Revitalising History

In order to respond to the "oldness" of Seatondale, we went looking for some vintage recycled timber as an option for the flooring.

On top of timber, there are also recycled doors, recycled window frames, lead glass, etc... on display; makes me wonder who would be buying these? 

But the surprising amount of timber being recycled and reentered into the commercial market!! It is indeed a system which is making use of existing resource, revitalising commerciality and most of all, sustainable to the environment.

The timber which caught our interest this time, is recycled from the oldest timber bridge in Brisbane, Australia.  The timber bridge has been replaced by a steel bridge after servicing for over 100 years.  The entire bridge was constructed of Tallow wood,  in fact one of my personal favourite (S House was entirely floored and staired with Tallow); it has an elegant colouration more in line of "coffee", and beautiful linear grain.  This piece in the photo has been cut from a much longer structure for sample purpose.  This structure timber will be sliced into 10mm thick, 200mm wide planks, and fixed onto 15mm structure plywood substrate.

Comparing new (left) and recycled (right) Tallow wood.  The recycled timber has weathered enough so that it has stopped the movement within the timber itself hence a more stable product.  It was also more likely to be harvested from a larger, older tree back in the days, hence a deeper hue.

Other than Tallow wood we are also considering: Blackbutt, American White Oak, Spotted Gum.

We need to take the samples back to the Seatondale house for check on site; they need to be assessed more closely in its context.