After 24 years on the historic grounds of the Old Canberra Brickworks, with its 100-year-old kilns, towering chimneys and peaceful, almost-abandoned atmosphere, Thor Diesendorf knew that the next site for Thor's Hammer would need character. Plus enough space for 600 tonnes of recycled timber and machinery.
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When Canberra developers Doma Group announced its plans to turn the Brickworks into a 380-dwelling residential development in 2017, the search began for a new home for Diesendorf's recycled timber and furniture-making business.
After a long search, he was informed of a possible new premises in the form of a sleeping giant: the old Tip Top factory in Griffith.
"The factory was built in 1951, and was in bad condition. It was run down and slated for demolition," Mr Diesendorf said.
Fortunately, Thor's Hammer was mighty in the realm of soon-to-be-demolished goods.
Over their time at Brickworks, Mr Diesendorf and his team completed projects salvaging industrial buildings, a paper mill and old wharves, recycling the materials into furniture.
They have now been working in the dilapidated Tip Top factory since September - cleaning, painting, stripping out large ovens, and repairing the roof and exterior walls.
They've been up against a leaking roof, decades-old bread ingredients, and a colony of possums and rats who made quite a happy home.
"We've had a builder helping us with renovations, who has been great. And I've been working seven days a week for about three months," Mr Diesendorf said.
"Some of our team have been working nights and coming in to help with the strip-out. So that has saved us money on builders, doing the work ourselves, because we're all pretty practical people."
Mr Diesendorf started the business at the Brickworks site in 1994 with just one employee. He credited the site as being ideal for the business, allowing it to grow with its vast space and reasonable rent prices.
The business currently employs 25 people, and all will be continuing on at the next site.
It is currently operating out of both sites but will have fully moved out of Brickworks by later this month.
The Tip Top factory is more spacious than the previous site, with a larger workshop, more undercover storage space plus high ceilings and Bakelite fittings from the 1950s, which will suit their new showroom.
"When people come into the building they can see straight through to the workshop. So this way people can see that what they're getting is locally made and built to last," Mr Diesendorf said.
There's a newly constructed walkway up to the building, with a deck and pergola crafted from a mix of their timbers. The machinery has also been upgraded for the move.
In recent years, Thor's Hammer has been responsible for hospitality fit-outs around town, including Bentspoke, Akiba, Grease Monkey and Capital Brewing Co, as well as timber work at the National Botanic Garden and the National Arboretum.
