ACTIVITY
Carpentry firm specialised in the restoration of hórreo and panera granaries (the latter having six or more staddle stones), key features of the ethnographic heritage of Asturias.
The firm uses the techniques of traditional structural carpentry and has particular expertise in sawing and working the grain… of chestnut wood, the main material in their projects, using the common tools of such carpentry: saws, chisels, etc.
In the refurbishment of hórreo granaries – elevated structures resting at four points on staddle stones – they attach importance to balancing structural forces throughout, controlling the wood’s moisture content, working the grain and knots in joints, possible breakage points, points at which forces meet and prevention of sagging in beams.
After years of experience of repairing and restoring hórreo and panera granaries, many of them centuries old, they are familiar with the usual faults and defects in the timbers of these structures and apply this experience and knowledge also in new building, not just of granaries but also of new wooden roofs, floors, walls, furniture, chests, etc.
TRAINING
Learning within the family, from childhood. José Francisco’s teachers were his grandfather and father. At the age of five, after school he would form stacks of criss-crossed planks to dry the timber from his grandfather’s artisan chestnut sawmill, which also prepared much lumber for restoring… granaries. Later, through working away at woodwork, he came to love timber structures.
SELECTED WORK
– Building of hórreo and panera granaries in Spain and abroad
– Repair of many hórreo and panera granaries dating from the 17th and 18th centuries and perhaps even earlier where undated, each one special and different, as were the master builders who made them. The… firm received an award for its repair of a granary in León province notable for the peculiar form of its storage chamber. In the Dominican Republic they built a two-metre-high granary on staddle stones with no fastening other than its own weight on a minimal supporting surface and which has endured fierce tropical storms year after year to the local people’s astonishment.
– Construction and repair of watermills.
– Rebuilding of main beams in situ using wedged scarf joints in place of damaged parts.
