COMPANY PROFILE - By SANDRA DICK
Pioneering reclaim company sees the wood from the trees
THE woodpile in Janine and Deb Davies- Tutt’s Essex yard might look to the untrained eye to have had its day. Battered and worn on the surface and retrieved from sea defences and jetties where it has been chewed by microscopic gribbles or salvaged from railways, it might seem doomed for the wood chipper or to be used on a fi re. However, it turns out that beneath the cracks and the brittle exterior, there’s plenty of life left. With some tender care from Janine, Debs and their skilled team at Ashwells timber yard – plus the clever eye of architects, designers and civil engineers - wood once destined for landfi ll, wood chip or the stove, is being given a second chance.
And this is not just any wood. Much of the timber that arrives at the yard in Upminster has its roots in exotic climes.
Today the same material could be hard to acquire as new, either too expensive to source, or banned from export in an eff ort to save dwindling natural forests. There is timber from trees such as the greenheart from Guyana, one of the world’s most durable timbers and often used in construction and marine works. When this is cut it reveals itself to be a subtle shade of olive brown. Then there is Australia jarrah, which flirts between dark red and pale brown, and balah from south-east Asia - pale straw to rich reddish brown, and which is now endangered as a result of forest destruction.
TROPICAL hardwood reclamation experts Janine (left) and Deb (right) Davies- Tutt line up with Countryfi le presenter Anita Rani when the Essex company recently featured on the TV show.
In many cases it served its time for more than a century, used in Britain’s jetties and piers as lock gates or keel blocks for use propping up ships in dry dock. “During colonial times, timber was brought to Britain to build infrastructure because it was a product that was usually far more superior to any trees here,” explained Deb.
As repairs are carried out and original timbers replaced, Ashwell’s Essex-based team steps in. As well as saving tropical timber from going to waste, they reduce landfill costs for the engineers carrying out repairs, and who have to remove wood that’s been in place for at least a century. Once treated and cut, Ashwell often sell it back to be reused, often as striking decorative features, seating, decking or landscaping, or onwards to architects and designers looking to make a statement.
12 SHWM October, 2018
As a result, timber from the yard has been used to create animal enclosures and viewpoints at London Zoo, while cladding sourced from Boscombe Pier near Bournemouth is now a striking feature inside the offi ces of a London advertising agency. Then there’s a tree house designed by Murdoch Wickham which was produced from oak keel blocks, originally used as fl ooring at Chatham Dry Docks (which won a Silver Gilt Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2002). The material is used in everything from street furniture, decking, children’s playgrounds, garden rooms, fl ooring and table tops – even as props for a Ralph Lauren fashion shoot, and as seating at London Fashion Week. Reclaiming and reusing it, explains Debs, has multiple benefi ts, from helping to curb rain forest destruction to simply
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