Wednesday, 25 August 2010

This has been a busy summer!



This summer there has been a great deal of activity, with plenty of parquet coming in. Good quality wood block from all over the country; the latest from Teddington which is some exceptional quality long block oak and beautiful mahogany (both of which are popular with the floor-fitters). We have a supply of walnut coming in from Carlisle, which is selling before it even gets to the yard and next stop Aylesbury.

The timbers that have proved popular with our clients, apart from the perennial oak that is, are the pale woods, maple for instance especially good for a modern house or apartment. Pitch pine is great for an old barn or farm building conversion, and the darker woods work well in Victorian or Edwardian houses, like a Rhodesian teak. Many of them look great with a contrasting border just to add something unique to the floor and quite a lot of our customers are going for that effect. Our customers in France and Spain particularly go for walnut and oak with a dark border. So as quickly as pallets go out, we are trying to get more in - the problem is that we can never tell what will come up next!

The rain over the last month hasn't made life easy either, grading has to be done under cover to keep the block dry and in good condition, so the summer we had planned, enjoying the sunshine whilst working has not really materialised. May still get some good late summer sunshine if we're lucky - fingers crossed.