TELEPHONE:
ADDRESS:
Julio Hauzeur, 11 – 39300 Torrelavega
ACTIVITY
After over 40 years of working as a joiner and carpenter, Manuel Navarrete is deeply versed in these crafts. His great experience in various fields and sectors of woodwork has made him a custodian of the know-how of the master woodworkers of old.
He is a… specialist in:
– Mudéjar wooden ceilings, special flooring, carving, traditional structural carpentry, wooden stairs, etc.
– Restoration and conservation of antique wooden structures and wooden mills, hydraulic devices and machinery.
– Traditional dyes, varnishes and finishes (shellac, nitrocellulose, oils, etc.) as well as the latest generation of finishes (epoxy, PU, acrylic, etc.).
In 1999 he set up the firm Artesonados Manuel Navarrete, S.L., devoted to the design, manufacture and assembly of all sorts of structural woodwork, providing services for the design and assembly of large timber frameworks for companies and manufacturers of laminated timber and undertaking conservation and restoration work on architectural heritage. Impacted by the economic crisis, the firm shut down in 2012. Since then, given the scarcity of work in the fields of traditional structural carpentry and architectural or artistic heritage, Manuel has focussed on joinery. He also designs and builds complex wooden staircases and makes decorative articles for well-known architects and decorators.
TRAINING
Born in Madrid in 1962, he was learning his craft by the age of 13 in the traditional craft woodworking shops of Madrid (making barrels, wagons, joinery, cabinetry, etc.).
In 1984 he settled in Cantabria and set up his first joinery and cabinetry workshop, doing work… mostly of an artisan nature, reproducing traditional local woodwork (Castilian furniture, wooden staircases, timber frameworks for stately houses in the area, Cantabrian verandas, Basque farmhouses, staddle-stone granaries and other diverse woodwork).
TEACHING
Over the years he has taught many specialist workers, journeymen, workshop carpenters, builder-carpenters, joiners and other woodworkers.
– Joinery course in El Dueso–Santoña Prison (Cantabria, 1993/94)
– Carpentry and joinery course at the Trade School of Los Corrales de Buelna (Cantabria, 1995/97)
– Traditional structural carpentry course… in the Trade School of Los Corrales de Buelna (Cantabria, 1997/99)
SELECTED WORK
The work that he has supervised or carried out notably includes:
– Rebuilding of the wooden north spire of the Collegiate Church of San Miguel de Alfaro (La Rioja)
– Rebuilding of the wooden fulling mill of Ledantes (Cantabria)
– Rebuilding of all the machinery in the flour… mill of Yermo-Cartes (Cantabria)
– Conservation work on the iron-processing mill of Cades (Cantabria)
– Restoration of the 16th-century roof of the Church of San Miguel in Rasines (Cantabria)
– Restoration and conservation of the Major Seminary of the Comillas Pontifical University (Cantabria): Mudéjar ceilings in the library, main hall and lobbies 1 and 2, historic wooden floors in the main hall and lobby 1, and several wooden structures for roofs, special wooden flooring, stairs, handrails, balustrades, wainscoting, furnishings, etc.
