Oak Stair Gate

I fitted this oak stair gate for a customer a few weeks ago to stop their dogs from going upstairs.

 

I was really pleased with how it turned and it would be great for anyone with kids who wanted something more in keeping with a period property.

Can be made and fitted to order.

Wood Panelling An Arch

The last couple of days I've been panelling an archway to look like some of the other doorways in this old farm house. When I got given this job I knew I was going to enjoy it and the finished project was going to look good.

The bare arch. Here I've added the first piece of veneered MDF as the backing



The beginnings of the panelling. Sapele strips added to build up the look of panels and bendy ply added to the curve.

A tricky bit of wood here. This Curved piece had to be laminated out of thin strips then glued up in a jig and left over night



Attaching the beading to the inside of the panels

A thin architrave is added around the outside. I used a laminate trimmer in the router to make this flush with the arch. I then routed the moulding on the inside edge

Kerfing out the back of the beading then adding boiling water to get it to bend around the tight curve

The finished arch with another layer of architrave added around the outside

This curved beading was the hardest part of the whole project but it was worth it for how it looks now it's in!

The finished arch

 

At the end of today I was really pleased with how it all looked now it's finished. I'm also looking forward to seeing the customers reaction when they come up next week.

All that's needed now is for the painters to give it a coat of paint and hopefully people will think it's an original feature of the house.

I do love being a carpenter!

Restoring Shutters

On the large job we replaced the windows many months ago for new ones. In doing so we removed the old shutters and their surrounds that they sat in. These were a real feature of the house and the customer wanted us to make something similar to what was there before.

One of the windows with plastered reveals

 We reused the old shutters, but replaced all the ironmongery and the surrounds. First we refitted the shutters then built the surrounds around them as they were all individual sizes so each had to be built to suit.
We framed below the bay windows with 3x2 this meant they weren't quite so deep and could have a wider window board.

We cut a wide architrave and machined a rope bead on the front to match the other mouldings in the house (as well as machining a smaller architrave that sits on top). We then created a frame to bring out the architrave to give the shutters the clearance they needed before fitting it all.

 Once we had done that it was a matter of installing the window boards and plaster boarding the bay so the plasterer can get it finished next week.

Three windows finished and a lot of character added back into a large room.

Punching Nails

An oak floor at the house I'm currently working at needs refinishing and blending with the new oak floor I laid in the kitchen.

My tools for the day

 The customer also wants all the cut nails filling (personally I like the nails showing like this). This unfortunately means than another chippy and myself have spent the whole day punching nails into the floor. I think if prisoners were given this type of labour they'd probably complain about their human rights!

Nails punched below the surface

By the end of the day my hands were beginning to feel the punishment of driving these large cut nails into the oak floor, one after the other. Some went easy but many took a lot of effort to get in.
Now the floor can be filled and sanded before a new finish is applied.