Hardwood Surface

Brown Maple holds up to wheelchair pressure in this home renovation

2009-06-15T13:00:00Z

Some times you need a really hard floor--like when wheelchairs are involved. For this home in Cumberland, Rhode Island, the design firm Inclusion by Design, used Carlisle's 8-inch Brown Maple boards, which were finished at the home site with a Gingerbread stain and tung oil. Inclusion by Design, based in Providence, Rhode Island, specializes in making homes and businesses accessible to people with disabilities and they take on some projects where renovations need to be made because of new, limited mobility. The Carlisle Mill in Swanzey, New Hampshire handled making this floor with the design work of Crystal Knowles in our Stoddard, New Hampshire offices. The Brown Maple is a great option for those who like the look of an older pine, but need to have a much harder floor.

A floor to match the boards of an old ship

2009-06-12T18:34:34Z

Sam Lindstrom, a homeowner and customer from Lakewood, Washington, installed his own Carlisle floor recently, with the help of his uncle. He was kind enough to send along these "before and after" photos of the project, showing his once-tiled floors now turned into a beautiful Antique Oak. ("Before" is above and "After" is below.) We think the makeover works beautifully, don't you?

Sam came to Carlisle for his floors back in December and began the installation in February or March of this year. He wanted the Antique Oak to match an existing floor in the circa-1949 house that a previous owner had installed. That floor actually came from an old ship! The previous owner had taken the ship's boards and had them cut into flooring. Reclaimed wood! We like that here at Carlisle.

Here's how we describe our Antique Oak:

Taken from old timbers found primarily in barns along the Ohio River Valley, our Antique Oak flooring has an extremely fine and figured grain structure, referred to as "tigering." This handsome Oak wood radiates warm and "nutty" English brown tones, giving each Antique Oak floor a distinguished Old World look. You can almost feel the events witnessed by this Antique Oak. It exhibits rift grain, occasional knots and nail holes, while retaining the rigid strength of new oak.

Got a question for us? Write us here by clicking onto "comments" just below.

Inspired by installing a Carlisle floor, one man now uses them throughout his spec home

2009-06-10T19:49:57Z

Laura, from Carlisle's Denver showroom, sent along these photos of a recently completed project featuring 7- to 12-inch Heart Pine. Seth, a person who installed the floors at the Denver showroom, fell in love with our dark Heart Pine at the time. When he ventured into designing and building a home to sell, he of course chose the Heart Pine, as you can see here in his kitchen (above) and dining room (below). This past spring, when the house was complete, he put it on the mark and it sold within three weeks. Dare we say it was the floors that did it? Well, maybe...or Seth's beautiful design and craftmanship throughout. Seth has a degree in architecture, owns a floor installation company and now is designing and building--as you can see.

Carlisle floors--and a wonderful old house--on TV this fall

2009-06-08T19:42:56Z

We showed you this unfinished project a few weeks ago, in the home of Susan & Kevin Rowe. While the floor was still unfinished, the television program "This Old House" was considering using the house for one of their shows. Well, the film crew showed up this week and here's a photo of them at work. The floors are done, too, in a lovely Antique Heart Pine model with 4 to 12" inch widths. The home is in Massachusettes and the Rowe found us at Carlisle with a visit to our showroom and our mill. The episode of "This Old House" will air sometime around November, apparently. We'll let you know!

The quest for a dark floor in Florida pays off

2009-06-05T18:37:13Z

We completed another wonderful project in Palm Beach, Florida with the D.C. Twin Company doing the installation. The clients had us here at Carlisle working with their home design company to come up with a dark floor with a unique finish. After many samples produced by our sample shop in Stoddard, NH, everybody ultimatelly settled on 6-inch Select Grade Ash and a custom color that was a blend of Antique Farmhouse and Blacksmith. They were pre-finished, but got a topcoat after installation. We not only had floors installed, but this Carlisle wood was used for a few decorative touches to the ceiling as well. The clients kept wanting the wood to be in more and more places as the project continued, according to Kelly from D.C. Twin.

Carlisle's "nice" factor wins out in the end

2009-06-03T23:04:29Z

We got these nice photos of a home recently remodeled in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The customers were Rick and Kathy Horowitz, who had come to Carlisle originally in December. They first decided to go with another flooring company, but changed their minds long about February of this year.

When they returned, they indicated part of the reason was that we were "nice people." We thought that was a nice thing to say. The floor is a pre-finished 8 to 12-inch with a custom stain. Our trusty Carlisle Sample Shop had done up quite a few samples for the customers to choose from. The floor installation was about 300-square feet and it was completed in a day.

Here's a nice note the builder, K & K Construction in Maine, thought to send along to us.

I have really enjoyed working with your product and I would recommend it to any of our future customers. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised starting with customer support and at the end with the quality of the finished flooring.

See Carlisle floors at Dwell on Design in Los Angeles

2009-06-01T21:16:07Z

On June 27 and 28, the Dwell on Design trade show in Los Angeles is open to the public and Carlisle will be displaying two special floors--our Eastern White Pine with a Gingerbread stain, and our Antique White Oak prefinished with a Whitewashed Fence finish. You can see more about this event at the Dwell on Design website. The event bills itself as a three-day festival of modern design featuring an exhibition, design conference, home tours and special events. If you happen to be in the L.A. area, by all means, stop by and say hi.

Unique, challenging Carlisle floor is satisfying to all involved

2009-05-29T18:42:26Z

A trip into our Chicago design showroom by an architect and his client a while back has led to an astonishing floor in the client's Florida home. The architect and customer decided to go with a very unique style and technique in our Carlisle floors--a White Oak wood that would be painted (yes, painted) with white paint. That white paint would then be scrubbed off, hand-sanded and then given a water-based top coat that provides a clear and matte finish. Sound like something you'd want to try? Well, this project of 2,000 square feet took about 450 person-hours to complete! Yet, we think you'll agree that the end result is pretty amazing.

Why would you start out painting that lovely wood, you may ask? Well, this process would allow for a little of the white paint to remain behind, in the "low-lying" areas of the wood grain, while the surface retained the natural oak color. The result is a nice, light white color. This is not the kind of thing that is done every day, but it's definitely what the customer wanted. The builder, Kelly at D.C. Twin Company in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, had not worked with us at Carlisle before and ended up sending us a nice note about her experience when the project was done:

"Hello! Okay, this is the most amazing floor and beams we have ever had privvy to do..It was very, very tricky, grueling and laborious work....These photos do not do justice for these richly casual, incredible floors. When we started on site, every carpenter, painter, and builder told us we could not do it...[the customer] is absolutely elated, surpassed her vision. In fact, she is having her custom-made rugs re-cut on-site so they don't cover her new floors! ... it was so worth the difficult work, and thank you again for giving us the opportunity, we are really really proud!"

Well, gosh. We're always happy when our customers are happy, but we're also really happy when we make a new friend among the home-building community! Thank you, D.C. Twin!

Carlisle is involved in a small Habit for Humanity project in Chicago

2009-05-28T23:05:25Z

Here's a little ditty you might enjoy seeing about Carlisle doing the floors in the "Home of Distinction" in Chicago's Highland Park. If you happen to be in the Chicago area starting today, May 28 to June 14, check out the full program.

This Carlisle floor might show up on This Old House

2009-05-25T22:43:38Z

A couple in Massachusetts is installing this Carlisle floor, an Antique Heart Pine model with 4 to 12" inch widths, in their historic home after falling in love with our showroom, our mill and our floors. They're waiting to hear if "This Old House' is going to be filming at their home soon. We'll let you know when we find out!

From New Hampshire to Michigan, this kitchen project got done

2009-05-22T15:24:49Z

Cheryl Workman and her husband came by Carlisle's showroom and offices in Stoddard, New Hampshire last summer and fell in love with our Antique Oak floor. Six months later, they untook the renovation project--installing the Antique Oak in their small kitchen in Michigan. The floor shown here was prefinished with an Amber stain and is 7-inch widths. Cheryl writes...

"...(The kitchen project) was a lot of mess, but so worth every minute of it. Thank you so much. I could not be happier."

What a blend of modern and traditional in this Atlanta home

2009-05-20T20:38:37Z

Randy Harris came to our Atlanta Design Studio nearly a year ago, when his ultra-modern home in Atlanta was just in the conceptual phase of drawings. He wanted a very contemporary look and--well--he certainly achieved it! His home was featured this past weekend on the "Modern Atlanta Home Tour" and he dropped Carlisle a note to tell us about it. He wrote to Caitlin in our Atlanta offices:

Caitlin:
Hope you are well! I just wanted to tell you that our home was on the Modern Atlanta home tour this past weekend, and we got many compliments on our floors! ...Thanks again for all your help!
Randy Harris

Even while constucting this very contemporary house, Harris wanted to showcase the natural characteristics of Carlisle's wood floors and he chose our Old Growth Hickory, with an Antique Farmhouse stain. We think the contrast is quite awesome.

Photos by: TaC studios/architecture, Atlanta

It's a dog's life on a new Carlisle floor in the Hamptons

2009-05-18T18:42:49Z

Justin McCarthy from Southhampton, New York was kind enough to send us these photos showing off his Carlisle floors--and his puppies. (Note the cute, little guy hiding in the grey blanket.)

Justin built his home last year with the intent to sell it, but decided to keep it instead. He actually did two Carlisle floors in his house. His first floor was done in 6 to 10-inch Country Hickory and the second floor was done in Country Old Growth Heart Pine. Both floors had Vermont Coffeebean stain and a Tung oil finish.

Justin wrote to us: "..., the floors came out great. I've been meaning to take some pictures with the house all complete - actually some rugs are going in in a few weeks...Meantime, I'm attaching two that you should feel free to use - I can't think of a better example of your floors.

We agree. Those adorable puppies show off our floors quite nicely. We're delighted that they appear to approve of Justin's choice.

Cincinatti customers "love, love" their new Carlisle floor

2009-05-13T12:52:51Z

We got this note from Louise Hoelker, a Carlisle customer in Cincinatti, and we just "love, love" hearing things like this when somebody finishes their home project:

Hi!! It's been so long, but I wanted to send you some pictures of our wood and house. We were done in November and I'm just now getting around to it. I just can't tell you how much we LOVE, LOVE our floor!! It is practically the first thing people comment on when they walk in the house. And it is the last thing I say when I go to bed, "I love this floor!!!" Here's some pix!

Thanks, Louise. And thanks for taking the time to send in some photos. The Hoelkers installed Carlisle's prefinished Log Run Hickory with Gingerbread Stain.

Really "green" home part of Portsmouth sustainability festival tour

2009-05-12T00:51:23Z

Back on March 25, we told you about Cheryl Parker and Marc Batcheldor and how they are building one of the greenest homes in the country, over in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, not so far from our Carlisle headquarters. We're quite proud to be part of this project, which is now about to be revealed to the public in the Portsmouth Sustainability Tour. Cheryl and Marc's house is featured on the May 16 "Sustainability at Home" tour featuring homes and organizations that are demonstrating sustainable building materials or other energy saving practices. Their home appears on this map as #7: The Zero Net Energy Home! Cheryl and Marc intend that their home will achieve platinum level LEED certification and their zero net energy designation means they will produce as much energy as they use. Their home is a 1,350-square-foot passive solar that they designed and engineered themselves. Each material they used in their home was considered for where it was manufactured, its chemical content and its sustainability--and that's why they chose Carlisle Wide Plank Antique Heart Pine, crafted in 4-inch to 10-inch random widths. March and Cheryl installed the floor themselves.

If you're in the Portsmouth, New Hampshire neighborhood on May 16, why not drop in to the Sustainability at Home tour and see Marc and Cheryl's home up close?