End Grain Blocks

Go back to home page.

End Grain Blocks

End grain blocks are a much undervalued flooring which seems to have inexplicably fallen out of fashion and favour. They have been used for many centuries in a wide variety of situations. Cobble blocks as large as 9" x 6" x 6" were widely used by the Victorians as a substitute for granite cobbles. You will find end grain blocks at railway station entrances and in the carriage porticos of grand houses like Waddesdon Manor. In these situations they were employed because the horses' hooves, shod with iron, and the wheels of the carts and carriages, rimmed in steel, made a lot of noise over stone cobbles. This noise is amplified and reverberated by the cavernous railway halls and the only slightly less cavernous hallways of grand houses. End grain blocks muffled these noises. In heavy engineering factories end grain blocks are similarly used for their sound reduction qualities, but also, just as importantly, to provide a soft landing for valuable heavy castings which must not be cracked or chipped by bumping against a hard floor. Such blows are absorbed by the end grain block. Most indentation damage recovers when the block is wetted. Severe damage is simply repaired by replacement of the blocks with little or no down time - as there would be whilst waiting for concrete to dry. In commercial areas, end grain block provides a quiet, highly durable and visually attractive hardwood flooring.

To the right is a photograph of a Mesquite end grain block floor in a commercial setting. Click on it to see a larger version.

Another end grain block flooring in a commercial setting.

This engineering factory is floored out entirely with bitumen impregnated softwood end grain blocks.

This office floor is of redwood end grain blocks.