Last Spring, Bailey Wood Products was contacted by Hess Landscape Architects for a project they were working on in the Bahamas. Their client, from the greater Philadelphia area, owned property in the Bahamas. The wood on their existing entryway had deteriorated over the past 10 years and they were seeking a wood species that was more durable than the wood they originally had used to create the arbor structure of the project.
When Hess Landscape Architects asked us about the availability of Ipe Lumber for this project, the discussion progressed and Bailey Wood Products became a turn key supplier of components in both wood and other material to complete the project. The 30 pieces of 4×6 rafters all had a routed detail on both ends of each piece. The main support beams in 4×10 also had routed details on the ends. The sections where the beams were joined were routed together with scarf joints. Additionally, all material was supplied pre-machined, and coated with an adequate UV finish to hold up to the harsh sun and wind of the tropical climate. Copper cladding was also manufactured and supplied to cover to tops of all the rafters.
Our customer also requested that all wood components be preliminarily coated with a UV protective coating prior to shipment, and that the components would get a second coating after construction was completed. Bailey Wood Products researched and sourced a product call Seal It Once that is manufactured by UC Coatings Corp from Buffalo, NY. Their knowledge and product support were great from start to finish. The final request was to have solid copper cladding made to cap the tops of the rafters. Bailey Wood Products sourced the copper trim coil and prepared the caps to be shipped with all components to the job site.
This project is not our normal everyday work, but Bailey Wood Products feels that we have a responsibility to work with the customer, by providing more value to them than just a wood product. Working to solve specific needs and unique requirements for the customer is what we feel makes us different. This project created some unique challenges. Ipe wood is one of the hardest and most dense materials, but well suited for areas requiring rot resistance and durability. The material grows in Brazil, which we sourced through one of the importers we work with. We then were fortunate to partner with a shop that had the knowledge and ability to perform all of the CNC routing of the 4” thick timbers. Almost every company we contacted didn’t want to touch the thick Ipe because of it’s hardness. Our CNC contact did a superb job, and the results speak for themselves.
We thank Hess Landscape Architects for the work, and appreciate the opportunity to take on a challenging, but rewarding, project like this. We also want to let our customers know that we do more than sell wood; we help provide solutions and insight into offering the best wood products and service to back them up. This project is one example of what we can offer.
