Wide Boards

This floor is extraordinary. The boards started life as a huge beam. The beam was taken from some agricultural buildings belonging to a monastery near Dijon in France. About an 8 foot length was cut from the centre of the beam to get rid of some rot. This left 2 pieces, each over 19 feet in length. The boards we produced were up to 26" wide. The colour is the natural aged colour of ancient oak. Imagine, the beam was in buildings known to be at least 400 years old. The original oak tree probably started life as an acorn about 400 years before that.

If you look carefully at the photographs, you can see that there are repairs where holes, splits, damages and rot have been routed out and carefully made good with matching timber.This is not merely a characteristic of ancient floors, but is positively desirable as a feature of ancient board floors. It provides that ineffable characteristic implying loving care through the years.

This is an original floor in a Napoleonic house in Northern France and is a lovely example of an old worn floor. It contains lots of the special features which characterise old floors and make them special; the irregular gaps; the uneven surface; the scratches; the surface checking; the peculiarites of colour. Only ancient timber can properly recreate such a sublime result of years of wear and tear and constant scrubbing. Accurate reproduction of these characteristics is not practible with new timber.

This is how ancient boards look when we first buy them. These chestnut boards are fitted in a convent hospital in France. The building has been empty for about 30 years.

These boards are no longer available. They were sold before they were even lifted. We have some wonderful suppliers in France, who maintain large stocks of both patinated and resawn boards.

This is a reproduction 'ancient oak'. It is a 'character' grade of oak which has been fumed and distressed. This is available in random width long boards.