Solid oak dining tables in Southend.

Built up the road

Twelve miles. Often delivered within the week.

Our workshop is in Wickford SS11, half an hour from the seafront in normal traffic. Because Southend is on our doorstep, we run the local delivery slot two or three times a week, and orders that match a finished table in the workshop can land within 48 hours of being placed.

A lot of our Southend customers are buying for the kind of three-bed Edwardian semi you find in Westcliff or Leigh, high ceilings, original cornicing, a back room that opens through to the kitchen. The 180cm × 90cm in chocolate or walnut sits well in those rooms; the 200cm × 100cm in natural is the most-shipped to broken-plan rear extensions.

For Thorpe Bay and Shoeburyness, newer builds, more open footprints, often south-facing, the 240cm × 100cm in natural oil with box-steel legs is a frequent pick. The lighter finish copes well with the bright coastal light without the grain bleaching.

Build yours

French oak is dense, kiln-stabilised and hardwax-oil sealed, it copes better with coastal humidity than new-cut oak does. But there are still two things to know if your dining room gets sea air through an open window most days:

• Don't store the table in a porch, conservatory or garden room with no heating. Big temperature swings combined with damp salt air can lift the finish over years. A normal heated dining room is fine.
• Re-oil every six months instead of yearly. A 20-minute job with food-safe hardwax oil takes the top back to fresh. Heavy salt-air exposure shortens the cycle a little.

Other than that, treat it like any other dining table. We've shipped tables to Leigh seafront, Old Leigh cottages and Thorpe Bay beach-houses that have been in daily use for two years and look the same as they did on day one.