Ground Grasp Firm | Crystal Lake, Illinois

CATEGORY DETAILS:

Entries on this class embrace any hand-cut marquetry/intarsia, or inlay featured inside a wooden flooring as a stand-alone function, inlaid into the ground, or all through all the mission.

WHAT MAKES THIS FLOOR UNIQUE:

Two years after Ground Grasp Firm’s Matthew Szyszka put in maple flooring in a consumer’s house, she approached him with an thrilling new problem.

“The house owner referred to as me whereas I used to be attending a flooring faculty, and he or she advised me somebody had spilled paint on her flooring. As soon as I acquired again from faculty, I visited to scrub up the paint, and whereas I used to be there, confirmed her photos from the college,” says Szyszka. “She was tremendous impressed with the creativity on show and requested me to do one thing particular in her lobby.”

Szyszka drew a one-to-one design on paper, beginning with an oval and dealing his means outward. His imaginative and prescient was to create the looks of natural progress emanating from a central star. Zebrawood grains had been used to offer a way of spreading, whereas wenge depicted new natural life, full with unfurling leaves and totally grown flowers within the corners to signify the cycle of life.

Szyszka says he relished the chance to work on this practice mission, discovering pleasure within the limitless potentialities of creativeness and considering outdoors the field. Hanging a stability between eye-catching and chic, Szyszka introduced the 4 1/2’ by 7’ inlay design to the consumer to debate wooden species and colours for every ingredient.

With the consumer’s approval, Szyszka milled the chosen wooden species, procured from Prime High quality Hardwood Flooring, to about 1/4” thick and put in them on 1/2” plywood to attain a 3/4” thickness, matching the prevailing stable maple flooring. He hand-cut all components, ranging from the center, utilizing a wide range of instruments like a miter noticed, desk noticed, band noticed, scroll noticed, and fret noticed. In whole, eight wooden species and greater than 2,200
components had been hand-cut.

Though the mission took longer than anticipated, Szyszka used the additional time to include further particulars, reminiscent of small 3/8” walnut sq. plugs. The inlay was positioned and routed round and was laid in utilizing a moisture barrier and adhesive.

The finished panel was pre-sanded at Szyszka’s store after which delivered to the consumer’s house for 3 weeks of acclimation. After acclimation, he completed sanding with 100- and 120-grit abrasives and utilized a Loba water-based ending system.

Set up Technique: Glue Down
Flooring Sort: Strong, Engineered, Parquet, Different
Flooring End: Loba Straightforward Prime, Loba 2K DUO
End Sheen: Satin
Species: Purpleheart, Leopard Wooden, Wenge, Zebrawood, Maple, American Black Walnut, White Oak, Crimson Oak