Meet the Preservation Collection: Inspired by our best-selling floors with an 8-week lead time.
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Glossy hardwood floors have an undeniable appeal. There’s something special about a gleaming, pristine hardwood floor that brings energy, light and beauty to any interior. Whether you choose high-gloss hardwood floors or semi-gloss hardwood floors, a glossy surface will also have its own set of issues. Glossy hardwood floors are notoriously hard to keep clean, making them a difficult option for high-traffic areas or homes with pets and small children.
At Carlisle, we’ll help you explore all of the finish options for your wide plank floors. Our expert design consultants can walk you through the pros and cons of semi-gloss vs. high-gloss hardwood floors as well as matte vs. satin finish hardwood floors. We’ll explain the differences in oil-based vs. water-based floor finish and help you select the perfect color of stain for your floor as well. With matte, satin or glossy hardwood floors from Carlisle, you can rest assured that you’ll have a surface that will turn heads and astonish everyone who enters your space.
Explore and select from our gallery of our most popular finishes, specially categorized by the personalities and traits of the floor designs.
ExploreOne of the final decisions when installing your hardwood floors is the level of sheen you want when applying the final finish.
Glossy hardwood floors reflect a great deal of light off the floor, resulting in surface that’s quite shiny but shows dust and dirt more easily. With a luster level around 70%, high-gloss hardwood floors are most often seen in bowling alleys and gyms, though some homeowners use a high-gloss finish to accent the grain and appearance of exotic hardwood floors. Glossy hardwood floors will need to be cleaned constantly to preserve their pristine appearance.
Semi-gloss hardwood floors are a bit easier to maintain but still reflect a great deal of light. Semi-gloss floors have a luster level around 55% and are typically seen in interior designs that are super sleek and highly styled.
Satin finishes, with a luster level around 35-40%, are the most common sheen level in hardwood flooring today. A satin finish hardwood floor will hide dust and dirt more easily but still produce a shine that gives the floor a new look.
Matte hardware floors have the lowest luster level, somewhere around 10% to 25% gloss. Matte floors are perfect for high-traffic areas as they hide scuffs, scratches and dirt quite easily. A matte finish has a very natural look and is frequently used in Scandinavian-styled flooring. A floor that’s treated with a wire-brush texture or hand-scraped edges almost always has a matte finish, allowing the detail in the wood grain to be seen and appreciated more easily.
Glossy hardwood floors are surfaces made of hardwood planks and finished with a coating of polyurethane that has a high sheen value. The sheen of a floor measures the amount of luster in the surface, or the amount of light that it reflects.
A semi-gloss finish will reflect a great deal of light, making a floor appear quite shiny and new. It will also reveal dust, dirt, scuffs and streaks more easily. A satin finish reflects less light and conceals dust and dirt more easily, which is why satin is the most common finish in hardware floors today.
The amount of sheen or shine on your hardwood floor is a matter of personal preference. Some people prefer a really shiny surface that constantly looks fresh and new, and they're willing to do the extra work to keep it clean. Others prefer a matte finish that shows more of the character and grain in the wood and that reveals less dust and dirt.
Yes. A prefinished floor is one that is sanded, stained and sealed within the ideal conditions of our manufacturing facility. It arrives at your home ready for installation and lets you avoid the mess of sawdust and the odor of stain and sealant that are present when a floor is finished on-site.
At Carlisle, we’ve been crafting the finest wood floors in America for more than 50 years. When you choose Carlisle glossy hardwood floors, you know you will have a surface made from the finest raw materials available, handcrafted with the highest levels of craftsmanship. We fashion our glossy hardwood floors the same way we build every other Carlisle surface – one plank at a time. From selecting planks that reveal the personality of the hardwood to applying the perfect shade of stain, our artisan woodworkers obsess over every detail of your floor. They know that your Carlisle floor will be a treasured feature of your home for years to come, and a one-of-a-kind surface that is intended to be the perfect reflection of your sense of style.
