Table fits the bill - Bespoke outdoor table works for client

I am humbled by the number of long term clients who continue to regularly ask Handy Work to help them get things done.  One client, who I will call James, has had Handy Work do an eclectic collection of jobs going back 5 1/2 years. James, has had me help prepare his home for resale, then we have done improvements to his new home and recently he downsized, moving his family into a lovely terrace home.  Again Handy Work has built bookshelves, repaired doors, modified kitchen cabinets and installed hand rails to a loft bedroom.   So we have worked on 3 of James' homes, as he has moved and also done work on his business premises.

James and his wife have a large blended family, some living with them in the terrace and others are now forging their own life nearby in Sydney.  Each week James and his wife put on dinner for the whole family and their partners.  Sometimes that means 12 places set around the table in their gorgeous mid-sized terrace.

Warm nights beckoned them out into the courtyard but it was a bit of a problem fitting them all around the 6 seater barbecue table .  So the loving couple went looking for a more suitable outdoor setting, but to no avail.  The terrace courtyard was not quite spacious enough for the typically wide table, big enough for the family, but it could accommodate 12 settings, if the table was long and narrow.

James asked Handy Work if we could make an outdoor table to his less than usual dimensions.  During the phone conversation with James, Bruce was privately concerned that making a bespoke table may not compete financially, with mass produced tables.  But once an estimate was calculated, Bruce felt confident James would see value in the final result.

Handy Work adapted the now popular 140mm x 25mm decking timbers and laminated timbers to make up the Merbau hardwood table and then used heavy duty, stainless steel, bugle screws to ensure the structure lasted, but also because the construction time could be minimised through simplifying the structure.

Sydney is experiencing a rainy autumn, so Bruce bought the timbers and constructed the table in his workshop, routed the sharp edges round, sanded the finished table smooth, then temporarily removed the legs for delivery and did the final assembly at James' place, ready for the next, hopefully dry, family dinner night.

So, some of you may be wondering how cost effective was this project?

Well materials came out at a little over $600 and the labour was a little over $950.  So at around $1,600 for a 2.5m long by 70cm wide table, made of solid Merbau, it perhaps wasn't the cheapest outdoor table available.  However, it is sturdy, enormously strong (you could have a whole family of revellers dancing upon it....... And that may actually happen), and all fixings are stainless steel, so it will last. 

Some may say it is a quality table at a more than reasonable price.  Most importantly, it was precisely what James and his wife wanted.