Handcrafted Luxury Wood Flooring, Made in America Rustic Hardwood Flooring

Rustic Hardwood Flooring

Your guide to rustic hardwood flooring from Carlisle.

There’s nothing quite like rustic hardwood flooring to instantly transform a room. Whether it’s reclaimed barnwood flooring salvaged from centuries-old buildings or new unfinished wood flooring that’s treated to give it an aged appearance, rustic hardwood flooring adds immediate character, warmth and personality to any home or business interior.

In this brief introduction to rustic hardwood flooring, we’ll look at options for quality wood floors that have been reclaimed from buildings slated for demolition, as well as the techniques used by Carlisle craftsmen to give new surfaces the look of floors that have been lived on for generations.

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Texturing new floors to create rustic hardwood flooring.

At Carlisle, our craftsmen are experts at distressing new floors to create an aged look that gives the appearance of rustic hardwood flooring. We offer six techniques for distressing wood floors, including several proprietary techniques you’ll only find at Carlisle.

  • Hit or Miss. This technique recreates the saw swirl patterns that are the hallmark of boards cut at early sawmills. This style of texturing a floor reproduces the look of reclaimed flooring but at a fraction of the price.
  • Watermill flooring. This process reproduces the appearance of boards that were rough sawn at watermills a century or more ago. This technique recreates the look of rustic hardwood flooring that was never planed or scraped smooth, with saw marks from cutting that were smoothed over time by foot traffic.
  • Hand-scraped edges. This approach mimics the look of boards that were cut to be installed by hand, before machines were available to produce exceptionally straight and smooth boards. Early craftsmen used a block plane to prepare boards, drawing it across the planks edge to make the transition from one board to the next more smooth. This is one of the quickest and most authentic ways to make a new board look old.
  • Brushed flooring. Our craftsmen use specially designed brushes to “de-gloss” and unsmooth boards, giving them a worn texture with very fine brush markings.
  • Timeworn flooring. As floors age, they become naturally worn both by foot traffic and the passage of time, and patterns emerge in the wood grain. This proprietary process reproduces this look, giving new floors the appearance of rustic hardwood flooring that has been lived on for more than three generations.
  • Footworn flooring. This method reproduces the subtle patterns of rustic hardwood flooring that have been walked upon for centuries, where softer grains wear down faster than denser sections to create an unmistakable undulating pattern in the floorboards.
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The leading provider of rustic hardwood flooring in North America.

Carlisle Wide Plank Floors is the most requested supplier of reclaimed flooring and rustic hardwood flooring in North America. The reason is simple: we deliver floors of exceptional quality. From rustic hardwood flooring to new wide plank floors and engineered floors, every Carlisle floor is a masterpiece that is handcrafted to reflect the owner’s sense of style and sophistication. Our craftsmen painstakingly work each plank to ensure it is the best match for your floor. From sanding and staining to texturing and pre-finishing, no detail is too small to escape their attention. That’s the reason that Carlisle floors are in demand in museums, upscale restaurants, trendy boutiques and exceptional homes throughout the world. Once you see the quality of our work, we know you’ll agree that nothing compares to the beauty, strength and performance of a Carlisle floor.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What type of reclaimed floors are available from Carlisle? What’s the difference between antique, Barnwood and reclaimed floors? What are the benefits of reclaimed floors? What is reclaimed flooring?

What type of reclaimed floors are available from Carlisle?

  • Reclaimed Oak features color variations that range from blonde to nutty brown and feature strong, prominent grain patterns, with all the original wormholes, cracks, checks, knots and nail holes intact.
  • Reclaimed Heart Pine is salvaged from mills and factories around New England that were built during the American Industrial Revolution. Reclaimed Heart Pine flooring offers a rich color palette and strong grain.
  • Reclaimed Chestnut flooring features prominent chestnut grain and rich colors that range from light brown to darker cocoa.
  • Reclaimed Grandpa’s flooring is our most rustic hardwood flooring option. Fashioned from structural floor joists and old floorboards, these floors have more knots, nail holes, texture variations and even bullet holes than other types of rustic hardwood flooring.
  • Reclaimed Milled Barnwood features floorboards that have been re-sawn and milled from barnwood planks salvaged from the exterior or interior of old barns.
  • Reclaimed Original Surface Barnwood offers boards with an extreme weathered, rustic look and texture. Salvaged from walls and ceilings of old barns around northern New England and the Canadian border, these timbers are left un-sanded and are intended for wall and ceiling paneling rather than flooring services.

What’s the difference between antique, Barnwood and reclaimed floors?

Antique floors are the same as reclaimed floors – both are a type of rustic hardwood flooring fashioned from a variety of timbers taken from old buildings. Barnwood floors are specifically made with the wood from the siding, floors or other timbers from old barns, and may have a more weathered look and feel.

What are the benefits of reclaimed floors?

Reclaimed floors offer an authenticity and character you simply can’t find with other flooring alternatives. These rustic hardwood flooring surfaces are inevitably one-of-a-kind installations that add warmth and original personality to any room.

What is reclaimed flooring?

Reclaimed floors are a type of rustic hardwood flooring made from floorboards and timbers extracted from older buildings that are about to be demolished. Reclaimed floors retain all the cracks, splits, color variations, original saw marks and nail holes, giving these hardwood surfaces an unmistakable character and indelible sense of history.