lines in these examples (Chestnut and Heart Pine) and how they keep the floor from looking overly formal.
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Window treatments light enough to react to a passing breeze or circulating fan acknowledge nature in a way that cordoned swags do not. Curtains made of light, gauzy material, or lightweight blinds, make a room look much more "alive" than drapes so heavy that they never move. Good advice on choosing a window treatment is available here.
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Oversized oil paintings can work well in a large formal room, but smaller drawings or artsy photos can be very effective in breaking up the formality. For example, in this picture, note how quickly the cluster of framed pictures draws the eye.
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Use books as decorations. We've all seen the coffee tables with the perfectly arrayed copies of Town and Country or the tomes on Impressionism, but books such as favorite collections of poetry, memoirs and biographies, and travel guides look both pretty and "real" - as if someone has read and savored them, rather than just arranged them there.
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Memorabilia: Too much of it can multiply into clutter, but placed carefully, it looks unique and clever. Favorite high-quality trophies or medals, vintage sports accessories, antique jewelry or purses, your grandfather's cigar box, your great-aunt's perfume bottle. The authenticity of well-loved objects will show through. And authenticity is ultimately the goal. Your home should reflect your personality, not your decorator's talents. So enjoy that beautiful home - and let your guests see that there are real people living inside!
Author's Name: Guest Blogger
Posted Date: July 11, 2008 at 4:04 PM
Filed under: Hardwood Flooring, Home Decor
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Tags: Decoration, Hardwood Floors, Home, Home Atmosphere, Interior Design, Wide Plank Flooring
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By Sean O'Reilly
British comedian Eddie Izzard once quipped, "I'm from Europe-where the history is," and then went on to parody how short a time span Americans consider "historic." And many people, both Americans and foreigners, seem to share that view-that the U.S. is too young to have acquired much history. But if there's one place in the U.S. where the accumulation of history can be felt, it's in New England, in the old-style architecture, the surviving examples of colonial houses with their sturdy hardwood floors and rustic, endearing ambiance.
In my own community, I was surprised to discover how many examples survive of this colonial era architecture, many with most of their walls and floors still intact. One of the best examples is the Balch House (just see the history soaked into those well-worn floor-boards!) once thought to be the oldest surviving wood-frame house in the United States until dendrochronology dated the oldest timbers to 1679. But it just so happens that Massachusetts has quite a few colonial-era wooden houses, including three in Ipswich and three in Salem (including the famous House of Seven Gables). Just walking around in these houses, hearing the wide-planked hardwood floors creak comfortingly under your step, can convince you that you've traveled back in time to the colonial era: you're standing on floors that someone's hands painstakingly built, and built well.
One of my favorite colonial houses is the 1640 Hart House in Ipswich, not least because it's been turned into quite a nice restaurant. And what makes it so nice? It's not the food, although that's good, or the air conditioning, which is sometimes on too strong for my taste; no, it's the ambiance, the atmosphere of a house that's steeped in history, that's witnessed centuries of inhabitants and guests walking over its still sturdy floors. And it's remarkable how much of that atmosphere is literally grounded in those hardwood floors, from how they feel underfoot to how they look and even how they smell. If I just wanted a nice meal, I could go to any number of restaurants, but if I want to have a historical experience, nothing beats the 1640 Hart House.
Interestingly, there are a number of historic buildings that have been refurbished with Carlisle wide plank floors in recent years. One example is the Jethro Coffin House in Nantucket. Another is the Saugus Iron Works in Saugus, MA, and a third is the Milleridge Inn in Jericho, NY. These three structures, while not quite as venerable as the Hart House, give examples of how even modern remodeling efforts can retain that historic feel, and a comprehensive list of such buildings restored by Carlisle is available on the Historic Wood Floor Restoration Projects section of the website.
Does anyone else have stories of colonial houses in their area, and what it feels like to walk around (or eat lunch!) in them? I'd love to hear them, if so! And for anyone curious to learn more about colonial architecture, I'd recommend Within These Walls, a virtual exhibit offering various interactive activities and explaining all about colonial house construction, from their hardwood floors to their rooftops.
Author's Name: Guest Blogger
Posted Date: at 10:43 AM
Filed under: Guest, Hardwood Flooring
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Tags: 1640 Hart House, Colonial Home, Hardwood Flooring, Refurbished Building, Wide Plank Flooring
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At Carlisle Wide Plank Floors, working with designers is part of our passion. Whether it’s a fifty floor high rise, private residence or a boutique hotel our design consultants have had countless opportunities to work on their share of stunning projects with the best of designers.
While researching one such project, Katharine Posillico McGowan came across Carlisle on an Internet search when a client of hers wanted to do a solid wood floor over radiant heat.
This particular project was a French chateau style home in Lloyd Harbor, Long Island. She chose our White Oak wide plank floors as they are a perfect fit for the old world/French chateau style and well suited over the radiant heat system the homeowner chose. “The wood captures the essence of the home’s old world look and adds an aged character to a new home,” mentions Katharine. She chose to use a dark stain on the white oak and in the dining room selected a very special Versailles pattern. Katharine adds, “my client loved the oak grain and how beautifully the wood took the stain”.
Katharine enjoys working with Todd Waterman, regional manager of our New York sales department. In commenting on the Lloyd Harbor project Katharine states, “he answered all of my questions and willingly sent numerous samples to make the process easier”.
Her work has been featured in Distinction Long Island magazine and was recognized as a one of the “10 New Designers to Watch” by New York Spaces magazine.
Just last month, Katharine was recognized at the 2008 Mansions and Millionaires Designer Showcase as the “Notable Designer” of the Mill Neck Manor Showcase.
To enjoy a video of a special interior design project we’ve done, click here.
Looking for a designer in the New York area—visit Katharine’s website.
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: July 9, 2008 at 1:08 PM
Filed under: Megan Sprague
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I was 20 years old and people started calling us asking for reclaimed antique wood. I had been involved with my Mom and Dad's business since I was a kid and my job up to that point was seeking out saw mills that would consider cutting new timber the way we wanted in order to recreate the look of old floors. At the time, our business was called Carlisle Restoration Lumber and we supplied wide boards mainly in the New England region to replace or repair existing floors in old homes. Our newly sawn boards were made to look 200 years old with surface treatments — saw kerfs, hand scraping, etc. — which were used in conjunction with the custom stains Dad had developed.
We had built a pretty good reputation as being the people to go to when you wanted that authentic, historic look. And though I was young, I had slowly managed to develop a strong trust among designers, builders and homeowners. So when they starting asking me for reclaimed antique wood for new construction and remodeling projects, I knew that if I could provide it, we’d have a whole new market and could expand our business while at the same time preserving something really important.
So my journey began. At first, I ran an ad looking for anyone who had an old building who would consider selling some of the wood. The first person who responded — I'll never forget this — was a nice lady who was an artist. She said she had an old barn that had caved in and wanted me to look at it and take what I thought I could use. I took a friend with me and off we went in my pickup truck with a chain saw. We arrived at the home early in the morning and started looking at the barn and realized we were in for an interesting day. It was a dilapidated mess and it appeared that trying to save anything from it would be a waste of time. We spent the entire day rolling over beams and trying to find good pieces of structural timber that might be salvageable.
Finally we headed home, exhausted, with a few beams and boards. It made us realize that if we were going into this business, we would need to find others who would do the dismantling and deliver the reclaimed material to us. The arduous process of taking the building apart and rough cutting the material to be reclaimed was another business in itself. We wanted to focus on the finishing end.
So the next thing we did was buy a load of old wood sight unseen from someone who had salvaged it. When it showed up, we were disappointed (to say the least) by its condition. But having had the prior experience, we realized what the guy had been up against and were a bit more forgiving. Still, most of it was unusable.
Then we began encountering other daunting obstacles in bringing old wood to a point where we could proudly offer it to someone for a new floor. We had to figure out how to kill the bugs still living in it, how to get all the nails and other hidden hardware out of it before we tried to cut it, how to dry it, etc. And as we went about the processing and milling, we were often stunned by how much waste there was and how little we would end up with for all our efforts. So we set about finding people who were really close to the wood, could see the intrinsic beauty and charm in certain pieces, weigh the usability and be selective in what they took. Easier said than done. But we kept at it and gradually learned who we could trust to provide us with really good boards and beams. Many of those people today have become part of our extended family.
Over the years, we’ve further developed and refined all of our procuring and processing practices and are able to provide customers with a good steady stream of reclaimed antique wood from various historic structures which have been slated for demolition. In fact, the quality and service we offer has made Carlisle the largest supplier of antique wood in North America, and we’re proud to have been nationally recognized by The Forest Stewardship Council for the green methods we use to responsibly reclaim and recycle every piece. We maintain a complete chain of custody from the moment we dismantle a building to the day the finished floor is shipped to the customer.
As we strive to preserve this wonderful commodity, the hardest part is to get the average person to understand just how much of this is a truly a labor of love — one that preserves a treasured natural resource. In a way, it’s no different than appreciating rare gemstones which only time can create. I continue to feel that it’s our job to educate folks as to how unique and historically important this wood really is — and to make them just as passionate about it as we are. That’s one reason why we give customers a commemorative folio, handmade in Vermont, with an inscription that notes the location and history the structure, a botanical illustration of the species of wood and the names of the floor owners who have given the wood a much-deserved second life cycle.
I can look at one of our antique wood floors and each crack, nail hole, worm hole, water mark and saw kerf will tell me the wood’s life story. Not everyone is interested in that and would rather have something new and less expensive and that’s fine, too. But those who are interested — those who truly “get it” and realize the amount of care and effort that went into every step of recycling this rare, historic wood — don’t ask “How can it be so expensive?” but rather, “How can it be so reasonable?”
Author's Name: Don Carlisle
Posted Date: July 3, 2008 at 12:11 PM
Filed under: Don Carlisle
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