flooring Archives - Page 3 of 3

Eastern White Pine Floors Shine in Bright Contemporary Home

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Jeff Easterling

The rustic texture and color of Eastern White Pine makes it a natural choice for country-style homes, cabins and mountain retreats, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a place in contemporary and modern buildings. In fact, contrasting this character-rich wood with bright, smooth and polished surfaces makes it stand out as a major interior design highlight. This home in Vermont is a prime example.

Just over two miles from Woodstock, Vermont, this New England home is a blend of classic and contemporary styles. Originally built in 1971, it received a modern update with an emphasis on green materials in 2010 including narrow horizontal wood cladding on its exterior, and lots of white paint inside.

All of those white surfaces really put the focus on the center-cut, wide plank Eastern White Pine floors. Subtly stained to retain the wood’s natural beauty, the floors help give the home a warm and inviting feel.

Demand has steadily risen for sustainable wood flooring in recent years. More buyers choose homes with wood floors over those with carpet or tile, and they’re more concerned than ever about how their home-buying, building and renovation choices affect the environment.

Check out a gallery of ten more homes with Eastern White Pine flooring in a range of styles.

This Week in Wood: Maine Firm Makes a Splash with Underwater Log Flooring

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Jeff Easterling

A century or more after they sunk to the bottom of Quakish Lake in Millinocket, Maine during transport to a nearby paper mill, submerged logs are brought to the surface and transformed into new products, including Eastern White Pine flooring. Maine Heritage Timber Company discovered a trove of logs estimated at an astonishing 700,000 to 1 million cords stacked in the bottom of the 1,000-acre lake. That’s enough to harvest for around 20 years, according to company co-founder Steve Sanders.

The lake is located along the west branch of the Penobscot River, which was a highway for delivering wood to mills throughout the rich history of Maine’s historic lumber industry. While being transported, some were naturally lost to the water, sunken and long forgotten. While Maine Heritage Timber Company initially reclaimed the old logs for use as pulp in biomass boilers, they’ve discovered a use that preserves the wood’s heritage.

“The waters of the Penobscot River have protected the timber from deterioration and ingrained the wood with an amazing assortment of grays, blues, and reds,” says Sanders. “Cut by hand, this lumber has characteristics found in no other wood.”

The company glues layers of the lake-salvaged wood to a thin layer of Baltic birch to create an engineered flooring product. They’ll harvest about 12,000 tons of the submerged wood this year to create this flooring for lines like Penobscot, made of Eastern White Pine, and the 1899 Collection, made of red oak and yellow birch.

Read more about how the wood is harvested and treated at MaineBiz.

Pine Possibilities: Ways to Incorporate Wood Into Your Home

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Jeff Easterling

By their very nature, new structures can lack that ‘old house’ character and charm, which often comes from the use of hand-crafted materials and components, and the time-worn qualities that wood takes on over decades. But even brand-new wood can go a long way toward making a house feel like home. Eastern White Pine has been a highly-prized species of wood for both exterior and interior applications in the home since it was first discovered in New England by settlers looking to start new communities. Here are eight ways to use it in your home, from floor to ceiling.

Interior and Exterior Siding – Board and batten, tongue and groove, D-log and bevel styles of cladding are all available in Eastern White Pine in a variety of sizes and grades, with smooth surfaces and just enough knots to give the wood texture and character.

Ceilings – Whether it’s allowed to be the main feature or whitewashed to set it back visually in order to highlight other architectural elements, Eastern White Pine is a rustic alternative to drywall for ceilings. Check out a video of a unique basket weave ceiling featuring this wood.

Floors – Wide-plank floors are one of the most popular ways to use Eastern White Pine, and they’re an especially beautiful choice in farmhouses and log cabins.

Moulding and Trim – Eastern White Pine has long been a favorite species for use as trim because it’s so easy to work with and provides such a fine, smooth finish that holds paint and stain exceptionally well.

Millwork – A combination of softness and strength makes Eastern White Pine ideal for detail work. Carpenters love it because it’s easy to carve with both hand and machine tools.

Cabinetry – Thanks to its light weight, good looks and affordability, Eastern White Pine is often used for cabinetry and built-ins throughout homes and businesses.

Timbers – Few species of wood work better for rustic, beautiful timber frame homes, in which tree trunks are kept in their natural shape rather than milled into lumber.

Photo: NELMA.org

Sanctuary: Cozy Vermont Home is an Eastern White Pine Showcase

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Jeff Easterling

The character of Eastern White Pine shines through in every wooden surface of Sanctuary, a beautiful Shaker-style home in Burlington, Vermont. This 1,850-square-foot, three-bedroom home by Cushman Design Group is a sustainable getaway with rustic charm and contemporary comfort, featuring large plate-glass windows that look out onto the tranquil meadow setting.

The owners, Demaris Wehr and David Hart, wanted a design that would connect thematically and emotionally with the woodland Vermont setting. They showed the architects an image of a fairy house in Wales as inspiration, and the result is an inviting modernized interpretation. Cushman Design Group, of Vermont, often features Eastern White Pine in their creations, ranging from modern homes and historic-style barns to commercial interiors.

Locally harvested Eastern White Pine is the star of the show here, from the exterior siding to the kitchen cabinets. All natural wood surfaces in the home are treated with polymerized tung oil rather than oil-based urethanes for a greener finish that highlights the beauty of the wood.

All of these surfaces, including the shiplap ceiling and the wide-plank floors, were custom-built. The countertops are heart pine, procured from standing dead trees. The Eastern White Pine surfaces even extend to the furniture, with built-in dressers, shelving and bathroom vanities.

Photographs by Susan Teare, used with permission

Stunning Modern Lifeguard Tower Home Features Eastern White Pine Floors

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Jeff Easterling

The warm, rich antique look of Eastern White Pine floors has long been a major draw for homeowners, with a patina that grows more nuanced with time. And while this material is found most often in more traditional residential architecture, it makes an appearance in modern homes, too. The ‘Lifeguard Tower’ home by Lazar Design Build features wide-plank Eastern White Pine floors that contrast beautifully with white walls, large expanses of glass windows and highly textured reclaimed barn wood.

While the design of this home is undeniably contemporary, it has its roots in tradition: overlooking the ocean in Hermosa Beach, California, the home is inspired by lifeguard towers and ships in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Three stacked trapezoidal structures narrow to create a ‘lookout tower’ topped with 1,600 square feet of open-air roof terrace. The walls of windows on the very top floor offer an effect reminiscent of lighthouses when illuminated at night.

The outside of the 3,400-square-foot home is covered in cladding reclaimed from a 100-year-old barn. This factor, combined with dual-glazed windows, daylighting, impeccable insulation and the innate sustainability of Eastern White Pine, makes the Lifeguard Tower a green home with character and style to spare.

Eastern White Pine has a long tradition of flooring use in America, known for being one of the most widely-used building materials among early colonists. It comes from sustainably managed forests, where it’s allowed to grow strong and tall among hardwoods in a natural ecosystem before it’s harvested. Eastern White Pine flooring comes in a variety of grades, from the smoothest and palest wood to rustic knotty looks befitting cabins and country houses.