Home Building and Contracting Category Archive
Lauren Power of our New Hampshire design team received this photo and letter from her clients in Walpole, NH! The floor is unfinished… but GORGEOUS just the same. We hope to get some additional photos once the finish is applied!
Hi Lauren. Hope this email finds you and the baby in good health. Thought I would send you a small section of the floor. As of yesterday, it is all in. Moe and I are so pleased. It is absolutely beautiful!! Thank you so much for your time and your help through the process. We will never forget all you did. Are you all settled into your house?
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: November 12, 2008 at 4:27 PM
Filed under: Customer Letters, Customer Service, DIY - Do It Yourself, Hardwood Flooring, Home Building and Contracting, Home Flooring Choices, Regions, Wood Grains & Styles
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Carlisle's Denver Design Center has been participating in the sponsor festivities with Mountain Living at their Natural Dream Home in Cordillera, Colorado. Our FSC Certified Antique Ash floors (with a stain) were used throughout the first level of the home. The home is now open through November, for tours!
Here's a close up of the FSC Antique Ash with the brown stain, also check out the interview with sales person, Laura Leier! This article can be found in the November/December issue of
Mountain Living on page 70!
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: October 31, 2008 at 12:24 PM
Filed under: Green Building and Eco Friendly Products, Home Building and Contracting, True Hardwood Story, Wood Grains & Styles
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Here's a nice letter that Adam Whitney, of our New York sales team, received today! This couple purchased our wide pine floors.
Hello Adam,
I hope this note finds you well.
Thank you for the kind note and the maple syrup. My wife and I go
through tons of the stuff, so it's much appreciated.
I am doing less and less construction apart from home projects, as "my
other job" as a magazine editor is taking more and more of my time (and
generating more of a fulltime income). I still sing the praises of
Carlisle any chance I get, especially when folks visit our outbuilding
where the pine flooring looks great (and works great) over our radiant
flooring.
Thank you and I will be in touch about any future projects. Best, Brian
--
Brian Halweil
Editor, Edible East End
edibleeastend.com
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: at 9:40 AM
Filed under: Customer Letters, Customer Service, Home Building and Contracting, Home Decor
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We've been working with Classic Hardwood Floors for over ten years now. Here's a nice letter from owner, Joe Boos.
Although it is my profession and can be challenging and stressful at times, I thoroughly enjoy being the owner/operator of Classic Hardwood Floors. In 1998 my brother Eric and I formed our business and had the best time of our life working together for 10 years. A person seriously could write a book about all of our experiences. We did have a few employees throughout the years, most notably our other two brothers and our father. Imagine a customers surprise after contracting us to work in their million dollar + houses based only on phone conversations and a written proposal; only to have a truckload of 18-24 year olds show up at their door on day one to install a beautiful, expensive wide plank floor. I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked how old I am, when my dad or boss was showing up, or where is the guy I talked to on the phone. Of course the outstanding results continue to be a testament to the beauty of Carlisle’s wood and our commitment to perfection. Eric has recently moved on to bigger and better things (design consultant for this company called Carlisle Wide Plank Floors), however I still enjoy installing floors with my employees Jeff and Eddie.
Originally our business was a general wood floor operation (strip flooring, sand and poly, refinishing, etc). Thanks to the expertise and knowledge of so many at Carlisle we transformed into specializing in the installation and finishing of wide plank floors. Many quickly conclude they are one and the same, and although wide plank flooring contains many of the same aspects of “wood flooring”, in my opinion it is in a league of its own. You could liken it to the difference between arithmetic and algebra. A mathematician cannot learn algebra before the groundwork or basics are laid (arithmetic,etc). I feel as if we went from being nailers and sanders to craftsmen and artists. We went from installing and finishing floors that looked good to creating timepieces that make a house.
The first floor we did with Carlisle was a face nailed, stained, and tung oiled eastern white pine for John and Randee Malmberg. Randee could not find the floor she had seen in a magazine picture. No one in the area could. After extensive searching we stumbled upon Carlisle. Todd Waterman and Chris Sy were tireless in their efforts to insure we gave Randee the floor she wanted. Thank goodness they were! What a difference this floor was from what we were used to. No conventional sanding? No way! Face nail the face of the boards with antique square cut nails? No way! However, it turned out great and because of our commitment to quality and a number of referrals from Carlisle and the Malmbergs our wide plank career took off.
Since the Malmbergs we have installed and finished 111 wide plank floors for Carlisle. We have done many eastern white pine and heart pine, along with red and white oak, hickory, maple, ash, walnut, cherry, antique woods, saw kerf surface, hand scraped surface, barnboard, and many others that I am likely forgetting.
Among my favorites are the antique woods. The warmth and character in antique wood cannot be beat. One of my all time favorites is probably the antique sweetgum (an extremely rare antique wood with grain and color being similar to a mix of hickory and cherry) we installed in Lakeside, MI. Beautiful!
We also, because of being specialists, have had the privilege of working a large territory and discovering so many great places to visit, restaurants, and wonderful people. Carlisle floors have brought us to downtown Chicago, many of the suburbs, on the lake in Michigan, and rural Wisconsin, and many other places.
Over the past 10 years we have worked with so many great people at Carlisle. I truly view it a privilege and honor to be a part of crafting your beautiful floors and working with you guys. Without your help and support we would never had made it, and we sincerely thank you for everything! The relationships formed through the years are far more than simple business ties. We view you all as friends and family. So here is to 111 or more outstanding works of art!
THANK YOU!
Here's a few photos of floors that Classic Hardwood Floors' has installed over the years!
Birch
Hand Scraped White Oak with Stain
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: October 28, 2008 at 9:57 AM
Filed under: Customer Letters, Customer Service, Green Building and Eco Friendly Products, Hardwood Flooring, Home Building and Contracting, Jen Fox, Regions, Restoration Projects, True Hardwood Story, Wood Grains & Styles
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Tags: chicago floors, relationships
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Bill from Warmboard stopped by for a visit during the Log and Timber Show! We have partnered with Warmboard in the past on events and email marketing as our products are a great fit together. Bill works with the girls from our DC office, Janel and Hannah.
Here's a radiant heat panel that Warmboard let us borrow during the show!
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: at 9:44 AM
Filed under: Customer Service, Green Building and Eco Friendly Products, Home Building and Contracting, Home Decor, Megan Sprague, Regions
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Tags: chantilly show, relationships, subfloor radiant heat
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We exhibited at the Log and Timber show over the weekend in Chantilly, Virginia! It was a neat show and we had the chance to meet with many people.
Before the show started, one of our preferred installers, Aaron Penney installed our wide plank Eastern White Pine and Heart Pine floors.
Here's a photo of Aaron putting the Antique Cut nails into the Eastern White Pine floor.
Once the show started, visitors stopped by the booth to look at our beautiful solid wide plank floors. Here's a photo of Janel from our
DC Design Center chatting with one of our guests! They're talking about our
hand scraped hickory floors.
Here's a few close up shots of the booth in between visitors stopping by.
Here's a nice shot of our wide pine floor, this has our signature Gingerbread stain!
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: at 9:10 AM
Filed under: Hardwood Flooring, Home Building and Contracting, Home Decor, Home Flooring Choices, Megan Sprague, Regions, True Hardwood Story
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Tags: DC area, events, floors over radiant heat, timber frame homes
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Here's a note from Lauren Power of our Midwest Sales team:
Thought you might like to take a look at this amazing PREFINISHED floor
we made for homeowners in PA.
It's a mix of 4-8" 'country' White Oak and all 8" 'country' rift and
quarter sawn white oak with gingerbread stain!
The best news is that the builder is now needing about 2000 SF of
prefinished Cherry for another home he's working on. This is a builder
who was VERY hesitant about our terms and didn't want to pay for the
floor before he saw it. I guess we proved ourselves the first time
around- thank you to everyone involved in crafting this beauty!
Enjoy
LP
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: October 21, 2008 at 4:05 PM
Filed under: Customer Service, Green Building and Eco Friendly Products, Hardwood Flooring, Home Building and Contracting, Home Decor, Regions, Wood Grains & Styles
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Laura Leier of our Denver Sales team sent in these photos of her DIY project, prefinished wide plank Red Pine!
See her notes and photos below!
Here are some pictures of Our New England Red Pine prefinished with a cherry stain 8-12” wide. The install would go much faster if we did not have so much help but it fits together perfectly. The only trick with really long wood is when squaring the ends you have to really push down on the boards to keep it flat and flush with the fence on the saw. Additionally, we have not experienced any “regional contraction” in the wood. All of the boards have remained the same width and it has been in Colorado since May! This will be a huge selling tool for me when I am selling pre finished in more arid climates where this tends to occur more often!
Thank you to the mill and prefinsihing for making us such a beautiful floor that every neighbor has stopped in to covet!
Laura and family
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: at 12:40 PM
Filed under: DIY - Do It Yourself, Home Building and Contracting, Home Decor, Home Flooring Choices, Regions
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Tags: DIY, red pine, wide wood over concrete
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We're getting ready for the Log and Timber show in Chantilly, Virginia! The show is this weekend, October 24-26 at the Dulles Expo and Conference Center. In preparation for the show, we built two floors to show off! Here's a few pictures of one of the floors, our wide plank Eastern White Pine! It's unfinished in the photos, but our crew at the sample shop finished it by hand with our Gingerbread stain and Tung Oil finish.
Stop over and see us at the show! We'd love to give you free tickets, call us today: 800.595.9663!
Stay tuned...for a recap of the show when I return next week!
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: October 20, 2008 at 2:55 PM
Filed under: Home Building and Contracting, Megan Sprague, Regions
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Tags: log homes, prefinished hickory, shows
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An email from Shanon of our New England Sales staff:
Good Morning -
Here are some amazing shots of our Hit or Miss Eastern White Pine wide plank floors
stained Gingerbread in a new home in Hollis, New Hampshire. This was a
customer that came to us loving the milled barnwood
and for budget reasons had to "compromise" - but I'd say this is far
from a compromise. Great job to the stoddard guys for another amazing
floor.
Enjoy!
Here's the nice letter and photos from her clients in Hollis, New Hampshire!
Hi Shanon,
We finally finished the last tung oil coats on the floor and it looks
BEAUTIFUL!!! So many people (including the town inspector!), have fallen in love with our Carlisle wide plank floor. I thought you might like to see a few pictures of the final product. I don't have the greatest camera -but you'll get the idea! We are moving in this week and will enjoy these floors for many years to come.
Thanks so much for all your help - you all have been wonderful to work with!
Fondly,
Wendy
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: at 10:05 AM
Filed under: Customer Service, Home Building and Contracting, Home Decor, Home Flooring Choices, Regions, Wood Grains & Styles
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After all of the work Shanon's client Dale Gertz's does building homes in Maryland and ordering custom Carlisle floors for his clients, he thought Carlisle floors would be well suited for his home! He purchased our 8-15" Eastern White Pine wide plank floors, which can be found throughout his home. In addition, he used our beams in the ceilings.
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: October 8, 2008 at 3:28 PM
Filed under: Home Building and Contracting
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Tags: builder's home, eastern white pine, maryland
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At Carlisle, we are proud to work with some of the finest wood floor installers. We tend to pair ourselves well with, who we feel, are “the chosen few” of wood floor installers. They have taken the time to learn about wood, our passion for wood, trees and the forests, and carry that same passion through to the designing of a wide plank wood floor.
One of our best installers, Matt Farhm, sends us his new website, where he proudly displays a few “before and after” photos of some projects he’s done. A native of New Hampshire, Matt recently relocated to the Atlanta, Georgia area where he continues his passion for wood and installing/designing beautiful floors for his clients.
Check out his website http://www.farhmhome.com/
Author's Name: Megan Sprague
Posted Date: September 17, 2008 at 11:22 AM
Filed under: Home Building and Contracting
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By Albert Waitt
Joshua Bodwell is a Maine writer and the Associate Editor of Maine HOME+DESIGN, a magazine dedicated to “capturing the interiors, exteriors, and heart of Maine homes.” From Revolutionary War-era farmhouses to rehabbed industrial lofts in downtown Portland, Josh Bodwell has seen and written about them all. The Surface caught up with the ever-busy Bodwell to get his thoughts on wide plank flooring.
You've seen a lot of great homes in your position as associate editor at Maine HOME + DESIGN, have you noticed the increased use of wide plank flooring?
Wood flooring is almost ubiquitous in great Maine homes. In a state that is so valued for its forests and connection to the outdoors, it is not surprising. Many Maine designers—whether they are architects or interior designers—use wood flooring to re-knit a home to the land beyond its walls.
Why do you think wide plank flooring is becoming so popular?
I think the rise in wide plank flooring’s popularity can be attributed to several factors.
First, I would note the obvious: it looks great. From a design standpoint, the long, continuous lines achievable with wide planks can be used as a room’s key design element.
Next, I would have to speculate that the power of nostalgia plays a big part when homeowners in Maine—whether they are year-round residents or second home owners—select this type of flooring for their project. This theory is based upon the dozens of conversations Maine HOME+DESIGN staff has had with countless people in the home building and design field. We hear time and again that there is just something so warm and memorable about wide plank flooring—I personally always relate it to the wide pine floors in my grandparent’s 150-year-old house.
Lastly, in a time when “sustainability” is on the tips of many tongues, using pine flooring that comes from forests that are being forested with sustainable practices is very appealing to consumers. Utilizing reclaimed wood for flooring is even better—this is not recycling, but upcycling, by which I mean, taking something that is already made and giving it a new, more valuable and sustainable life.
Statistics show that demand for antique flooring has doubled over the last ten years. Are you seeing more homes with reclaimed wood, antique floors, as well as more recycled or salvaged materials in general?
Yes, we see homes all the time with reclaimed wood, antique floors. In fact, two weeks ago I was visiting with the wildly talented furniture maker Eric Ritter of Ritter Furniture and we spent a long time talking about the reclaimed wood floors that he had laid in his 175-year-old colonial farmhouse.
Recycled and salvaged materials are constantly popping up in Maine homes. I think the state has a long history of this sort of smart frugality. These days, there are reasons beyond frugality to use such materials. Again, as I stated previously, consumers are becoming more savvy about where the components of their home come from, how they are manufactured, and how they impact the earth. Antique flooring scores high with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, or LEED, and many people give serious credence to their advice.
What kind of aesthetic do you find wide plank flooring giving homes on the coast? In the interior of the state?
As I said earlier, wide plank flooring seems to be a perfect fit for the Maine design vernacular—in the interior of the state, it offers echoes of old barns and farmhouses; along the coast, it epitomizes our ideals of the perfect beachside cottage.
The aesthetics possible with wood flooring are, as I also said earlier, limitless. A few examples of homes we’ve featured in Maine HOME+DESIGN come to mind:
Back in May, 2007 we featured a home in a piece entitled “Island Elegance.” In that home (which included Douglas fir walls and ceilings) the antique southern yellow pine floors gave the small island home an added level of sophistication.
In June of that same year we featured an early 1880s farmhouse in South Freeport where the homeowner (who is also an interior designer) picked old wide-pine-board floors and gave the space an almost French countryside aesthetic.
Lastly, a Goose Rocks Beach home featured in our new issue, “Land of Leisure” (August, 2008), has gorgeous wide pine floors throughout. While some could argue that pine isn’t “strong” enough to withstand the wear and tear of sand-covered feet, the homeowner and architect felt strongly that the natural aging of the wide pine would add beautifully to the beach cottage-meets-farmhouse aesthetic that they were aiming for.
Author's Name: Guest Blogger
Posted Date: August 13, 2008 at 2:35 PM
Filed under: Guest, Hardwood Flooring, Home Building and Contracting, Home Flooring Choices
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Tags: antique wood, design magazines, home building, interior design, Maine homes, reclaimed wood, recycling, renovation, sustainability, wide plank flooring
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By Albert Waitt
Krista Stokes is one of Maine's hippest designers and the proprietor of Favela Chic Salvage Boutique and Design. She was of 14 professionals chosen to work at the exclusive Hidden Pond Resort in Kennebunkport, ME, where she created the "Lazy Days" cottage. Her work there was pictured in the Boston Globe and chronicled throughout New England.
The Floor
No Knock on Wood
Krista: Go for the hardwood, wide plank floor because of "the feel" of it. And the way it sounds. The feeling of wood is what I go for-everything else is secondary. You can do anything you want with it. It's a really versatile tool. You're not pigeon-holed into anything.
Taking Wide Planks One Step Beyond
Krista: I love going into a place that has a floor laid in an unexpected way. It gives people a chance to make the statement: "You know, I actually thought about my floor." Anytime you can say that in your home in a nice and easy way, it's great design.
For example, you can always take what one would expect a hardwood floor to be and change it. This ranch I'm doing now is really long. It already goes on forever. So instead of doing the floors lengthwise, we said let's cut the room in half and lay the planks short-wise. You enter through the French doors and on the other side of the room is York Harbor. The floor takes the distance of your eye and shortens it. Now you walk in the door and the wood takes your eye outside to the harbor because the floor is pointing you that way.
If I were a Carpenter:
Krista: Carpenters can lay your planks at an angle, do an original design, a compass rose, or parquet your floor. You can do anything you want. The sky's the limit if you can find somebody who likes to work with wood for wood's sake or craft's sake.
The Décor
Come Together:
Krista: Hardwood flooring is the most versatile thing in your house. It will do whatever you want it to. It's all about the décor.
You can take the same heart pine wide plank floor and:
Put a chrome table, with chrome and black leather seats, on that floor. Paint the wall bright red and hang motorcycle parts on it. Place a juke box in the corner. If you like that sort of thing, you'll be thinking, "Sweet." You've got a floor that is perfect for the room.
Then take all that away, and hang ship wheels on the wall. Place an old farmer's table in the center of the room, and put up a fireplace mantle with a boat on it. And wow, the floor's perfect for that room.
Clear those pieces out and bring in some Angela Adams elements like an area rug or print, an espresso nut dark wood table with white leather chairs, and a bowl of fruit and a side board. Now you're contemporary and funky, yet traditional. And the floor is still perfect.
As long as you are following other rules that balance out your design and balance out the objective of what you want the room to feel like, you're going to be successful with a wide plank floor. Everything adds up to create the atmosphere you want.
Author's Name: Guest Blogger
Posted Date: August 12, 2008 at 3:05 PM
Filed under: Guest, Hardwood Flooring, Home Building and Contracting, Home Decor
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Tags: Angela Adams, contemporary home design, decor, design elements, Favela Chic, floor use, hardwood flooring, home design, Krista Stokes, Maine homes, vintage home design, wide plank flooring, wood floors
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By Albert Waitt
Krista Stokes is one of Maine's hippest designers and the proprietor of Favela Chic Salvage Boutique and Design. She was of 14 professionals chosen to work at the exclusive Hidden Pond Resort in Kennebunkport, ME, where she created the "Lazy Days" cottage. Her work there was pictured in the Boston Globe and chronicled throughout the region.
The Surface sat down with Krista to discuss aspects of decorating for spaces with wide plank flooring. For the record, the interview was conducted in a public place. It was also repeatedly (and pleasantly) interrupted by a number of Krista's clients who couldn't pass by without saying hello and talking about their homes. It's clear that Krista has the makings of a fan club on the Maine coast. And she has a philosophy when choosing flooring materials:
It's the Wood:
Krista: For me, it's the wood. It's part of the earth. When you walk into a room and see beautiful hardwood floor, it's a feeling that you get. I love the light reflection of it. I love the sound of hardwood. It's a great way to give a space energy. The wood has traveled long and hard. Regardless of its history, whether it came out of an old farm in Ohio or a forest in Brazil, it's traveled. Just to bring that into the home means a great deal.
Floors Tell Stories.
Krista: I recently went through a big debate with some clients. The wife really wanted a wide plank floor. The husband wasn't thrilled. They have a dog and he didn't want the dog's nails to scratch the floor. I said, "Listen guys, it's life. Let life screw up your floors. Don't get your floors and then want them to stay the way they are."
Floors all tell stories. It's getting harder and harder for us to instill history with the next generation. A lot of people want to leave a history for their children, but don't want to relinquish the control of modernity.
But, it's okay. Don't sweat it. It's a floor. It's supposed to be walked on. Kids are going to run across it. It's supposed to have dogs' paws on it. The wood has survived this long and it will survive much longer than us humans. The first thing you notice when you walk into a room with a wide plank floor is, "Wow, what a great floor." If you see where a child's toy car left a skid mark, then you might think, "Hey, what happened?" It's family history.
Author's Name: Guest Blogger
Posted Date: August 11, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Filed under: Guest, Hardwood Flooring, Home Building and Contracting, Home Decor
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Tags: decor, family history, Favela Chic, floor use, home design, Krista Stokes, Maine homes, wide plank hardwood floor
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By Albert Waitt
Carpenters often refer to salvaged materials as coming from "the industrial forest." This somewhat comical slang indicates a growing awareness in the building industry of the importance of recycling classic wood and lumber. The US Forest Service reported:
"The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the equivalent of 250, 000 single-family homes is disposed of each year in the United States. This represents nearly 1 billion board feet of salvageable structural lumber per year, equivalent to about 3% of the current US softwood harvest. Much of the lumber available for salvage through deconstruction is from decades of old-growth harvest and represents a resource largely unavailable from any other source. As a result, much of the wood is of higher structural and aesthetic quality (higher density, slower grown, fewer defects) than is the lumber produced today."
Hardwood used in wide plank flooring can be salvaged from a wide range of sources. It has come from turn-of-the-century homes, old hotels, dilapidated mills, and even a 120 year-old, decommissioned 15 story grain elevator containing "the equivalent of an entire forest of antique, old-growth white pine in its walls." Where once this wood might have been seen as junk and discarded or burned, it is now recognized for what it is: An extremely rare natural commodity.
The wood salvage industry has expanded to harvest this bounty. The 2005 Forest Service study identified approximately 1400 businesses involved in salvaging, restoring, and building with reclaimed wood. It is a number that has steadily climbed.
Demand for reclaimed antique wood has also grown as homeowners have become aware of the look and ambiance it can provide. A National Hardwood Floor Association survey found that 56% of decorators and designers noted an increase in the demand for antique wood flooring over the past two years.
To meet this need, the hardwood flooring industry looks to the industrial forest. It's there that they can glean materials that are nearly impossible to find anywhere else. The American chestnut tree is nearly extinct, but one can enjoy the warmth it offers a home through salvage and restoration. Old growth pine harvested from a turn-of-the century farmhouse will show a dense wood grain with a tight ring pattern that just doesn't appear in virgin lumber. The aesthetics offered in reclaimed antique flooring are inimitable.
Barns that were once left to fall and rot are now seen as a valuable resource. Old houses that may have crumbled in disrepair are mined for irreplaceable flooring and fixtures. If one wants to create a period feel to a room or home, the most effective way to do so is with the materials of that period. Thanks to the industrial forest, the floors of the past live on today-and look as beautiful as ever.
(Survey results are available from The National Hardwood Floor Association:
http://woodfloors.org/consumer/contact.aspx)
Author's Name: Guest Blogger
Posted Date: August 10, 2008 at 2:45 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 Lumber, Barn Deconstruction, Reclaimed Floor, Recycled Wood, Sustainable Building Materials, Wide Plank Hardwood Flooring
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By Phil Johnson
I'm not a big Do-It-Yourself guy. Generally, my DIY activities are limited to painting, wallpapering and unclogging the toilet. Other than that, my main handyman skill is writing a check. It's no surprise, then, that the thought of installing my own wide plank hardwood floors seems about as doable as building the space shuttle.
However, after a little research, I've come to think this is the kind of project that even I could handle. At the very least, it's less life threatening than other home improvement projects like:
Plumbing – Plumbers use blowtorches. Can you say, "burn unit"?
Electrical – They use electricity to execute convicts. No thanks.
Roofing – I'm not afraid of heights; I'm afraid of falling from heights.
So far as I can tell the odds of installing hardwood floors and living to tell about it seem relatively high!
If you're thinking of installing a hardwood floor yourself, there's lots of helpful information out there about it – even videos tutorials! After careful review, I get the feeling that, with a little patience and free time, I could actually handle it.
For starters, nowadays you can buy prefinished flooring – even for wide plank flooring – eliminating the need for sanding, staining and sealing. Since using a drum sander sounds about easy as operating a Zamboni, this reduces the project complexity – and potential medical co-payment costs - quite a bit.
Next, the tools involved aren't all that complicated. They include – among other things – a hammer, a crowbar, a floor nailer and a miter saw. Now, sure, a power saw sounds a little dicey, but I figure you can lose a digit or two and still maintain a high quality of life.
As for the actual hardwood floor installation, it sounds quite reasonable, and has been described as a weekend project. It involves some variation of the following basic steps:
Remove any existing baseboard – Heck, even I can take stuff apart.
Prepare the floor base – You can put hardwood flooring on top of a plywood sub-floor, an existing hardwood floor or even concrete! Usually, you put down a plastic or felt vapor barrier to keep the moisture out.
Install the floor - Start laying planks or boards from one wall, nail them in place using said floor nailer (try not to do this) and work your way across the room. Be sure to stagger the seams where the boards join!
Edge special room aspects - If the room has floor vents, fireplaces, or some such thing, make sure to edge them, which requires a few extra cuts, no biggie.
Replace baseboards, sweep up and enjoy your new floors! At this point you may want to enjoy a celebratory beverage of your choice (in my case that'd be beer).
The more I think about this, the surer I am that I'm going to have give this project a go! Now I just need to convince my wife that I won't maim myself doing it …
Author's Name: Guest Blogger
Posted Date: August 8, 2008 at 8:19 AM
Filed under: DIY - Do It Yourself, Guest, Hardwood Flooring, Home Building and Contracting, Home Flooring Choices
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Tags: DIY Floor Installation, Home Improvement, Project, Safe DIY Idea, Wide Plank Hardwood Flooring
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By Albert Waitt
Wise investment isn't limited to the trading floor of Wall Street. According to realtors and designers across North America, hardwood flooring adds to a home's value as well as its charm. Aesthetics and economics converge, and the homeowner reaps the benefits.
It's clear as to what a hardwood floor can bring to a space in terms of warmth and style. The Denver Business Journal reported that Colorado designers and homeowners are opting for more hardwood flooring than ever, as it is seen as "timeless," "classic," "elegant," and "adding style to any living area." The DBJ was also quick to note the accompanying increased resale value of a home with a hardwood floor. Home décor columnist Rose Bennett Gilbert of the San Diego Union-Tribune and RealEstate.com's renovation guide came to similar conclusions on the investment value found in hardwood flooring.
Agent Brain Madigan of Toronto, with over 5000 real estate transactions to his credit, believes that hardwood floors are "one of the few improvements that you can make to your house where the resale value may exceed the actual cost of the improvement. The return can easily amount to 150% to 200% or even more." Although Madigan's numbers represent a best case scenario, statistics from a 2006 National Wood Flooring Association survey of realtors further substantiate the value of hardwood floors.
The NWFA survey found:
99% of real estate professionals indicated that having hardwood floors either "greatly" or "somewhat" aided a home's salability.
90% of realtors suggested that homes with hardwood floors will sell for more money than homes with mostly carpet. (25% of the realtors stated that hardwood floors would add 6 to 10% to a home's resale value, while 12 % believed hardwood flooring would add more than 10% to the sale price.)
82% of realtors believed that homes with mostly hardwood floors will sell faster.
84% of home buyers who have lived in homes with hardwood floors are more likely to buy another home with hardwood floors.
By choosing hardwood flooring when building or renovating, homeowners can add to the attractiveness of their house, something they will be able to enjoy every day. They can also view their floor as an investment: When the home is sold, that hardwood flooring will pay real dividends.
(Survey results are available from The National Hardwood Floor Association: http://woodfloors.org/consumer/contact.aspx)
Continue reading "Investing in a Wide Plank Hardwood Floor" »
Author's Name: Guest Blogger
Posted Date: August 7, 2008 at 8:48 AM
Filed under: Authors, Guest, Hardwood Flooring, Home Building and Contracting, Home Flooring Choices
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Tags: floor renovation, flooring, flooring choices, Hardwood floors, home buyers, home buying attributes, home sales, home value, increasing home value, real estate, resale value
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By Matt Cardin
By now it's evident to everybody with a pulse that America's current housing crisis is one for the history books. This is, to put it mildly, a serious situation that's severely impacting much more than just the housing industry.
That's why it's reassuring that one segment of the industry is still holding up its economic head, namely, the $1.5 billion remodeling market. For obvious reason, this news is significant to readers of Surface with their interest in wide plank hardwood flooring, home remodeling, etc.
Back in 2006, during the early innings of the housing crisis, Marcia Jedd reported for HGTV (in "Remodeling Market Adjusts to Housing Slump") that remodeling was not only surviving but quite possibly thriving. "Remodelers," she wrote, "take heart: In a housing downturn that is exceptional in many aspects, remodeling is holding its own. In fact, by some accounts, business is booming." She quoted Kermit Baker, Ph.D., director of the Remodeling Futures Program at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, as saying that while the remodeling market was definitely feeling the pinch, small remodeling projects of the home improvement sort, such as windows, roofs, flooring, decks, and small additions, would experience strong demand.
That was two years ago. In hindsight it's apparent this projection was fairly accurate. The most recent information presented by the National Association of Home Builders in its Remodeling Market Index (RMI) shows that after declining only slightly in the fourth quarter of 2007, remodeling activity held steady during the first quarter of 2008, showing only minor weakness in tandem with the overall housing slump and appearing poised for a recovery in 2009-long before most economists are predicting anything similar for the overall housing market. And between then and now a slew of reports and articles, many of them easily obtainable by Googling combined search terms like "housing slump" + "remodeling," has indicated that while spending on remodeling projects has slowed, in many cases the wider housing bust is actually driving the remodeling market, which in any event shows strong growth prospects. Needless to say, we'd love to hear from readers about their own experiences and observations in this area.
Author's Name: Guest Blogger
Posted Date: August 5, 2008 at 8:41 AM
Filed under: Guest, Hardwood Flooring, Home Building and Contracting, Home Flooring Choices
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Tags: Hardwood and Market Value Increase, Home Value, Housing Crisis, Remodeling Market Index 2008, RMI, Wide Plank Hardwood Flooring
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By Matt Cardin
It's no secret that radiant heat is one of the fastest growing green trends in the construction business. Its location underfoot means it transfers heat directly to the individual instead of dispersing it into the air. Radiant heat systems also reduce the amount of heat lost when external doors are opened. And as anybody who has walked on a heated floor can tell you, they're unbelievably wonderful in cold weather.
Now it turns out that radiant heat combined with hardwood flooring results in an especially efficient heating situation that dramatically reduces a building's carbon footprint. We're not talking about some sort of special voodoo between the wood and the heat that makes them act differently. We're just talking about simple common sense. As documented and explained copiously by Carlisle and others, hardwood flooring is the only type that's 100 percent ecologically sustainable. The green benefits of radiant heat, for its part, are undisputed. So pairing them is a simple matter of 2 + 2 = 4.
As described in an April 15 press release from the National Wood Flooring Association, "Eco-conscious consumers can reduce their carbon footprint even further by installing radiant heat under wood floors. Because wood floors are sustainable and renewable, they increase radiant heat's benefits." Of particular interest to people thinking about going this direction is the fact that radiant heat can work with wide plank floors. A Google search combining them turns up many recommendations to use strip flooring, but these are a bit like the old saw that you can't install hardwood floors over concrete, when in fact you can. Using radiant heat effectively beneath wide plank flooring simply calls for an installation process involving a floating plywood subfloor.
Note that Carlisle has an FAQ about wood flooring choices where the first question deals with this very issue. Readers who are interested in both hardwood floors and environmentally sound living could do worse than to consider Carlisle's emphatic assertion that radiant heat is "our favorite heat source with our floors!"
Author's Name: Guest Blogger
Posted Date: August 4, 2008 at 3:33 PM
Filed under: Green Building and Eco Friendly Products, Guest, Hardwood Flooring, Home Building and Contracting, Home Flooring Choices
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Tags: Energey Efficient, Green Wide Plank Hardwood Flooring, Home Heating, Radiant Heat, Sustainable Floors
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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, fami
