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The Hull Forest Guide to Styles of Wide Plank Flooring
By Mary Hull

White oak quarter and rift sawn solid wood flooring from Hull Forest Products in a Catskills timber frame home.
Photo credit: @grossanddaley

We custom mill all kinds of hardwood and pine wide plank floors to fit your look and unique style -whether the place you call home is a vintage farmhouse, a brand new home, or an urban apartment, we can make you the perfect floor. Use this style guide to inspire ideas for your next project.

Rustic

Wood with rustic character works well for a variety of spaces – it is a natural fit for log and timber homes, and it’s also great in modern interiors where it serves as the perfect foil for white spaces and sleek surfaces like glass, metal, and tile.
- Wood floors are an essential design element, comprising the largest visible surface area in your home. Think of them as functional art.
- Wide and long plank floors create a clean visual line because there are fewer visible seams on the floor. In contrast, shorter and narrower planks create a patchwork effect.
- Wood with natural character adds a warm, organic element to any interior.
- Our best selling rustic wood floors are in the natural character grades of live sawn white oak, ash, hickory, maple, and birch. Some people may think of character marks as imperfections, but we think they make the most interesting and beautiful wood floors.
Modern to Contemporary

From mid-century modern to the present day and future, if your interior is informed by modernism, we have some ideas for wood floors that will complement your style.
- Planks of equal width lend a modern air compared to random width planks, which are associated with early homes and traditional milling techniques.
- Long planks enhance flow in open floor plans, particularly when the same species and color is used throughout.
- The angular lines of rift sawn white oak make it a popular choice for modern interiors. We also see our wide plain sawn white oak, red oak, ash, and maple going into modern and contemporary spaces.
- Select – White Oak Flooring
- Hard Select Grade – Maple Flooring
Traditional

Have a vintage home? We can make floors to mimic historic milling techniques, and our random width /random length wide plank floors evoke an earlier time.
- It doesn’t get any more traditional than old fashioned solid wood plank flooring.
- Long and wide planks & random widths are associated with historic homes. In the old days, when all logs were sawn locally, people used the entire resource as it came off the log, and they would not have had floors that were all one width, or even all one grade. Rather, they had boards in a mix of grades.
- We see a lot of our random width flooring, especially live sawn white oak, select red oak, and eastern white pine, going into antique, reproduction, and farmhouse style homes. Because these floors are each a mix of several grades and available in a wide range of widths, they are a good fit for a vintage look.
Classic to Transitional

Classic tried and true hardwood flooring enhances your home’s resale value, works with a wide variety of decorating styles, and will look just as timeless in the future as it does today. The transitional style is a classic look that appeals to those seeking middle ground – it is less formal than traditional style and less austere than contemporary style. Transitional style takes elements from the past and the present and mixes them together for a clean aesthetic that prioritizes comfort.
- Red oak is a classic choice, available in select, premium, and natural grades with plank widths from 3-14 inches and very long plank lengths of 4-10 feet with an average plank length of 7+ feet. Red oak takes stain easily, allowing for a wide range of finish tones, and is less expensive than white oak. Red Oak is also rapidly renewable, making it one of the most environmentally conscious woods you can choose.
- White oak is another classic choice, available plain sawn, live sawn, or quarter/rift sawn.
- We see a lot of our select and premium grades of red oak, white oak , ash, and maple going into transitional style homes. When the design leans toward a farmhouse vibe, live sawn white oak is also a popular choice.
Browse more of our flooring photos to get inspired. Ready for your customized quote? Click below or call us at 1-800-928-9602 .

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National Biobased Products Day- Why Wood Is Part of the Climate Solution

March 8th is National Biobased Products Day and we are tallying the reasons why it’s good to #usewood ! The original biobased product, wood has the powerful attributes of renewability and carbon storage, which make it a superior, sustainable, and environmentally-friendly material. Wood products contain the least amount of embodied energy of any floor covering or common building material. That’s because most of the energy used to create wood comes from the sun, as trees harness solar energy to grow. Very little energy is expended in the manufacturing of wood products, which make up 47% of all industrial raw materials manufactured in the U.S. yet consume just 4% of the total energy needed to manufacture all industrial raw materials. The forest products industry is also the leading generator and user of renewable energy in the United States.

The Substitution Effect

When wood products are used in place of fossil-intensive products (like plastics, LVT, tile, carpet, laminate, concrete, and steel ) greenhouse gas emissions are further reduced through the substitution effect. And no other building material provides as many ecological and community services as wood does while it is growing. As forests grow timber, they simultaneously provide wildlife habitat, air and water quality enhancement, recreational opportunity, rural jobs, green space, and carbon sequestration. Sustainably managed forests can provide all of these services in perpetuity while also producing timber the world needs. What’s more, when we manage forests carefully, we can increase their ability to regenerate and their ability to store carbon. Sound forest management also diversifies forest age and class structure, enhancing wildlife habitat and making the forest more resilient in the face of pestilence, wildlife, and climate change.

When you choose wood products from well-managed forests, you help to keep those forests as forests. Privately owned working forests provide 90% of the wood harvested in the United States. When the families who own these forests have strong markets for their wood, they are more likely to keep their forests as forests. Unlike far-flung parts of the world where there may be no environmental oversight or rule of law, the U.S. is a global leader in sustainable forest management and has a strong regulatory framework to deliver it.

Wood Products Are Part of the Climate Solution

The International Panel on Climate Change found that sustainably managed forests yielded the highest carbon storage benefit due to their ability to store carbon in harvested wood products long-term, and because management enhances a forest’s ability to store carbon as well. Wood products, when sourced from well-managed forests, are a safe, sustainable, biobased, environmentally friendly solution that you can feel good about using.
2023 Sawmill Tour at Hull Forest Products

Stewarding Local Working Woodlands & Manufacturing Materials for the Global Bioeconomy

Join us for our 2023 sawmill tour at Hull Forest Products and come see what we saw! Learn how our Connecticut forest-based business stewards local working woodlands and manufactures wood products, including green and kiln dried hardwood lumber, wood flooring, and timbers, for the global bioeconomy. Tour our modern sawmill and watch us make products from sustainably harvested local timber. Learn about woodland management, the local forest products economy, and how the sustainable use of forest-derived products can increase the economic viability of forests, securing their future. Find out how wood products reduce greenhouse gas emissions and store carbon, and understand why it’s good to use wood, as well as how you can help forests to thrive in our region.

This event is free and open to the public on Saturday, October 21st, 2023, from 9 am – noon, rain or shine. 101 Hampton Road, Pomfret Center, CT 06259.

Email info@hullforest.com for more information or call (860) 974-0127.

Hardwood logs are tallied in the log yard at the Hull Forest Products sawmill in Pomfret, Connecticut.
Wide Plank Pine Floors

Figure 1: Newly sawn Eastern White Pine + a custom stain + pure tung oil for a matte finish = an antique looking wide pine floor, at an affordable price. The homeowner used our premium grade wide pine, stained it with hoodfinishing.com’s “burnt umber” wiping stain (that had been thinned with a reducer) then applied several coats of pure tung oil (from realmilkpaint.com) that was thinned 50/50 with mineral spirits. The result was this beautiful low-luster matte finish.

The first floors we milled at Hull Forest Products nearly fifty years ago were wide pine floors, and wide plank pine continues to be one of our best selling wood floors for kitchens and other rooms. New England homeowners (and many others with antique, farmhouse, or period inspired homes) love traditional wide pine. There is something about the width and length of the planks, the large sound red knots, and the patina that develops that makes a wide pine floor charming. The floor has an heirloom quality.

Customers often come to us looking for a floor that emulates the look and feel of old pumpkin pine or heart pine at a reasonable price, so we show them how our clients have chosen to finish their new wide pine floors to mimic the look of an antique floor. See Figure 1 above for an example, and check out our pine flooring gallery for many others.

Some of you may be familiar with the living history museum, Old Sturbridge Village. They used our wide pine floors for their Oliver Wight Tavern Building. If you get a chance to visit there, be sure to check out this floor (shown in Figure 2 below). It is an interesting example as it had no finish applied at all and has been left to weather the heavy public foot traffic in the buff.

Figure 2: Our wide pine flooring in use at Old Sturbridge Village in the Oliver Wight Tavern. OSV applied no finish to the floor, preferring to let it age naturally.

We source our flooring grade pine from the historic Myers Pond and Yale University Forests in Connecticut, harvesting only during the cold winter months so we get the best color retention. We mill our wide pine floors from logs predominantly twelve feet and longer, selecting for even growth and live red knots.

Wide pine flooring lovers are often history buffs, so you may be interested to know that the Eastern White Pine tree played a role in the American Revolution. Because it grows so tall, Eastern White Pine has long been used for the masts of ships, and the British Navy tried to reserve the tallest White Pines in the colonies for the masts of British naval vessels. When an act to this effect was enforced in New Hampshire, it outraged the colonists. Though forbidden to cut “any pine tree of the growth of 12 inches of diameter,” it became unfashionable to have floorboards in one’s home that were less than 12 inches wide.

In 1772 a sawmill owner in Weare, New Hampshire was arrested and fined when white pine logs with the king’s broad arrow mark were found at his mill. He and a group of about 40 townspeople rioted, attacking the sheriff and his deputy and literally running them out of town in what became known as the Pine Tree Riot. This act of rebellion against British authority was an inspiration for the Boston Tea Party, which took place the following year.

For those of you who appreciate the “story” that boards can tell, see figure 3, below. This is a truly unique pine board with a very old pruning mark that was revealed when the log was sawn. (Thanks to Tom Fletcher in our flooring shop for spotting this.) The flat dark lines at the ends of the knots indicate where the tree was pruned. As you can see, the tree healed quickly and went on to produce clear grain. This board is 24″ wide and comes from a tree with an estimated age of 125-175 years.

Figure 3: This 24″ Eastern White Pine board came from a tree with an estimated age of 125-175 years; someone pruned the tree around the turn of the century and you can see that in the straight dark lines at the ends of the knots.

Visit our gallery of wide plank pine floors for more information and to browse photos showing how the application of stains and/or finishes can change the look of a wide pine floor.

For quotes or samples, email us or call 1-800-928-9602.
Four Family-Friendly Sustainable Forestry Events This Fall in New England
September 2018 –

Hull Forest Products, southern New England’s largest sawmill and woodland management service, is participating in four family-friendly educational events this fall that highlight sustainable forestry in New England. We hope you will join us to learn about working forests and the many benefits they provide to our region!

Each fall the Hull Forest Products forestry division offers guided woods walks of woodlands managed by Hull Forest Products to help teach the public about working forests and sustainable forestry.

Hull Forest Products will be at Celebrating Agriculture Day at the Woodstock Fairgrounds, September 22, 2018.
1. Celebrating Agriculture Day, Saturday September 22, 2018 9am – 3pm at the Woodstock Fairgrounds in Woodstock, CT. Celebrating Agriculture Day started in 2001 as part of an effort to promote community education and participation in agriculture, as well as to support consumer purchasing of local farm products. Each year, the goal is to welcome more people to learn who our farm neighbors are, and how to support local agriculture to enrich and maintain the open space — the working landscape — of our area. Hull Forest Products will be on hand with information about working forests and how they provide many public benefits. We’ll also have samples of our USA-made wood flooring on display.
2. The Massachusetts Outdoor Expo (The Big Moe), Sunday September 23, 2018 at the Hamilton Rod & Gun Club, Sturbridge, MA from 9am -4pm. Free admission, free parking. With over 45 outdoor activity stations ranging from building bird nest boxes (with pine lumber donated by Hull Forest Products) to archery, shotgun, fishing, and wilderness survival skills, this is a great event for the kids.
3. Family Forest Tour, from 10 am – 11:30 am on Saturday October 13, 2018 at 68 Ballamahack Road, Windham, CT. Join Hull Forest Products foresters Chris Casadei and Michelle Wood as they lead a two-mile walk at the Andrychowski Family Forest, a 100-acre property that has been actively managed for timber production for over 40 years. Participants will learn about recent forest management practices on this working landscape and observe several different forest types, evidence of colonial settlement. and beautiful views of the adjacent Lake Marie on the Joshua’s Trust property. Directions: From Route 14 take Ballamahack Road 200 feet past mailbox #68; the road turns sharply left; park in the field on the right at the sharp turn. For more info. contact Hull Forest Products (860) 974-0127.
4. Hatchet Hill Hike, from 1:30-3:30 pm, Sunday October 21, 2018 at 1914 Eastford Road (Route 198) Woodstock, CT. Join Hull Forest Products forester Mike Bartlett for a guided 1.5-mile woods walk in the Walker Family Woodland, which has been managed for recreation, wildlife, and forest products for over 60 years. This walk includes interesting geological features and one of the best scenic vistas in the Last Green Valley. Directions: The forest is located on the west side of Route 198, two miles north of the intersection of Routes 198 & 197. For more info. contact Hull Forest Products (860) 974-0127.
Wood Flooring Sets the Tone for the Contemporary Renovation of an Old House

Clients came to architects David Burdett and Stefanie Werner of DAS Studio in NYC with a design dilemma: their lakefront house did not take advantage of the property’s views. And the building was divided into many small rooms, creating awkward spaces that were not functional for contemporary living. The clients wanted a clean, light, and modern aesthetic, but they also wanted to pay tribute to their home’s rural setting and past.

The solution that DAS crafted involved gutting the house to create new, larger interior spaces that maximized the lake views. To honor the homeowner’s modern aesthetic while simultaneously acknowledging the home’s rural location, they came up with the idea to use a very traditional wood floor, wide plank pine flooring, but to finish the floor with a white stain for a light, clean, modern look. The homeowners, who were both actively involved in researching and selecting the products used in their home, turned to a local sawmill, Hull Forest Products in Pomfret, Connecticut, to make their wood floors. Hull Forest Products, which ships its floors mill-direct nationwide, was able to supply wide pine floors up to 19 inches wide with plank lengths of 12+ feet.

To achieve the look shown above, the floor was stained with one coat of Duraseal Country White. Then the floor was lightly buffed and sanded, and another coat of Country White was applied. The floor was then finished with four coats of Duraseal Traffic water based poly, satin finish. The grain pattern of the pine floors and the white coloring were a perfect match to the project’s design criteria.

To link the three floors of the house functionally and aesthetically, the homeowners commissioned custom thick stair treads from Hull Forest Products, who made them from the same wood used on the floors. The stair treads are a perfect match for the floors, and they create a seamless flow between the home’s three levels. The stairs function as a bridge between floors and time periods, for, as Burdett points out, “the stair design contrasts the chunky heaviness of the solid wood treads with the slender detailing of the [modern] steel stringers and balustrade.”

The completed house, with work done by West Mountain Builders of Washington, Connecticut, displays the successfully executed design and vision in every photo. As Burdett says, “It is a contemporary renovation of an older house, working with existing proportions and heights to achieve a contemporary living space that is respectful of the original house.” The home is a poster child for how to reconfigure an old house to be a gracious and suitable host for a whole new generation.

Resources:

Custom wide plank floors and stairs by Hull Forest Products, CT, www.hullforest.com

Design by DAS Studio, David Burdett and Stefanie Werner, www.das-studio.us

Construction by West Mountain Builders, Washington, CT

Photos by Michael Bowman Photography, CT
How Landowners Can Enhance Wildlife Habitat Through Forest Management

Black throated blue warbler, photographed in Hull Forestland’s Connecticut woodland during a bird habitat assessment by Patrick Comins, Director of Bird Conservation at CT Audubon. This warbler prefers mixed woodlands with thick undergrowth, especially mountain laurel.

Did you know that you can enhance wildlife diversity on your own property through woodland management? Read on to learn how you and your forester can create greater biodiversity through silvicultural practices.

“Forest” is the largest land category in Connecticut, with approximately 60 percent of the state covered in forest. Since the statistic began being tracked in 1952, Connecticut’s net growth of trees has exceeded removals, and today the ratio of growth to removals is more than 2:1.

However, there is a noticeable lack of diversity in the age classes of Connecticut forests (and southern New England forests in general). Connecticut’s forests consist of 69 percent mature stands, 25 percent intermediate stands, and just 6 percent regenerating stands.

There is a critical loss of young forest habitat (also known as early successional habitat) in the state. When there are not enough young forest stands, then species that prefer low-lying vegetation are fewer in number. A diverse mix of forest age classes is beneficial because it provides the maximum range of wildlife habitat. Forest management is one way that landowners can influence the future composition of Connecticut’s forests.

Woodland Management Can Diversify Habitat

Forests change constantly, with or without human intervention, and over time a new tree species comes to dominate another through a cycle called succession. Some people oppose intervention because they fear it might harm wildlife, but in the long run, doing nothing can lead to conditions that are unfavorable for the very wildlife they want to help. Woodland owners have an important opportunity to influence the type and quality of wildlife habitat on their land through active forest management.

Openings within a forest create edge habitat. “Edge” is the term for where plant communities meet, or where successional stages or vegetative conditions within communities come together. This is often the richest area in a forest in terms of wildlife abundance and diversity. Having a variety of habitat cover types and timber age classes is beneficial for many species of wildlife, including birds, because of the abundance of edges they create.

Working with a licensed forester, landowners can plan for timber harvests that not only provide income, but also create the desired timber age classes and habitat conditions favored by wildlife species. If the landowner’s neighbors also own forestland and have similar goals, then the habitat management can be implemented on an even larger scale.

Check out this handy Foresters For the Birds guide produced by Vermont Audubon to see how you as a landowner can work with a forester to promote habitat for specific bird species in your woodland.

Habitat Case Study: The Myers Pond Forest

In 2014 scientists from Connecticut Audubon and the CT Agriculture Experiment Station conducted bird habitat assessments on over 25 woodland properties in Connecticut. One of the most intensively managed properties they visited was Hull Forestlands’ own Myers Pond Forest in Union, CT, which has been actively managed for timber production since 1900, with a recent focus on hemlock removals and white pine regeneration.

Patrick Comins, Director of Bird Conservation for CT Audubon, personally photographed a wide variety of birds and habitats on the land, including sedge/tussock meadow, open water, riparian, and upland bird habitats. Comins hailed the property as “One of the crown jewels of forestland in Connecticut.”

Jeffrey Ward, Chief Scientist at the Dept. of Forestry and Horticulture at the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment station, said the Myers Pond Forest was the “best managed property he had seen” in their bird habitat assessments. In addition to a wide variety of birds, the Myers Pond Forest is home to many of the common woodland mammals of eastern North American, including white tailed deer, black bear, wild turkey, coyote, bobcat, and beaver.

The Myers Pond Forest is an excellent example of how intensively managed forests provide a wealth of wildlife habitat while at the same time producing timber to meet the needs of society. For more information on Hull Forestlands’ Myers Pond Forest, you can access the forest history here: Myers-Pond-Forest-History-2020

Learn more about woodland management for your property. Check out our youtube channel for videos on our award-winning forestry and timber harvesting services, as well as our lumber and wood products manufacturing (utilizing sustainably harvested local timber). See where harvested wood goes and how it is utilized in a zero-waste operation to make products that store carbon throughout their service lives as well as by-products that reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

Read reviews from clients who have used our forest management, logging, and timber harvesting services.

Contact the Hull Forest Products forestry department today for a free no-obligation consultation. (860) 974-0127 extension 4.
Free Guided Woods Walks This Fall in Northeastern Connecticut

Hull Forest Products is hosting two woodland walks in October 2014 in conjunction with The Last Green Valley’s Walktober event. These guided walks are a great opportunity to get some exercise, enjoy the fall foliage, and learn how our licensed foresters help woodland owners manage their land for forest products, wildlife, and recreation. We hope you can join us and bring the whole family for these free, fun, and educational events!

Hull forester Mike Bartlett giving a tour of Hatchet Hill in Woodstock, CT.

1.) Hatchet Hill Hike, Woodstock, CT | October 11, 2014, 9 a.m.

Hull forester Mike Bartlett will lead participants on a 2-hour hike over 1.5 miles of moderate terrain (there are some steep slopes) to tour the Walker family woodland, which has interesting geological features and some of the best scenic vistas in the The Last Green Valley.

Participants will learn how much a tree can expand its crown in one year; how to age a pine tree by its branch whorls; the difference between even and uneven aged forests; which tree species are shade tolerant and which are not; and how foresters manipulate sunlight to promote desired seedling regeneration.

In the same family for over 160 years, the Walker family woodland has been managed for recreation, wildlife habitat, and forest products, and it is an excellent example of how working forests can meet the needs of society while simultaneously providing multiple environmental benefits.

Date/Time: October 11, 2014 9 a.m.
Address:#1914 Rte. 198 Woodstock, CT. This is the West side of Rte. 198, 2 miles north of the intersection of Routes 197 and 198.

Hull forester Chris Casadei will lead hikers on a “Working Family Forest and Shelterwood Harvest” tour on October 19, 2014.

2.) Working Family Forest and Shelterwood Harvest Tour | October 19, 2014, 10 a.m.

Hull forester Chris Casadei will lead this 2-hour walk over 1.5 miles of moderate terrain that was farmed in colonial days, as evidenced by the beautiful stonewalls that still crisscross the land.

Participants will hike the 165-acre property to view and discuss recent forest management activities there, including areas of improvement thinning and a 17-acre first-phase shelterwood harvest designed to remove a declining stand of pine and low quality hardwoods and replace it with upland oak regeneration. This is a great opportunity for anyone considering a shelterwood harvest to get a firsthand look at a textbook example.

Participants will learn what forestry techniques are used to establish a new generation of seedlings from a particular species or group, giving the landowner more control over what regenerates. Other topics include how to protect the health of the residual stand and how income generated over time from the sale of timber can mitigate development pressures on family forestland owners.

Leashed dogs are welcome on this hike.

Date/Time: October 19, 2014, 10 a.m.
Address: From Rte. 138 in Griswold, head south on Bethel Road, take the 3rd right on Stetson Road and follow to cul-de-sac, plenty of on-street parking is available.
Audubon Applauds Quality of Bird Habitat at Hull’s Connecticut Forestland

Scarlet Tanager, photographed at Hull’s Myers Pond Forest in Union, CT, a mixed deciduous forest interspersed with hemlocks and pines. Photo courtesy of Patrick Comins, Director of Bird Conservation/Audubon Connecticut.

Union, Connecticut– In the summer of 2014, biologists from Audubon Connecticut and scientists from the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station teamed up to conduct bird habitat assessments on privately owned woodlands across the state, with the goal of helping landowners take steps to enhance bird habitat in their forests. Connecticut has faced forest fragmentation and an ensuing loss of variety in bird habitats, but intensively managed working woodlands can provide a range of critical habitats, from the unfragmented interior forest habitat favored by neotropical migrating birds like the Scarlet Tanager, pictured above, to the early successional habitat favored by shrubland and grassland birds.

Among the woodlands assessed was the Myers Pond Forest in Union, a 450-acre woodland owned by Hull Forestlands and managed by Hull Forest Products, a CT sawmill and woodland management service. Permanently protected with a conservation easement held by the Nature Conservancy, Hull’s Myers Pond Forest is surrounded by the 8,000 acre Yale University Forest, creating a large tract of contiguous woodland. The property has been formally managed for timber production for over a century, and most recently has undergone harvests to remove diseased Hemlock and promote White Pine regeneration.

View of Myers Pond and fall foliage at Hull Forestland’s Myers Pond Forest. The woodland has been formally managed for timber production since 1900 and provides a wide range of bird habitat, including sedge/tussock, meadow, open water, riparian, and upland habitat types.

Patrick Comins, Director of Bird Conservation at Audubon Connecticut, was impressed with the quality of the bird habitat at the Myers Pond Forest as well as the way in which Hull’s forest management activities had led to forest regeneration. He hailed the property as “truly one of the crown jewels of forestland in Connecticut.” Jeffrey Ward, Chief Scientist at the Dept. of Forestry and Horticulture at the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment station, declared the Myers Pond Forest the “best managed property he had seen” so far in their bird habitat assessments, which included over 25 properties in Connecticut.

In southern New England, residential development and suburbanization have contributed to forest fragmentation, and as forest parcels grow smaller and smaller, they provide less viable habitat for birds. Smaller parcels also make it more difficult to practice forest management, and as a result, there is less variety of bird habitat. In contrast, when timber harvests are periodically conducted as part of a forest management plan, they create temporary openings in the woods that quickly regenerate to shrubbery, then young forest, eventually growing into mature forest, and they provide a variety of bird habitats in the process.

Hull Forestlands and Hull Forest Products are proud of their role in contributing critical habitat to Connecticut’s birds and grateful that Audubon Connecticut was able to perform the assessments and provide feedback for landowners.

Learn more about our woodland management services for landowners
Choosing A Wide Plank Wood Floor For Your Kitchen

Figure 1: Light toned Red Oak flooring provides a pleasing contrast to the shiny dark cabinets in this Manhattan loft kitchen. The long plank lengths of this floor are especially well suited to the wide open spaces of the loft. (Hull Forest Products red oak wide plank floor #302)

Thinking about installing a wide plank wood floor in your kitchen? You’re not alone. Adding wood flooring is one of the most popular kitchen upgrades. And homeowners adding wood flooring are likely to see a return on their investment. According to the National Association of Realtors, homes with real wood floors are easier to sell, sell faster, and sell for more money than homes without them.

Wood Floors Establish A Tone

Wood adds warmth and interest to a kitchen like no other floor covering can. Because floors are generally the largest visible canvas in your kitchen, they set the backdrop for your furnishings and the tone for the space. Wood floors connote quality and craftsmanship, and wide plank floors can be used to convey a sense of luxury or history. (Retailers know that customers associate wood floors with quality, so they will often upgrade stores by installing wood flooring in key areas.) Installing wood flooring in your kitchen immediately raises its profile.

Since durability is especially important in high-traffic areas like kitchens, we recommend the use of harder woods such as red oak, white oak, hard maple, hickory, and ash wherever wear is a concern. But some folks find wear charming and they want a wood floor that will develop a patina more quickly. It really depends on your tolerance for dings, dents, and wear. In an old house you may want to choose a floor that looks like it belongs there, such as the wide pine kitchen floor shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The homeowners chose wide plank pine flooring (Hull floor #418) for a period look and utilized an oil finish that would be easy to touch up and repair.

Try to pick a wide plank wood floor that will make your kitchen look its best. Love an all-white kitchen but don’t want it to look sterile? Use a warm toned wood floor to inject color and life into an all-white kitchen.

Figure 3: The homeowners used our warm and naturally reddish toned American Cherry wood floors to add color and life to their all white kitchen, making it a very inviting space that is anything but sterile. (Hull Forest Products American Cherry wide plank floor #616)

Choosing a contrasting tone floor is one way to go, as shown in figures 1 and 3. On the other hand, if you love the wood tone of your kitchen cabinetry and want to build on that color, consider choosing a similar wood tone for your floor.

Figure 4: These homeowners chose to coordinate the tone of their cabinets and wood floor. (White Oak select wide plank floor #231 from Hull Forest Products.) The matching cabinets and floor really put the emphasis on the red of the stove, the dark countertop, and the white of the ceiling paneling.

You can also add interest and character to your kitchen with rustic or figured wide plank wood floors. The owners of the New England kitchen shown in Figure 5 chose natural grade Ash wood flooring for its durability as well as for its character markings and color variation–then they stained the floor to emphasize the open grain and achieve a darker tone that suited their tastes. The result was a kitchen wood floor with character that has proved to be one of our most popular wood floors.

Figure 5: Rustic grade Ash wide plank flooring with an ebony stain adds a cottage vibe to this coastal kitchen, contrasting nicely with the stainless appliances.

Looking to contrast darker cabinetry and finishes with a lighter colored wood floor? Check out the pale White Oak kitchen floor shown in Figure 6. The homeowners chose a lighter tone floor to contrast with their cabinetry and trim and went with all five inch planks rather than random widths in order to emphasize the contemporary design of their home.

Figure 6: Light colored select grade White Oak (Hull wide plank floor #211) with five inch plank widths, finished with a water-based poly. The floors provide a pleasing contrast to the kitchen’s darker cabinetry.

In case you need more reasons to choose a wide plank wood floor for your kitchen, don’t forget that wood floors have an exceptionally long service life, which makes them an attractive investment. Solid wood floors have a service life of 100+ years, and they can be sanded and refinished many times as homeowner tastes change. And that’s just one advantage.

Environmental Advantages of Wood Floors

Wood is a renewable and eco-friendly building and finish material. Solid wood floors require less energy to produce than any other type of floor covering, and they hold up to the scrutiny of life cycle analysis. Choosing responsibly sourced wood floors helps conserve working forests, which provide ecological benefits in the form of enhanced air and water quality, wildlife habitat, and carbon sequestration. Learn more about what makes wood good.

Need more inspiration for your kitchen floor? Check out our wood flooring galleries, our pinterest board on kitchen wood floors and our houzz profile.

Contact us by email or phone 1-800-928-9602 or visit the wide plank flooring showroom at our sawmill in Connecticut.
Why Plank Length Matters in Wood Flooring

Our floor salesman, Greg Anderson, stands 6′ 5″ but is dwarfed by this very long Eastern White Pine floor plank.

The lengths of the floor boards you choose for your room will have a big impact on the overall look of your floor. Longer plank lengths create a clean visual line because there are fewer end or butt seams/joints (places where the ends of the boards butt up against each other). In fact, depending on the dimensions of your room, you might be able to eliminate butt seams all together by using long planks. We frequently get requests from clients looking for long planks in order to avoid butt joints on their floor.

Figure 1: Wide and long board red oak flooring brings a sense of history to this reproduction colonial home. (Hull Forest Products Red Oak, floor #359). Longer planks create a cleaner visual line with fewer butt seams.

In contrast, using shorter planks will result in more end seams on your floor, and if you go with especially short boards, you will get a patchwork effect. See figure 2, below:

Figure 2: Using shorter plank lengths (the ones shown are around one to two feet long) results in a patchwork effect. If this is not the look you are going for, you should consider longer planks.

At Hull Forest Products we offer two plank length classes: long and extra long. Long is our standard length class, which features much longer average plank lengths than other manufacturers (generally 3 to 8 feet long), but at the most budget friendly price. Extra long (generally 4 to 10+feet with a 7 foot+ average plank length) is for those who want an extra luxurious long and wide plank floor.

To get long and extra long plank lengths, we have to start with very high quality timber so we can saw it full length off the log without having to cut around defects. Most wood floors out there today feature shorter plank lengths because they are made by cutting around defects in lower quality wood.

Long and wide floor planks are our specialty; please let us know what we can make for you. 1-800-928-9602.
Connecticut Wide Plank Hardwood Flooring

Live sawn White Oak kitchen flooring from Hull Forest Products (floor #201) in a western Connecticut home. The homeowners wanted to incorporate as many local materials as possible when building their home, so they chose Hull Forest Products, CT’s largest sawmill, as their wood floor supplier.

Hull Forest Products is Connecticut’s largest sawmill and premier manufacturer of locally grown wide plank wood flooring. We are located in Pomfret, Connecticut, and we have been offering CT grown wide plank wood flooring mill-direct to homeowners since 1965. In 2017 we were chosen as the wood flooring manufacturer for the new residential colleges at Yale University. You can see our floors throughout the new Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin Colleges at Yale.

Five inch wide rift and quartersawn Red Oak floors from Hull Forest Products, in the library of Benjamin Franklin College at Yale University. Photo by Yale Alumni Magazine.

Connecticut is one of the most heavily forested states in New England, with over 60 percent forest cover, yet the majority of the forest products grown in Connecticut are sent out of state. If you are looking for CT hardwood flooring or pine flooring, why import a wood floor from halfway around the world when you can buy local and save money and the local environment in the process?

In 2011 Hull Forest Products joined the Connecticut Department of Agriculture’s Connecticut Grown program, which identifies local producers of forest products and helps connect them with CT homeowners and builders who are looking for local mill-direct wood flooring, paneling, and millwork.

The Connecticut Grown logo helps consumers connect with local producers of wood flooring such as Hull Forest Products, a family-run sawmill crafting affordable wide plank wood flooring since 1965.

If helping the local environment and saving money are not reason enough for you to choose Hull Forest Products as your Connecticut wood flooring supplier, consider these reasons as well: 10 Reasons to Choose Hull Forest Products.

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