Over many years we have built up a great deal of experience in restoring many antiques and reclaimed items. In our Hingham workshops we have skilled staff who deal with all our radiators, taps and sanitaryware. We also have a team of professional skilled restorers to undertake most other restoration jobs, from polishing wooden seats to repairing old locks. Although most of our work is on items that we are preparing for sale, we are capable of restoring your items. Please contact us for a quotation.
Some of the processes that we use are described here:
BATHS:
We use a 2-pack acrylic coating on most of our baths. They are first thoroughly cleaned, and any old paint coatings stripped off. The bath is scraped filled with a waterproof epoxy filler where there is damage or evidence of oxidisation. The original enamel is etched to ensure a good bond between the new and old coating and a high build primer is applied before re-finishing with our 2-pack top coat. We polish the surface to ensure a smooth and matt finish. Colour matching and antique white finishes are available.
The finish is very durable and comes with a 2-year guarantee. The bath coating should last for many years with a little care. We advise against abrasive cleaners and recommend that dripping taps are avoided to preserve the lifespan of the coating.
The exterior is rubbed down to remove all unstable paint. It is then primed with two coats of a red-oxide primer and three coats of an industrial decorative top coat. We can paint the exterior in any RAL, BS or Mylands ‘Colours of London’ colour as standard, or our paint manufacturers will colour match to any colour for a small extra charge.
RADIATORS
Antique cast iron radiators are a highly efficient and attractive solution to putting modern central heating into period properties. It is important that they are properly restored and checked so that they do not leak are easy to plumb in and will not damage your boiler. We recommend that any old radiators are restored by a company with specialist knowledge.
We supply all our radiators fully restored, pressure tested to 3 bar and ready to fit to any modern system. The radiators are stripped or blasted, we thoroughly flush them, re-size where necessary, re-bush to ½ inch or ¾ inch BSP to take modern fittings and finish them to your requirements.
We offer a large range of painted, powdercoated and lacquered finishes and offer a service to re-finish your radiators as well as ours.
TAPS & BRASSWARE
One often hears advice that old taps are too much trouble as they do not conform to modern plumbing sizes. This is largely untrue and most Victorian and later taps were made with standard BSP connections and are of far better quality than ones that you might buy today. We believe that most old taps are worth restoring.
We offer a full restoration for all antique taps which includes stripping, re-packing, re-seating and polishing or plating. We have an engineer for making new parts and converting threads when required and have in stock large and unusual size washers.
We also stock spares for mixer taps including change-over levers and ceramics.
CISTERNS
Restoration is undertaken on all lavatory cisterns. Including replacement of syphons and float valves. Some syphons and valves can be repaired, and we can repair some cracks. Our workshops have the expertise to restore all wooden cisterns and undertake re-polishing. We can supply replacement rubber seals for any valve.
Ceramic cistern lids can be repaired.
BASINS AND WC PANS
Our workshop staff are experienced in removing taps and waste parts on all ceramic basins without damaging the items, so that we can restore the brassware and clean the ceramic with a mild acid solution to remove all traces of limescale.
Repairs can be undertaken to a lot of cracks and chips in ceramic and fireclay sanitaryware. Re-surfacing can be undertaken on some basins and we undertake rebuilding of toilet pan waste outlets and flush pipe inlets.