Special
Producers of distressed floors
THE TREND WHICH JUST WON’T GO AWAY STILL A BIG DEMAND FOR A WEATHERED AND NATURAL LOOK Eric Bonneu (Di Legno - B) ‘Once upon a time …. a fairy tale based on true facts.’ For the restoration of mansions and castles, architects clamour as much as possible for the preservation of the ‘soul’ and authentic elements of properties to safeguard them. The patine of parquet cannot be equalled by new materials and gives the interior a unique aesthetic look, a rich ‘base’, and a subtle character. However, the wood is often no longer in good condition, shortcomings arise, and the technical side for refitting presents problems and is very labour-intensive. This also happened 22 years ago when a team of architects was asked to restore a castle in all its fine detail. The architect asked the advice of the three founders of Di Legno to imitate some oak parquet which was 100 years old, including the patine parquet, so that the architect could work away its shortcomings and provide a charming and technically perfect floor. Di Legno was born … the subtle ageing and patination of oak floors in new European oak, with suitable measurement and fitting, and completely protected and low maintenance with natural oils. During this quest, we made a second discovery. The natural process to which we subjected the oak wood created ‘natural weathering’. This yielded a very special aged look. It was that same architect who noticed this shade of grey during one of his visits to the production hall and asked us explicitly to preserve this colour and look as such. He called it a colour and finish which only nature itself could conceive and which could never come from a pot or a factory. He was absolutely right because the shade of grey and look were the result of the wood’s natural process. We didn’t conceive it, but nature did. And so, each plank is different in identity and character. We still respect that natural process and we give nature the time to do its work and produce a unique result. Respecting what nature gives us Research has shown that children who grow up in a city often no longer realise that milk comes from a cow. This illustration also applies partly to parquet. Do we realise, respect, and cherish sufficiently the fact that we are bringing a piece of nature into our homes when we opt for an oak floor? The structure, the grains, and the colour all trace their origins back to the existence of a tree and, thankfully, no two trees are alike. At Di Legno we try to respect fully the richness, the authenticity, and the uniqueness of the natural product and too allow it to come into its own.
Some trends come and go, whilst others stick around longer. In the case of distressed floors it is clearly the latter which applies. Artificial ageing (not only of wooden floors) has been in fashion for a few decades and still is. Moreover, we also see that distressing is being applied not only in the look of the floorboards, but also in the return of classic patterns such as herringbone and Hungarian point. The question is: How is distressing work carried out? The answer is that there are few treatments with such a wide range of different approaches. There might be some main threads throughout the entire story, but approaches vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and sometimes acutely. Two editions ago, we covered the mechanical options e.g. drumming, lashing, planing, sawing, etc. This time we pay more attention to the other distressing element, the use of chemical agents. These agents
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are used for ‘ageing’, so they are a reaction to a demand for the look of a naturally weathered floor. The idea is to imitate the specific features of an old floor as naturally as possible, especially the effect of damp upon wood to produce discolouration and traces of wear from footsteps. This is linked to a hint of woodworking techniques where the mechanical element comes to the fore.
Smoking, staining, and colour distressing The technique which stands out the most is smoking, a technique which goes back a long way. Smoking, certainly with oak with its high tannic acid content, is caused by the creation of ammonia fumes (i.e. it has nothing to do with lighting a fire) which provoke a reaction from the tannic acid in the wood. As the fumes penetrate, they yield a somewhat darker appearance. This colouring process does not yield uniform colouring because sapwood doesn’t discolour and you can do it singly or doubly. If the wood is smoked doubly, the colour changes from light to dark brown. You also obtain a darker colour using a closely
