I have Carlisle random width wide plank Eastern White Pine in most of our first floor, including my bathroom (with freestanding tub. water closet, sink and shower stall), the kitchen and the laundry area that is near our MBR.

We have had it for four years. No issues at all with humidity and no splintering. However, as you know, it is a very soft wood. We still chose it because it is authentic to the style and era of our house, and because I don't think you can get truly wide plank (some of ours are iirc, 12" wide) unless you go with EWP. Our house is not formal, either.

But, I will say, I am not happy at all with the wear it shows in the most trafficked areas of our house. We finished it with tung oil, so that is part of the decision as well. Even so, I don't think many people would be happy with the wear we have seen on this product, fyi. We are a family of five and rarely wear shoes in the house. I understand it is soft, I am certainly ok with scratches and such, but we have bare wood showing.

I'm in Maine and have several white pines in my yard. I've been looking on a few flooring sites, and so far, haven't seen one that offers Eastern White pine.
I see Heart Pine (long leaf yellow pine) flooring on many sites, but so far, I only see Eastern White on Lumber Liquidiators with no warranty.

I did find this on Wiki - "

Freshly cut eastern white pine is creamy white or a pale straw color
but pine wood which has aged many years tends to darken to a deep rich
tan. Occasionally one can find light brown pine boards with unusual
yellowish-golden or reddish-brown hues. This is the famous "pumpkin
pine". It is generally thought that slow growing pines in old-growth
forests accumulate colored products in the heartwood, but genetic
factors and soil conditions may also play a role in rich color
development.[11]
Although eastern white pine was frequently used for flooring in buildings constructed before the U.S. Civil War,
the wood is soft and consequently you will find cup-shaped depressions
from normal wear and tear on almost every old white pine floor. George Washington realized this would happen and wisely made his Mount Vernon floors out of yellow pine which is much harder."

Oh, I just found one! Maine Timberworks and one more. A E Sampson & Son

The way I found them was bringing up Google images of pine floors and then clicking through them til I found some sellers.

We have wide plank pine floors. I wanted them so bad, I ignored everyone's warning about how soft they are and easily damaged. Well, 8 years later, they are a total mess. I'm sure if we didn't have dogs they would be much better but we have major wear in high traffic areas and that's not all from the dogs. They did not splinter but did shrink which is fine, it adds to the rustication (LOL) of the house. We are planning to refinish this year.

Thanks for the responses, everybody. We don't have dogs, and the kids are grown, but my DH tends to use the FR sliding door as his main conduit to the yard & yardwork. Wonder if I can retrain him to use another door...

Mtnrd, I had planned on using tung oil with the idea that we'd have to reapply it frequently in the high traffic area. I'd read that frequently touching up with tung oil was better than polyurethaning. Perhaps I'd better do a little more research before committing. I was wanting rustic, skip-planed floors to help the scratches blend in. Also, I'm wanting to use Kellogg Lumber in Bethel. Did you by any chance look into using them for your flooring before deciding on Carlisle?

Kellogg Hardwood Lumber

My in-laws did pine flooring in their custom log home. It was just the two of them and one of their mothers, no pets, no regular kid visitors. It was really easily damaged and I know they were not happy with it. It was not wide plank and I don't know anything about the quality of the material. I have read that old growth pine was denser and so old pine floors have held up better--I believe some people use reclaimed material for this reason? Just trying to remember what I have read on the interwebs.

Hi AWM,

I forgot your are in CT! We were selecting materials for the reno here while we were still living in another home in another state, so we used Carlisle based on their highly regarded name.

We installed Eastern White Pine wide plank flooring in the lakehouse we built 8 yrs. ago. We have it throughout the main floor, on three sets of stairs and in the upstairs bedrooms. The planks vary from 6 to 18 inches wide. We purchased the flooring from Carlisle and used their Pumpkin stain and tung oil finish.

We're still really happy with our floors and I would get them again. Being on a lake in New England they see dry heat in the winter and humid weather in summer. There's never been any splintering, and the seasonal contractions/expansions are negligible.

We have runners in the high traffic areas and area rugs, but there's still considerable wood floor exposed. We entertain family often and have two 35 lb. dogs. We treat the pine floors the same as we do the hardwood ones in our home and I see little difference in terms of wear & tear.

amck2, those floors are to die for! I'd love those in my LR and DR. In my FR, though, I'm opting for prefab patina, hoping it will help future abuse to blend in. Here's a picture from Hull Forest Products, which happens to be in eastern Connecticut -- I'll give them a call too.
Circular sawn & skip planed:

Here's my inspiration pic. I like the combo of vertical and horizontal planking. And the rustic floor looks good too:

And here's the space we're working with. Everything will go except the windows, doors, fireplace & beams. I'm starting from scratch. Anybody want a pool table?

Awm,

I will see if I have a photo of our floors. I think they are the same as AWM, but we did not do their pumpkin stain, we did something custom that is a bit more brown Id say. The wear is right in front of the kitchen sink and also in front of the stove.

I adore your inspiration photo.And your room is great for it!

Thanks so much, mtn, a photo of the wear would be most helpful. Glad you like the inspiration photo; I admire your tastes.

We have Carlisle eastern white pine floors up to 21" wide and I haven't noticed any splintering other than a few spots that were on the unfinished floors before staining. DH actually cut those out and sanded the edges smooth so we have some very cool looking "distressed" marks in a few places.

I agree re the softness of the wood though - when I drop something and it makes a dent I don't mind so much because it just adds to the rustic look. Heel marks are a different story though. Even though I keep my shoes in good condition there are a lot of heel marks in the main traffic areas - probably mostly from me walking to and from in my work shoes.

I started putting my heels on at the last minute and tiptoeing around once I realized but the damage is done :-( They're beautiful floors and I love the 21" width but I'll probably use harder hickory or oak plank flooring for my next house.

Here's a Janka Wood Hardness scale chart

It's a bit difficult to read but it will make the point the designer is trying to make to you. Of the 40 woods used for flooring listed on the scale White Eastern Pine is #39 in hardness. It's second from the very bottom. He/she is trying to encourage you to get more durable flooring.

I have tung-oil finished white ash which has held up magnificently for 12 years. In our apartment I had white oak which didn't need refinishing for 25 years.

If your heart can live with a different wood then perhaps you could talk to your own flooring person about the differences.

I got my pine fix by planking & pickling the ceiling and walls of the former dining room where I now have my home office. The contractors jokingly called it my cigar box but I spend most of my time in this room and adore it. And no issues with the floors.

re softness: Dents, dings, & heel marks are fine. Scratches can be blended in. I was worried about splintering, though, which is a whole 'nother category. It doesn't look to be a problem, really, from all the researching I've been doing.

The thing about eastern white pine flooring (and tung oil or Waterlox touch ups) that appeals to me is not withstanding wear & tear, but giving into it to the point where it all starts to blend in. Like my stainless steel counters, the first scratch is heart-stopping, but 12 years-worth of scratches are no big deal.

awm03 - I can relate to your last point about letting it all blend in. I think the main problem I have with my heel marks is that they are only straight up and down the main traffic areas. Other than that obvious sign of wear and a few dents and knots here and there in other places, the rest of our floors are still perfectly smooth several years after install.

I've often considered just walking all around the entire house in my heels so the wear to the main traffic areas just blends in but haven't yet gotten up the nerve to intentionally damage the rest of my floors :-)

I forgot to mention a few falling items have damaged the floors enough to expose the bare wood underneath the finish. We had to sand and then apply more stain and tung oil to those areas.

When we were selecting wood flooring, I got samples of all the woods. I then put on my highest, spikiest heels and walked on the sample boards. The heel went right into the EWP. I selected it anyway. I have an old home in a country setting and I like patina and age and character; pristine is not my thing anyway. However, one hopes for an even sort of aging, not an awkward eyesore.

I haven't had much issue with heel marks, mainly because we are all in the habit of not wearing shoes indoors. We have dog scratches, and thats ok too. I did not expect to see bare wood though, and that's what gets me.

Here is a photo that shows the floors pretty well at install:

Here is a photo of the floor in front of the kitchen sink. Carisle told me this is just "normal wear and tear" at the three year mark. I will take another photo too; this one is a year old now.

Awm, If you have any other questions, or if you want to come see it in person, just email me.

Beware of Carlisle wide plank floors, we purchased them in 2012 and while we love the look, we already have the top layer splintering in high and low traffic areas, even under a carpeted area. We are disappointed with the product, and have maintained it per manufacturer instructions but still see the splinters. We, like the first person that commented on this, live in a household that takes off their shoes when entering the home, and all floors are protected from direct sunlight through new UV protection on windows and by drawing curtains. We are very disappointed with Carlisle wide plank flooring, there is no reason relating to our use/care of the floors that this is happening.

I actually got a bad splinter in my foot once from a pine floor in a rental house. The floor was worn and splintering, we did not wear shoes in the house... through my sock a huge splinter jammed into the arch of my foot toward my heel, it had to be extracted in outpatient surgery under local and that HURT! MtnRdRedux's photos appear to show where minor splinters have slivered off.

We just had our 22 year old kitchen/dining wide plank floor refinished. I hated to lose the patina but we were down to bare wood in several places (in front of fridge thanks to DS lol), near stove prep area and under DH chair at the table. They replaced a few boats that that broken along the tongue and groove edges. We had several 10' boards left when we built and were using them as shelving in the basement so they were able to use them. They filled cracks with a latex filler, sanded and did two coats of tinted poly. They claim it is almost no voc but wow, we had to bail out both nights. They have one more to do. We have a whole house humidifier so we expect less movement compared to when we built. But if the filler comes out again we'll just live with its character. I'll include a few before and after pics. I do love the character in our country home out here on the hilly prairie.

In front of fridge before and after.

We put 12 - 20 inch white pine floors in 2008. We did oil finish. I saw the same flooring in another house & I wish I did what she did. No protection when the workers were there and oiled after, Immediate patina.

Thanks for the heads up and pics. I have wide pine (not in kitchen nor baths). I know they're softer, and I'm already planning on socks/slippers once I really move in. I don't own heels or hard soled shoes, but still.

Just for the record, I went with mixed oak, rusticated wide planks site-finished with 3 coats of Waterlox. It was a decision made on a whim in the flooring store. I couldn't be happier with the durability, especially important now that we have grandtoddlers playing on the floor with trucks and riding toys.

@awm03 may I ask what company you used for your floors? I am also considering Carlisle wide plank Eastern White Pine (mostly because of budget), but this thread has me worried. Thanks in advance!