Austrian Hotel Woodwork

They love their pine woodwork in Austria, it is everywhere. This hotel was build in 1990 and most, maybe all,  of the detail is done by hand.

Dining room was really nice

I love this mould detail - very clever

The ceilings were all very decorative

All this work just for a bar seat

I think all this was done by hand

It's a very bad shot but the serpentine ceiling panels were definitely finished straight from the plane along with the surrounding framework

Not sure which vegetable this is (artichoke?) but clearly hznd carved

The lights were fantastic art-nouveau reproductions

Another ceiling detail

This may have had some machine work but I couldn't be sure

Fantastic AN staircase which had been made in place with brass beaten over the handrail and some details

My favourite item was this arched window with full Euro tilt and turn gear. Very difficult to do.

 Final staircase up to our 3 room suite, all for 100 Euro per night for two, including breakfast. It's z good time to visit Austria between skiing and summer.

Built in log store

I needed a ventilated space to store logs next to our woodburner in the lounge and had created a space by the making the flue cowl a central divider on an otherwise flat wall. I installed an external, baffled air vent in the wall to prevent draughts and drawing air from the area of an adjacent stove in the hall.

It was an opportunity to use up a pile of board ends in Douglas Fir (Columbian or Oregon Pine depending on where you are reading this) which had accumulated from windows and doors elsewhere.

I didn't bother with a drawing so this is a view of the part finished installation

First I framed out the space and made a level top. I wanted the front rail to extend right up to the wall on both sides to continue the line of the piece.

I prepped up all the stock to size and decided to use dominoes for speed and accuracy to maintain even spacing for the slatted tops.

As usual  I assembled on a building board to ensure squareness and avoid wind.

I screwed blocks to the board and knocked in wedges to clamp up

Hinged to the back rail with a small overhang at the front to serve as a handle

A fairly simple job but nice to do and used up a pile of short lengths, which is always satisfying.

 

It still needs a final coat of the black varnish and I will be re-routing the cables out of site (eventually)

Modern staircase in cherry, glass and stainless

I have moved my earlier notes on the banister to this new thread, dealing with the whole of the staircase construction, to make it consistent.

As for the stairs themselves, they are supported on a pair of steel rectangular hollow sections (3mm thick), after a lengthy discussion with the fabricator on section and thickness. There is minimal bounce and a pair of tubes is much less conspicuous than a single central tube, which needs to be quite large to prevent twist.

The fabricator installed the steelwork and over to me for the joinery.

The treads were 40mm cherry and, owing to the limited board widths available, needed to be jointed for each tread and then to the riser to bring the gap within building regs. I initially found the need for the riser disappointing, but it actually enhances the appearance in the finished job.

We start, as ever with the pile of timber and chop, as opposed to hand, saw owing to the quantity. There is a surprising amount of timber in a stair of this type, £700 worth in fact.

Into the workshop for initial preparation. Cherry can be quite variable with regard to hardness and I do not always reject all the sapwood as I think the use of a little can be quite attractive.

Once prepped the were edged with  No 7, slightly hollowed with a smoother and double biscuited for alignment and a little reinforcement, considering the application. This was probably overkill as the glue will easily hold such wide edges but better safe than sorry.

Glue up used every cramp in the shop and most of the available space, but was straightforward once the preparation was complete. I matched the grain as best I could and numbered the boards for jointing.

 I used the same procedure for the riser joint to ensure the minimum glue line.

I had to turn my long suffering temporary stair at right angles while we prepared the landing area and this meant a bit of a crawl to get to bed!

The treads were attached to the steel brackets with threaded inserts and the position was critical as there was little room to adjust in the brackets. I used a template and centre punched through before drilling to accept the inserts. The holes had to be made oversize as the cherry was so hard and the hex drive had a tendency to strip out before the nut was home. Fortunately I had been forewarned and did a few trial runs first on a piece of scrap.

The treads for the half landing took a little more working out with a couple of cut-outs to miss the frame sections and I finished the 45 degree angles with the low angle jack before assembly.

It all went together fine and was enjoyable, simple woodwork with such nice timber. It finishes really well straight from the plane so sanding is minimal.

The treads were drilled for the balustrades and finished in 3 coats of Bona Mega which seems glass hard and wears well whilst being water based is easy to use.

I started assembling from the bottom and was relieved the pre- installed lights ended up in the right place.

Ready for the stainless posts and glass.

I had trouble sourcing a 50mm round section cherry handrail so decided to make one up from two laminations and some circular spindle work


I jointed up and laminated some 75 x 40 cherry and clamped them together to try to get them to stay straight.

Having sourced some suitable knives I found the finished mould fouled the centre of the block as you can see from the witness.

The answer was to get the block into the metalwork lathe and machine some additional clearance in the centre section

4 overlapping passes were needed just leaving a witness on each face to be sanded away later. This was essential to avoid undercutting the shape.

Finally produced sufficient lengths for the job.

Having measured the angles I chopped the rail and joined with Zip Bolts, followed by taper plugs which worked very well.

A bit of carful bench work and a lot of trial and error finally produced a true fit for the bannister.

I used the same system for the landing balustrades and the atrium in the background.

All in all I learned a lot and am well pleased with the finished job. The materials were expensive but I achieved the appearance I wanted and it's there for the duration now.