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When you’re interested in white oak hardwood flooring for your residence or commercial setting, you have many choices for colors, textures and finishes. One of the most important decisions is whether to use solid or White Oak engineered flooring. In this brief primer, we’ll look at the ins and outs of engineered floors and the benefits that White Oak engineered flooring may offer over a solid hardwood option.
An engineered floor is one in which each board is made up of multiple layers of material, rather than a single piece of solid hardwood. In the case of White Oak engineered flooring, each plank has a veneer of White Oak hardwood on top of multiple layers of a backing material that are glued together to form a strong core. While most commercial engineered flooring may use a plywood with only 3-5 layers or fiberboard for backing, Carlisle White Oak engineered flooring uses hardwood to create 11 layers of plywood substrate which results in a more durable engineered floor.
A wide plank floor from Carlisle uses boards that are 8” to 20” wide, and up to 12’ long. In contrast, standard commercial flooring uses boards that are 2 ¼” to 3” wide and 3’ to 4’ long. That means a wide plank floor has a fraction of the seams of a commercial floor, creating a more harmonious and less busy look. A wide plank floor also allows the grain patterns in the wood to be more present and visible, enabling the personality of the hardwood to show through. Wide plank engineered White Oak wood flooring is an engineered floor with a White Oak veneer that comes in planks up to 10” wide and up to 12’ long.
An engineered floor is typically installed in rooms that are below ground level or in environments that typically experience slightly higher levels of relative humidity. Engineered flooring is ideal for minimizing expansion and contraction through a relatively moderate range of relative humidity, 30-55%
Engineered flooring from Carlisle – including White Oak flooring – is highly durable thanks to multiple layers of hardwood backing. While most commercial engineered floors use 3 to 5 layers of backing, Carlisle provides up 9 to 11 layers, depending on the overall thickness of the board. Additionally, the top layer or “wear layer” on a Carlisle engineered floor is thicker as well, lending greater durability and longevity to the floor.
Whether you want a look that’s sleek, chic, or unique, we can provide a floor that fits your individual style.
White Oak engineered flooring from Carlisle offers distinct advantages over other types of engineered products.
• Our floors are thicker and stronger. Our engineered floors are typically 3/4” thick, while other commercial engineered floors are 1/4” or 1/2″ thick. And we use up to 11 layers of a suitable plywood substrate hardwood as backing material, compared to the 3 to 5 layers of softer plywood or fiberboard that are used in our competitors’ products.
• We use a slow production process. Our Slowcraft™ production process allows our craftsmen to closely monitor the production of our White Oak engineered flooring. In contrast, other commercial engineered floors are mass produced by machines.
• Our floors last longer. We use a thicker top layer so that our engineered floors will last as long as our solid wood floors, while our competitors use thinner top players that may have a shorter lifespan.
White Oak engineered flooring from Carlisle may be customized in a number of ways. We offer a virtually unlimited number of colors for staining. Our engineered White Oak floors may be installed in a parquet pattern like a Chevron or Herringbone to lend additional elegance to your room. Our engineered options come in both unfinished white oak flooring and prefinished white oak flooring, and the veneer on our engineered floors may be made from quartersawn white oak or rift sawn white oak for a more consistent and uniform appearance in the grain pattern. One caveat – engineered floors are inevitably new floors; If you’re interested in reclaimed white oak flooring, you’ll need to look at solid wood floor options.
You can clean an engineered floor the same as you would any solid hardwood floor. Vinegar and water is an excellent option that is safe both for the floor and for the environment. Simply mix 1 or 2 ounces of vinegar with 2 gallons of water – the natural acidity in the vinegar helps to clean away dirt and contaminants.
Absolutely. Each Carlisle engineered floor can be sanded and refinished up to three times over the life of the floor – the same as with any solid hardwood floor.
Installation of engineered White Oak wood flooring is no different than installation of our solid flooring options. With more than 50 years’ experience designing and crafting wide plank floors, we have perfected the handcrafted manufacturing process to ensure that every installation is smooth and easy. In fact, many installers we work with prefer installing Carlisle floors – the wider, longer boards mean there are fewer boards to install overall, and our floors can be installed with nails, staples, glue or a combination of all of these methods. Our White Oak engineered flooring is one of the best options for installation on radiant heat, concrete slab or in waterfront environments. And our prefinished wood floors help save time during installation because there is no sanding, staining or finishing required on-site.
The biggest reason to select Carlisle for crafting your White Oak engineered flooring is simple: the quality of our products and customer service is unsurpassed in the industry. Since 1966, the Carlisle name has represented leadership and innovation in hardwood flooring and our 50 years of experience enables us to create masterpieces in wood that are the genuine reflection of each owner’s personality and style. The extraordinary quality of our floors is matched only by our dedication to providing remarkably responsive customer service. Our design consultants and customer service team will walk with you every step of the journey to ensure that every detail is perfect and that you are thrilled with your White Oak engineered flooring.
