House for Compassion: the Tasmanian Oak floor saving lives
It’s not often that a floor can make a claim to be saving lives. But the Tasmanian Oak floor, laid in a new-build charity home in Tasmania, is helping hundreds of families in third world countries. As a result of the ‘House for Compassion’ project these families now have access to safe drinking water.
Organiser and builder, Alan Short had always wanted to build a ‘charity house’. He envisioned a project where products and services would be either donated or provided at discounted rates, and the profits from the sale of the property would go to specific projects. He wanted to fund projects like new water wells in third world villages where clean water is a massive challenge.
Solid Timber Floors: a profit generator in the real-estate market
“Generating as much profit from the sale of the finished product is going to make an enormous difference to what we can deliver at the other end,” said Alan.
Alan said that a solid timber floor is a real selling point when putting a property on the market.
“With the donation of this beautiful Tasmanian Oak flooring, I knew from the outset that I was going to have a truly stunning feature floor that would be a real point of difference for potential buyers.
“Technically, timber delivers a washable, dust-free floor with great bump resistance, that will endure as long as the building (maybe more). From a design perspective timber creates warmth and adds character. Timber gives a home the wow factor.”
Warmth, character, and a nautical application
The feeling of a Tasmanian Oak floor is something unique – from the gentle range of colours to the natural variations in grain and texture, every board adds its own character to the final picture.
To add some extra appeal, Alan laid the floor using a technique to mimic a boat deck.
- He used a 3mm spacer to create a wider groove between each 110mm width
- Once nailed, the joins were taped and the gap between each plank filled with black Sikaflex.
- The tape was then removed, and the timbers and any excess Sikaflex was expertly sanded by Transformations Flooring.
- Finally, 3 coats of single-pack clear high-gloss polyurethane were applied.
And Alan couldn’t have been happier with the outcome.“This was such a worthwhile project. It was completed with a quality product that not only locks up the carbon for good but will go on creating lifelong value for more than just one family,” he said.
