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Old treasures ending up as good as new
CAN you remember your science lab bench from school? The parquet flooring from the gym or the art room sinks?
A new Sheffield business has taken inspiration from these memories and is doing a roaring trade in bygone paraphernalia from a host of institutions across Sheffield.
The End, off Broadfield Lane, Heeley, deals exclusively in reclaimed goods and redesigned reclaimed goods.
Among the objects on offer at the yard are old school sinks, lights and immaculately-maintained precision weighing scales from a science classroom in the fifties.
David Lobo, who runs the business, is a trained joiner and transforms the reclaimed materials and furniture into bespoke, sought-after fittings.
"The period property market is growing so there is an increasing demand for this stuff," he said. "We've already fitted restored parquet flooring into homes in Fulwood and Nether Edge. We have oak, Rhodesian teak and Burmese teak parquet floors from 15 a square metre - it's a bargain. To buy new solid wood flooring you're talking 40 a square metre."
David's passion for reclaimed materials was kickstarted when he was working on a school about to be demolished.
"I remember seeing all this parquet flooring going into a skip and thinking 'what a waste," he said.
And indeed there's no better test of a floor's durability than 20 years of football games, school assemblies and netball matches, as The End business associate Shaun Taylor added.
He said: "I met David when installing my parquet flooring at home - it was from Newfield School, which is where all my mates went. It's strange to think that the floor in my house is the same floor that my pals played football on!"
But there are quirkier transformations than wooden flooring.
David was recently commissioned by The Chimney House in Kelham Island, a city business meeting venue, to build a colossal boardroom table out of parquet flooring.
And referring to a cross-like solid table with an umbrella in the middle, David said: "That was a jewellery makers' craft table from Psalter Lane Art College. It's absolutely solid and if the wood was restored it would look stunning."
There is a knack to sourcing reclaimed goods however.
"It's about looking at things in a certain way, seeing the beauty in old things," said David.
"It's about having that vision to make something beautiful out of a given budget. These are quality materials, built to last."
At least now the destiny of such objects is not the tip, or the skip, but a home.
The End in Clyde Road is now open.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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