Restoration & Refurbishment

In our ‘demolish and re-build’ world the restoration and refurbishment of hardware is becoming more and more important. Retaining original hardware protects buildings of high-value or historical-interest for the future, and it also preserves our country’s history.

The UK has a rich and detailed history and the buildings we help to restore reflect that. In essence, they are a visual representation of our historical past, and testimony to the architectural skill of our predecessors. Allowing these building and their content to deteriorate to the point of demolition is akin to disregarding that history and the value it brings to our nation.

As with our bespoke manufacturing services we are one of the remaining architectural metal work restoration specialists in the UK – It’s a service we believe should never be discarded because of the importance it brings to the history our country. To emphasise this even further, not only do we restore our own products but solid brass or bronze components made by other manufacturers past and present too.

Restoration work for a project is often combined with a need for new hardware. This could be because building regulations require specific functionality, or health and safety my demand certain features, or quite simply because existing hardware is beyond reasonable and sometimes economic repair. In the case of the latter we are also able to offer product replication services which helps to ensure the original character of a building can be maintained even if it is deemed unfeasible to repair and make good existing hardware.

Hardware restoration isn’t as easy as it sounds; historical manufacturing techniques and functionality are very different to modern techniques used today. All projects begin with an assessment of all hardware to understand how it is made, what material it is made from, whether it can be repaired for the long term, and what quality and type of finish must be achieved. Generally the steps required for this type of work include some or all of the following:

  • Disassembly and repair
  • Acid stripping and cleaning
  • Base coating/plating removal
  • Pre-polishing based on final finish requirement
  • Brass plating
  • Final satin or polishing
  • Re-assembly and testing

It’s important to understand that when working with old materials obtaining a perfect finish such as is found with brand new components is almost impossible to achieve. There could be any combination of dents, impurities, defective components or material restrictions that mean the end result will be of lesser quality than a brand-new product. This said, there are very few, instances where we fail to get a suitable product that will maintain the true heritage design that a building is trying to impress. If you have a project that needs hardware bringing back to life give us a call to discuss further, or send us a message with the details.