Saturday 23 July 2011

More parquet fun, this time Opepe in Kent! Part 1

Starting the laying process
Opepe is a fabulous wood type; a Central African hardwood, principally commercially grown in West Africa. It is a strong timber with a pale yellow sapwood and golden brown heartwood with a slightly stripey figuring. It has exceptional strength but reasonable working qualities - according to our notes about wood types on our website!

This is a small job, about 14 m2 which we are time-lapsing for another little film on installation, to give a bit more detail on laying techniques for our customers. The blocks are cleaned in the grooves by hand, stacked ready for laying and then the fun begins. Having established the middle line, the central herringbone panel is laid, the special  bonding glue has to dry, then you lay the pattern out to the edges, keeping the fit as tight as possible. At this stage there is some cutting to do to create a straight edge for the border block.
This shows the blocks scraped clean on the sides and grooves
Watch this space, more details to come!

2 comments:

  1. I don't remember how I found your blog, but for the last two or three years I've enjoyed it thoroughly. Each time my RSS reader would show your blog with new posts it would be one of the first I'd look at. Thanks for taking great pictures and sharing them with the world.

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  2. How very nice to hear your comments! That encourages us to keep up the posts! Thanks!

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