need someone to make countertop from bowling lanes

We bought some great old bowling lanes and want to convert them into countertops in our new kitchen. Looking for a carpenter or counter specialist who can do this work — it includes one corner. Any recommendations?

sd

in Counters 12 years and 6 months ago

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sd | 12 years and 6 months ago

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Wow! I thought no one had responded to this because all the response notifications had gotten caught in my spam filter. I am thrilled to get some great responses. Dave in Bed Stuy — these pieces are slightly more than 2″ thick and they have a great patina from the alley — some people refinish the tops; we don’t want to.

ekoflooringwoodwork | 12 years and 6 months ago

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SD, I’ve never done countertop from old bowling lane maple, but I am skilled woodworker. while Making wood countertop you have to concider things like: moisture content of wood, Relative humidity in the house, acclimation or conditioning process, what kind of finish you’d like to have, refinishing/stripping process of flooring y ofou will use as countertop, etc, etc. Call me with any questions I hope I could help you with your project or can refer further. 347-628-3965 Tomasz Poznanski

stickerhappy | 12 years and 6 months ago

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Link didn’t work, but just search “bowling wood” on Craigslist and you’ll see some ads. I’ll post a photo of the table and desk I built when I get a chance too.

stickerhappy | 12 years and 6 months ago

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This is the guy we got our bowling lane material from…. has lots of ads on Craigslist.
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/3320726275.html

CounterEv had some real nice pieces, but I didn’t need a $3000 finished table- I wanted the raw material to do it myself– and saved about $2500.

CGmodern | 12 years and 6 months ago

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Why????
Because it’ll look freakin cool! Bowling lanes as countertops sounds amazing!

daveinbedstuy | 12 years and 6 months ago

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Anybody got a pic of one installed????

emilycgbk | 12 years and 6 months ago

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We used Michael Conley for exactly this project (putting a bowling alley floor on our kitchen island) and he was great and a pleasure to work with!  I highly recommend him.  His site is www.cs4hq.com and his email address is mj-conley@earthlink.net.

daveinbedstuy | 12 years and 6 months ago

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I didn’t know it was that thick.  Don’t the edges still neeed to be run through a jointer to get the fit tight enough to be waterproof?  I made a tabletop with old wood and didn’t run them through a jointer but just used biscuits and a high quality glue.

stickerhappy | 12 years and 6 months ago

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  Actually DIBS, bowling lane wood is like 2″ or more thick- real hefty stuff.  I checked it out once when I was looking into new counters- I didn’t do counters with it, but ended up making a couple pieces into a dining table and desk– I always see ads on Craigslist for the guy who sold me mine and someone also posted on this site selling it once before too- might be the same guy though.   As for food and drink durability, go check out Shake Shack- their counters and tables are made from reclaimed bowling wood and a fast food joint is a great test of how it would hold up under wear/tear/spills.  I think a few Brooklyn Starbucks have it in their stores too.   I’d recommend a woodworker, but we ended up doing the work ourselves since it was a pretty straighforward job.  Maybe Steve at Tinker’s Wagon?

daveinbedstuy | 12 years and 6 months ago

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Why???  They are only 3/4″ thivk, right?  You’ll also need a 3/4″ substrate.  You’ll never get the cracks in bertween tight enough to prevent food and liquids falling in between, the latter which will separate them   There are a number of very good wood counter suppliers nowadays, in many widths, woods and stains.  Start with Boos.