Sapele: Prestige Roof Lantern’s Standard Wood

“We use high quality sapele wood for our products.”

Posted by: Daniel Foley. on the 06th August 2015

The roof lanterns from Prestige Roof Lanterns UK are manufactured from Sapele hardwood as standard. We use Sapele for all of our opaque-painted and dark coloured translucent-stained roof lanterns.

Because Sapele is our standard wood, we thought we’d provide some more information about it.

About Sapele

Sapele is a dark reddish coloured timber. Sapele, also known as aboudikro, is a large tree that is native to tropical Africa. There are protected populations of Sapele, as well as certain felling restrictions, in various countries around the globe.
Sapele trees usually grow to an approximate height of 45m and their leaves are deciduous in the dry season. Sapele trees flower when the tree is leafless and each flower is about 5 mm in diameter. The flowers feature five yellowish petals. The fruit of the Sapele tree is a loosely hanging capsule, about 10 cm long and 4 cm wide. When the fruit is mature, it splits into five sections and releases between 15 and 20 seeds.
Sapele is actually a member of the mahogany family and has a density of 640 kg per cubic metre.

Common Uses of Sapele

Sapele is a significant wood in the commercial world, mainly because of its resemblance and similarity to mahogany. It is often used for flooring.
It is also recognised for its use in musical instruments, particularly the back and sides of acoustic guitars and the tops of electric guitars.
Sapele internal doors were very popular in the United Kingdom during the 1980s and 1990s. They were normally made from a thin veneer of the wood, on a cardboard honeycomb inner structure.

Nowadays, Sapele internal doors are less popular, however, sapele is used for a number of other reasons including veneer, plywood, furniture, cabinets, flooring, boatbuilding, turned objects, and other small wooden speciality items.

The wooden roof lanterns from Prestige Roof Lanterns UK are made using FSC sourced wood and have been selected from premium wood suppliers to ensure that the wood is flawless. The wood is treated with a number of chemicals and then painted using micro porous sprays which allow the wood to breathe, but not to rot. The treatment allows the wood to remain healthy and mould or rot free, even over time, requiring only basic maintenance. The wood can be painted in a wide array of colours or can be stained to your requirements.

For more information on sapele as our standard wood or wooden roof lanterns, call Prestige Roof Lanterns UK on 0843 886 7949.