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You have questions, we have answers. Explore the most frequently asked questions about hardwood flooring below. Need assistance or want to know more? Contact Carlisle or call 800-595-9663 today to get all your inquiries answered.
Hardwood continues to be the most popular flooring in homes today. While luxury vinyl, natural stone, tile and concrete are all increasingly popular, more homeowners prefer hardwood floors when they can afford it.
Not surprisingly, hardwood flooring has the potential to add the most value to a home. Realtors estimate that new hardwood floors can add from 2.5%[1] to 10% or more[2] to the sale price of a home.
Flooring trends for high-end homes today include luxury vinyl tiles or planks, cork and bamboo flooring, natural stone and a variety of luxury wood flooring.
Explore and select from our gallery of our most popular finishes, specially categorized by the personalities and traits of the floor designs.
ExploreLuxury wood flooring is a wood floor that has been crafted with more care, finer materials and greater visual appeal. Luxury flooring trends include wide plank floors, reclaimed floors, distressed hardwood flooring, parquet floors and engineered wood floors that are resistant to moisture and humidity.
Wide plank floors are made with floorboards that are much wider and longer than the very narrow boards used in standard commercial flooring. While traditional floorboards are typically no wider than 3”, wide plank floors use boards that range from 5” to 20”, with lengths up to 16’. The extraordinary width and length of these boards allows the beauty and personality of the wood to shine through, while creating a floor with fewer seams and a greater sense of elegance and spaciousness.
Many factors contribute to the cost of the floor. But in general, a wide plank floor is likely to be more expensive than a standard commercial floor. Wide planks must be harvested from larger, older trees that are less plentiful, and the labor involved in producing wider planks can add to the cost as well.
With fewer seams, wide plank floors have a less “busy” feel and can make a smaller room seem larger. Installing a wide plank floor on the diagonal adds to the illusion of spaciousness.
A reclaimed floor is made with old wood that has been salvaged from buildings slated for demolition. These may be barns, farmhouses, old factories and other structures built more than a century ago. Cut from structural timbers or floorboards, reclaimed floorboards have a rich patina and a warm character resulting from years of age, wear and exposure to weather. The beauty of a reclaimed floor is in its imperfections – the nail holes, wormholes, cracks, splits, discolorations and saw marks that add visual interest and authenticity.
Distressed wood flooring makes a new floor resemble an antique or vintage hardwood floor. Craftsmen use a variety of techniques to distress or texture the wood. The result is the aged and worn appearance of floorboards produced by sawmills more than a century ago and prepared for installation by hand. Popular distressing techniques include hand-scraped edges that smooth the edges of a wooden floorboard, and wire brush techniques that wear the way the softer grains to create a timeworn or footworn appearance.
In parquet floors, the boards are laid out in a pattern rather than in straight parallel lines, side-by-side. Common patterns include Herringbone and Chevron, where each board abuts the next at an angle. The Versailles pattern is also popular, re-creating the appearance of the floors in France’s Versailles Palace. Parquet floors add instant visual appeal to a room as well as an air of elegance and sophistication.
Engineered floors are an increasingly popular option for homeowners, especially for rooms with higher levels of moisture or humidity like kitchens, bathrooms and mud rooms. Engineered floors are also ideal for installation in basements, over radiant heating systems or on concrete slabs. An engineered floorboard is made with a top layer of hardwood that’s adhered to multiple layers of backing material such as plywood or high-density fiberboard. With the grain of each layer running in a different direction, an engineered floorboard has an incredibly stable core that won’t expand, contract or warp when exposed to higher levels of relative humidity.
Because its top layer is made from hardwood, an engineered floor is no more susceptible to scratches than a solid wood floor. Regardless of whether it is made with solid wood or engineered boards, a floor made with softer woods like Walnut or Cherry will scratch more easily than a floor fashioned from harder timbers like Maple or Hickory.
Both engineered floors and luxury vinyl planks are increasingly popular flooring options for homeowners. Luxury vinyl planks from Carlisle are made from synthetic material and feature a fade-resistant decorative layer that offers the beautiful, authentic appearance of a hardwood floor. This layer is protected by an ultra-thick wear layer for ultimate wear resistance. A core that’s twice as thick as industry standards provides ultra-stable performance. And a quiet, comfortable, built-in cork underlay delivers antimicrobial protection. Luxury vinyl planks are more affordable and more water-resistant than engineered floors, while engineered floors are more eco-friendly and will last longer. The choice between engineered hardwood and luxury vinyl planks ultimately comes down to the preferences of the homeowner and the requirements of a given room.
Carlisle Wide Plank Floors has specialized in high-quality surfaces for homes and businesses for more than 50 years. We offer a broad array of wide plank options, including solid hardwood and engineered floors as well as reclaimed floors, distressed flooring and luxury vinyl planks. Our expert design consultants work closely with customers to explore options for types of hardwood or Pine, stain colors, finishes, patterns, texture and more, helping to create a floor that will transform the interior of any home.
