Working the wood yard

THE wood business is the third largest employer in the Dordogne and the evidence of this is clear as roadside verges are piled high with logs.

Dotted throughout the region are small factories that take locally prepared trees and turn them into parquet flooring, panelling and other joinery products for homes both in France and abroad.
And one of these factories is the family run Castagné and Sons found just outside Villefranche du Périgord in the south of the Dordogne.
Now headed by Philippe Castagné he explained how the firm started 80 years ago.
“My grandfather started on his own in 1924 making pit props and staves for the coalmines in the north of France,” Philippe said.
“He would cut the chestnut wood to size and then heat it over a period of time to dry it out and strengthen it.
“And the mines liked to use chestnut underground because if it did break then it would not suddenly collapse, it would creak first giving the miners time to put more props up.”
As the business grew it began manufacturing parquet and hardwood flooring in 1955 and today it now employs 45 workers, on a turnover of €3 million a year.
And the firm is proud of its heritage and location within the heart of the chestnut forestry area allowing it to use the best wood for its products.
“We source 50 per cent of our wood from around the local forests with the other 50% coming from Limoges,” said Philippe.
“Chestnut wood is very popular in France as it is well known and you will often see it on the floors of renovated properties.
“We produce what is called ‘massive’ or solid parquet that is strong, has a regular grain and with chestnut’s light colour it can be varnished or waxed.
“But we also produce cut pieces to length for joinery as we have a saw mill on the site.”
Out on the factory floor the process of turning metre long logs into thousands of pieces of parquet begins with the arrival of large containers of wood.
The logs are rolled along a conveyor belt, cut to shape and then prepared for the ovens that will ‘bake’ them for two weeks, that run 24 hours a day.
From there they are taken into another large factory shed where different lengths are cut using a machine that highlights marks on the wood so a variety of pieces can be manufactured.
Then they are packaged and sent to wholesalers and merchants in France and further a field.
“At the moment about a €1 million of our turnover comes from foreign markets in the Benelux countries, Spain, Portugal and Italy,” Philippe said.
“However, I am currently looking to expand in the UK as it is clear that people there like the style and touch of a real wooden floor.”
To take a photographic tour of the factory, please click here…