About - Luca Engwud

abouT Luca ENgwud

Family Business - Since 1978

For most people, 1978 was just another year. But for our family it was the firs day in the 40-year journey of Luca, before called “Mueblería Marín”.

It started just with 4 wooden columns and a roof, one single phase motor and that´s it, thanks to a commercial contract with a Costarican retail store steadily grew the business through the 1980s and 90s.

Some bad decisions and the mass production from other countries made us to almost closed the factory by 2010, I remember we went from 40 to 2 employess.

In 2018, after 3 years we had the workshop closed, Carlos Marin and his nephew, Luis Brenes got into the workshop and decided to start the company again, making Luca a family effort – and a formidable manufacturing/marketing combo.

Together the uncle and nephew renamed the company and diversified the product offering into three lines – Exotic hardwood, FSC certified wood lumber and one of a kind tables.

Sales took off and joint ventures came in, prompting the expansion of Luca´s production space in Grecia, Alajuela, to our future 200 000 square-foot, modernized facility with our joint venture.

Now three generations strong, Luca continues expanding with new product lines, including an extensive collection of beautiful live-edge slabs, a total unique stock of resin tables, roots, lumber, doors, sheets and so on.

This is Luca – the home of tropical exotic hardwood and your ideal supplier.

on site control over every step

Luca´s process

Our trees are sustainably sourced from Costa Rica, Central America, according to our rigid laws and always keeping the “Essential Costa Rica” as our last name.

The entire process from land to your place is done in-house. On our team the Forestry Regent is in charge on buying the lands with high quality hardwood trees, legal lands and everything in order to law (taxes and more) from the land we move the trees to the mill, which means, the first “guide/form” to move the wood inside our country.

We have our own mill saws, so we do not avoid knots or imperfections, because we as a woodworkers too we know what the final client looks for, we saw for character and uniqueness. We are able to find any wood specie, get the permits and saw it specially for you.

Slabs are paired with mates and stacked to air dry for two-three years. This slow process helps retain rich color and avoid twisting and cupping, which occurs when drying is rushed. Slabs are brought down to a final moisture content in a carefully controlled kiln.

After 2-3 months in the kiln, each slab is labeled and ready for our system with picture and dimensions.

We have a general belief in using the entire tree and leaving nothing to waste. In most instances, we save the root ball of a salvaged tree because that is where we find some of the most impressive grain. Milling these roots is extremely tough and we burn through many chainsaw chains but in the end it yields some unmatched beauty.

We have invested in our facilities to be a top leader in the industry come visit our paradise and get amazed with our facilities, when you ask for flattened slabs all of them are perfectly flattened and sanded in our automated belt machine.

If a client request finished product the exciting design process begins. Working with a client, we lay out slabs to find the perfect orientation and begin chalking out design elements or just use other projects as a reference.

We apply top of the line finishes that are imported from Mexico and Belgium. Extremely durable, water resistant, and matte, these finishes are low maintenance and will protect the surface for many years. It could be a premium polyurethan or Rubio oil finsihed, we seal the bottom as well.

We want to become your ideal supplier, we will offer you imported products FSC certified and we fabricate solid pine doors as well, sheets, solid panels and our sister company is one of the biggest glass and aluminum distributors in Central America so we will be so happy to offer you a wide variety of options.