Gloucestershire, UK - The verb 'to fladder' is probably new to Salvo followers. It does not appear in the Oxford English Dictionary or even in Wikipedia, which is not surprising really because it's a word that isn't really used as a verb. In fact 'fladder' isn't really a word at all. So what's all this about?

Way back yonder when I was young, innocent and vulnerable and before I discoverd the delights of owning a salvage yard, I ran a company making top end wooden toilet seats. One of processes involved the fine sanding of end grain to obtain a perfect finish that could be laquered and sealed to prevent the ingress of you know what when in use. I vaguely remember coming across a new fangled product called a Fladder wheel which comprised of fine strips of varying grades of sand paper mounted onto a revolving wheel. At the time I couldn't afford the machine and any way the bottom dropped out of the market and I closed the business down.

Back to the present. One of the down sides of using reclaimed floorboard is the cleaning off of years of ingrained grime and dirt. A filthy, time consuming job that has to be done carefully to avoid losing the patina of the boards. Looking round for better ways of doing the job and of adding value to the product I came across my old friend, the Fladder wheel. This time four of them, 12ins wide incorporated into a sophisticated, dust extracted machine capable of handling boards upto 15ft long, 12ins wide and 3ins thick. Dirty board in one end, clean board out the other without losing the colour or the grain.

Hence the new verb to fladder - to clean dirty floorboards.

The machine has recently been commissioned at Cox's premises in Moreton in Marsh and the firm is happy to quote other dealers or private customers for cleaning their own boards. Contact Peter Watson on 01608 652505 for more information.

Cox's Yard @Moreton Architectural Reclamation Yard Ltd

Cox's Yard

Story Type:  Letter

ID: 63895