scaffold board rubbish

[johnnyb]

it's a shame to waste such an opportunity.
on a serious note I've found making the very best "stuff" that can be produced within the restraints of your environment has always been because of peer pressure or competition.
it's very difficult to work at your best for speed quality or both without someone to "set the standard".

 

[Trainee neophyte]

I'm embarrased to say that I have made something virtually identical to their offering here:

It was from new scaffold board, to be fair, but I sanded off the worst of the bandsaw marks and slapped a coat of varnish on it, and it looks identical to the above - saves me having to actually take a photo of it. It lives outside and keeps work boots and wellies tidy and hidden. Serves and purpose. I think I have something like €30 invested in it.

I wonder if the owner of the business started out with visions of bespoke high end furniture, but discovered that you have to make what people want, not what you think they ought to want. He may be laughing all the way to the bank, but quietly crying on the inside.

 

[johnnyb]

I doubt anyone is seriously "making a fortune' in any business based on woodworking unlike say upvc where its doable(ie I know a few people who have good lifestyles making and fitting upvc) I know a few joiners making wooden stuff and it's not easy. the market even at the prices there selling at is still pretty small.

 

[Adam W.]

Don't be so sure, the conservation side of things is well paid.

 

[timothyedoran]

It's not my style of furniture, but at least it is made from low carbon materials, locally made and supporting a British firm. I bet any of that stuff far outlasts anything from IKEA.
I bought a cubby box storage thing from IKEA to hide the kids toys. Kallax I think. It's 4 years old and knackered, tatty and when the kids grow a bit more it will be only good for the bin. I'm ashamed of my wasteful purchase.
Scaffold furniture can at least be burnt or turned into shelves in the garage.

I think we should all climb off the soap box on this one, and give the company a break. It's the likes of oak-supa-village with their dubiously sourced oak crap that we should all be hating.

 

[johnnyb]

as somebody who has had a career in conservation and got the qualifications I reckon not. I worked at a big firm in the City to. eventually it was obvious eastern European Labour was highly skilled and cheap. and it completely took over. the management running the company were not fussed who did the work. skill comes from experience and time. eastern europeans had been doing conservation stuff because there had never been any other way. People with sense(and moderate skill) saw the opportunities were where new europeans weren't so great. project management, liason, 7conservation officers etc etc

 

[Adam W.]

Dunno about your experience, but I've done alright being self employed in timber building conservation.

But maybe the kind of work I do isn't the same as what you and the Eastern Europeans were doing.

Stuff like jacking roofs up and replacing whole gables on historic houses is what I do....

 

[johnnyb]

timber framing whilst it's been fashionable for say 20 years in the uk(grand designs) around 30 years ago timber building restoration involved the local chip letting some bits in.the knowledge had fallen from the realms of ( british) men regarding green oak et al. I'd suggest being the man that decides what to do gets the cash( usually the architect). many of those guys have a passing acquaintance with conservation but give an umbrella to take on the whole job. many eastern europeans were highly trained timber framers tbh having decades of experience in the 90s.

 

[Adam W.]

Well I was the man who decided what to do, did the design and temporary works, dealt with the client and did all the work. So all the money for the job went my way and it still does.

I wouldn't have it any other way and I've been doing it the proper way for 35 years. Although I'm now bored with the heavy stuff, hence the re-training in carving and gilding.

More money, less lifting, no dust.

 

[TheTiddles]

Can anyone who says how rubbish it is please share your work at the same price point please? I’d like to do a compare and contrast

 

[johnnyb]

I truly wish you the best as a carver/gilder and hope you can combine both aspects of what you do. there was a specialised carver at the firm I worked.

 

[Adam W.]

Thank you johnnyb. Hopefully I should be OK, as there are some very large projects in the London pipe and I should have a look in with the contacts that I have now.

 

[novocaine]

Can anyone who says how rubbish it is please share your work at the same price point please? I’d like to do a compare and contrast

Stop being the voice of reason. If they can't bitch about someone making a few bob of scaffold boards they'll start on politics again. Or worse. Sharpening.

 

[johnnyb]

we worked some big jobs back all over Central London. the last one was duke st St James.there were hundreds of east europeans on that site. I remember watching some restoring scaglioli columns with great skill. it was a rough and ready site though eastern European girls ran an enormous cafe serving food all day! maybe most have headed back since then in the 2000s they seemed a bit odd to me(a bumpkin really)

 

[AlanY]

Dunno about your experience, but I've done alright being self employed in timber building conservation.

But maybe the kind of work I do isn't the same as what you and the Eastern Europeans were doing.

Stuff like jacking roofs up and replacing whole gables on historic houses is what I do....


View attachment 111470

I am one of those people who can just sit and look at the sea all day and never get bored with the view. I could do the same with this building.

 

[Cooper]

European Labour was highly skilled and cheap. and it completely took over. the management running the company were not fussed who did the work. skill comes from experience and time. eastern europeans had been doing conservation stuff

This is a very interesting point. I suspect it is also to do with rebuilding after the devastation of the war. Here traditional buildings that were damaged in the blitz were largely swept aside and replaced by modern structures. From what I have seen much of the reconstruction in the east was rebuilding what was lost. Dresden has made a big issue of this, I wonder if that was also the pattern elsewhere?

 

[Adam W.]

I believe Prague was also re-built in the traditional way.

Riga also has a healthy restoration scene, Denmark however has unfortunately lost most of its historic vernacular architecture to the corrugated asbestos roofed bungalow.

 

[Sandyn]

If the company that makes the furniture reads all the comments here, I'm sure it would make them cry..............all the way to the bank!!

I say good on them!. If they have a market for the furniture and they employ people and make a profit what is there to criticise?. The advertising is just great. I think it's an example of really good marketing. I could see a lot of that type of furniture being used in pubs and restaurants. Not my style though.

 

[AnnieLavinia1895]

there is a firm close by me that make furniture using scaffold planks(probably one close to many of us) called dab chic. After having a look online I was astounded how shoddy it looked really just thrown together with a few cod words chucked in massaged sustainable eco etc. why is this even a thing?at least the old pine furniture was made properly. I guess something a child could make is radically different but the cod m and s advertising makes my skin creep.

there is a firm close by me that make furniture using scaffold planks(probably one close to many of us) called dab chic. After having a look online I was astounded how shoddy it looked really just thrown together with a few cod words chucked in massaged sustainable eco etc. why is this even a thing?at least the old pine furniture was made properly. I guess something a child could make is radically different but the cod m and s advertising makes my skin creep.

I am now a middle aged woman from the days when "girls" were not allowed to study woodwork or metalwork at school, so i worked weekends and holidays for my uncle an old school time served painter and decorator. He was appalled in the early 90s when rag rolling, sponging and faux woodgrain interiors became a trend. To him its what people did when they couldnt afford wallpaper.

I am no woodwork specialist just taught by uncles over the years, but when my oldest son now 28 wanted to fit out his loft conversion for an office / gaming / hobby room i helped him build it all from timber, rather than get "fitted office" furniture. I was apalled at the now rip off prices of the "industrial look" furniture including "so called" reclaimed scaffold boards, pallet wood and those hairpin legs.

Instead i bought new construction timber at a fraction of the cost, and after his mates who had bought computer desks saw the work in progress, they too decided to build their own and this taste for an industial look, does allow them to build something themselves at low cost that can be repurposed, unlike ikea flatpack that gets dumped

 

[Adam W.]

Think you did the right thing there, as there's some really nice construction timber coming out of Latvia at the moment.

When I built mothers extension, I got some Euro redwood for the roof joists and I thought it was far to good for roofing. Cheap as chips too.