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When you want a truly gleaming hardwood floor, consider a sealant with a semi-gloss finish. The amount of gloss, or luster, in the final coat of finish determines how much light the floor reflects. Semi-gloss hardwood floors have a luster level around 55%, creating a surface that will reflect more light and have a great deal of shine. Semi-gloss hardwood floors have that shimmering, almost liquid appearance that can create a really stunning surface.
As you’re considering what kind of finish will best suit your needs, the design consultants at Carlisle Wide Plank Floors can help. Our specialists are experts at helping homeowners understand all their options for hardwood, grade, color, texture and finish to produce a truly remarkable wide plank floor. Whether you choose matte, satin or semi-gloss hardwood floors, you can be sure your Carlisle floor will be a defining feature of your home.
Explore and select from our gallery of our most popular finishes, specially categorized by the personalities and traits of the floor designs.
ExploreSheen, or gloss, in a hardwood floor is determined by the amount of luster in the final coat of sealant. Luster is the amount of light reflected from the floor when viewed at a 60° angle. High-gloss hardwood floors have roughly 70% luster, creating a super shiny appearance that is normally reserved for spaces like bowling alleys and gymnasiums. Matte-finish floors, on the other hand, have a luster level of15% to 25%, creating a much duller but more natural appearance. There are also finishes with virtually no sheen. At Carlisle these are known as Extra Matte finishes and register from 6-9%.
Semi-gloss hardwood floors have a luster level around 55% and are considered the highest level of sheen for most residential uses. Semi-gloss hardwood floors reflect a great deal of light and have a very shiny appearance. This amount of luster makes the floors more difficult to maintain, as glossy hardwood floors reveal dust, dirt, scratches, and scuffs more easily.
While the level of gloss in a floor is a personal design decision, many people prefer satin over semi-gloss hardwood floors. A satin-finish hardwood floor has a luster level around 25-30%, giving it a nice, gleaming appearance while also hiding dust and dirt more easily.
There's no single best finish for floors – each type of finish offers advantages and disadvantages. A water-based polyurethane wood floor is a highly durable surface, and the finish contains fewer VOCs (volatile organic compounds), so it is considered more environmentally friendly. Oil-based polyurethane is considered even more durable, but it contains high levels of VOCs and lends a slight amber tint to the color of the floor. Today more and more customers are choosing to have the finish applied at the factory where a urethane finish is the most popular choice. Often factory finishes are able to add scratch resistance and greater durability to the floor than site applied finished.
In addition to choosing a semi-gloss finish, there are a number of other options that can help to make your Carlisle floor a one-of-a-kind surface.
Carlisle offers several proprietary grades that let you choose how much personality of the original timber will be revealed in your floor. Our Original Grade offers a more rustic and relaxed look, showing more knots, mineral streaks and variations in color and grain. Our Heirloom Grade features a more formal look, minimizing these variations in the wood. And our Signature Grade provides an ideal balance between Original and Heirloom Grades.
At Carlisle, you may choose board widths that are between 4″ and 20″, depending on the species of wood. Wider planks offer a more luxurious and expansive feel. Choosing random widths offers visual variety and gives the floor a more casual appearance, while using consistent widths will produce a more formal and even look.
Carlisle floors are made both with solid and engineered wood. Engineered planks are constructed with multiple layers of material that are glued together and topped with a veneer of hardwood. The result is a floorboard with a stronger core that is ideal for installation in rooms where higher levels of moisture and humidity are present.
Texturing or distressing hardwood planks can give new floors the appearance of an antique surface. At Carlisle, our craftsmen apply a variety of techniques that re-create the look of boards that were produced at sawmills more than a century ago. We also use wire-brush techniques to wear away the softer grains in the wood, giving the floor a gently worn authenticity.
While our own preference is for a natural finish that lets the original color of the wood shine through, we also offer an unlimited variety of stain colors. Our custom matching system makes it easy to perfectly match the hue of your stain to the color of any item you bring or send it to us.
Carlisle semi-gloss hardwood floors – like all our wide plank floors – are masterpieces created by artisan woodworkers who have an extraordinary feel for fine wood. Using time-honored methods and the soundest timbers sourced from America’s finest forests, we fashion one-of-a-kind surfaces that are destined to become a defining feature of the homes and businesses in which they’re installed. Carlisle residential and commercial hardwood floors are all about detail. We carefully select each plank to better reveal the personality of the wood. We obsess over the color of stain and the texture of a wire-brushed board. Our design consultants work closely with you to ensure your floor will be an unmistakable expression of your sense of style and sophistication.
To help preserve natural resources, we work with a select group of growers and sawyers who share our commitment to sustainable forestry. With a semi-gloss hardwood floor from Carlisle, you know you’ll have a sustainably sourced surface that will warm your home for years to come.
