Big Wood

[Leon]

My wife and I took one of our frequent "Check Out of the big city" trips this weekend and happened up on a furniture store located in Brenham, TX. They import all of their furniture from South America. They had several large dining room tables but the biggest was really big. The table had 2 benches with no backs style seating that ran the length of the table. The table was 100% Ipe, and the top was a single slab of wood. The table top was 20' long, and about 42" wide and about 4" thick. That was one huge hunk of wood. The table top was held up by 2 tree trunks that were about as wide as the table top. The store owner estimated that the table top alone was about 2,000 lbs.

[Jay Pique]

That's 280 bdft., 23.33 cubic feet. Assuming 69 pounds a cubic foot gives you just over 1600 pounds for that top. It'd make a good workbench, but probably not at the price they're asking!

JP

[Brent Beal]

Try getting that into a house made this day and time.

[Swingman]

Ipe you say? That ain't no table, that's a deck!

[Leon]

Didn't ask ;~)

[Leon]

Aircraft carrier class. :~) I e-mailed you.

[Lee Michaels]

If you ever got invaded, just tip over the table and set up your defenses behind it! That is assuming, of course, that there is somebody in your house who is strong enough to tip it over.

I wonder how much something like that would cost? And how much of that cost is freight? And what would be involved in installing one of those into the average home?

[Teamcasa]

We could use that slab here in SoCal - as earthquake protection!

Dave

[New Wave Dave]

I hear references from time to time of the 1950s civil defense measures where, as kids, we were instructed to get down under our desks. In hindsight, it is laughable. But, this slab just might protect you from a nuclear holocaust.

[George Max]

Huge! Enormous! Who needs a table that large?

[Leon]

Well down here in Texas there are "large" ranch houses and in particular in the Brenham area. Most likely for entertaining and large family get togethers.

[mac davis]

the "tuck & cover" was really an effective position... For body removal later

They just forgot the last instruction, which is "and kiss your ass goodbye"..

Mac

[mac davis]

My guess would be the folks that build 8,000sf houses for 2 people to live in...

Mac

[George Max]

All I have to say is Wow!

[Leon]

LOL... Exactly, large houses need large furniture.

[John McCoy]

"Leon" wrote in news:Wxgsg.62413$ [e-mail]:

That sounds familiar - it that where the ice cream is? Yum

[Leon]

Yeah, Blue Bell ice cream.

[Jason Quick]

Hey, you never know - ipe has a Class A fire rating...!

Jason

[J. Clarke]

I suspect that Bill Gates would have little trouble. Remember, while the little boxes made of ticky-tacky are the norm, they aren't the only kind that are being built.

[Jay Pique]

Indeed. The subject line is very apropos of Bill Gates and his Washington home....

"Another sign of timberframing's resurgence is seen in the recent selling off of more than 7 million board feet of old-growth timber from the defunct Long-Bell Lumber mill in Longview, Washington. As Benson tells the story, word about the auction spread quickly among a new breed of timberframers who knew that wood of that size and quantity might never be seen again. The bidding quickly rose above the meager means of the average timberframer, and it was later learned that Bill Gates purchased the timbers for his multimillion-dollar home in Seattle."

JP