Restoration & preservation

The restoration and preservation of quality materials is a joy to behold, seeing a period building, constructed of beautifully sculptured stone fully restored, cleaned and protected is incredible in its own right. Restoration should always be a serious consideration before replacement is decided, it could be an oak banister, staircase or a period desk that needs repairing. To breathe a new lease of life into something that is old can be very rewarding.

It is not only rewarding it’s reducing the landfill and the burnable material levels, it is recycling for the greater good. The cost implications on restoration techniques are generally lower than replacement costs in the same material of a similar quality, therefore saving the environment, budgets and upheaval of replacement.

Restoration can include damage recovery; this can be anything from a broken piece of furniture in a showroom to a wooden floor that was flooded in a nightclub. When looking to undertake any sort of renovation, it is important to have a correct in depth assessment carried out before any restoration work takes place, a loss adjuster might carry this out, building surveyor or a restoration professional within their field of expertise. It will be money worth spending before finding out that the building, construction, piece of furniture, floor, delicate antique or whatever you are looking to restore is unrecoverable or the cost implications are too great.

The Victorian, Georgian and Edwardian eras hold some exquisite pieces of architecture and furniture which could be anything from a cast iron fireplace, bedframe, minton floor, occasional table, sash windows or decorative exterior stonemasonry. To restore these items requires a great amount of knowledge of which processes are non-damaging and will preserve the period features for years to come. The table might have a leather inlay that is desperate for restoration but to replace with new leather would not be in keeping with the history of the table, therefore to sympathetically improve the existing leather is a better more sensible option.

Period buildings can often be listed and some restrictions can be in place not allowing for the replacement of fixtures, fittings, walls, floors and much more, the restoration of these items can be negotiated as long as it is in keeping with the original condition. It would be sensible consulting a restoration professional before undertaking any work on a period property.

Restoration is not just for the antique market, it can be applied in the twenty first century easily for instance; a piece of office seating furniture in a breakout coffee area has not been vacuumed or cleaned in over 3 years. This piece of furniture might have cost in the region of three hundred pounds when new and to restore it using specialist cleaning methods would be a fraction of the replacement and disposal costs. An 8 year old porcelain floor in a prestigious hotel bathroom is looking dull and worn, why replace it when all it needs is a restoration deep clean and re-polishing.

If you require any further information, advice or would like to book a FREE site survey please contact us – 01564 742 095