News

Cottage hall and living room redecorated

Returned again to the New Forest for this client to redecorate beamed hall, living area and downstairs cloakroom in mostly Farrow & Ball modern emulsion. This property alone takes a month of my time every year. Don't we just love old buildings! I am back there in July to repair hardwood decking and decorate a small conservatory area.  Lost photos of this one!

Painting and new flooring for office currently used as a gym!

I was asked to paint this office area - which is currently used as a gym.  As it was an old building - and a slightly damp room - a fair bit of replastering was needed, and some damp-resistant coatings along one wall.  Whilst at it we decided a new floor was needed, which required taking up the old rolls of carpet, laying new 9mm hardwood ply to create a flat surface on the mix of boards and render, and finally laying a new commercial-grade carpet to match the adjoining areas. The pictures here sent to me by the client show the room all ready to go with exercise bike and water bottles at the ready!

Terrace, decking and garden furniture restoration

A very satisfying project to clean, repair and brighten up a large patio, adjoining decking area, and various garden furniture for a cottage near the New Forest. The teak needed a fairly serious amount of scrapping and sanding, before algae treatment, a few light repairs, and final sanding.  Underneath the verdigris the teak was actually in very good condition.  The terraces, both paving and hardwood, had not been cleaned for some time and both fairly uneven.  The 'after' photo here shows only some of the benefit - as the algaecide takes 2-3 weeks to properly clear the 'black spots' engrained in the soft stone slabs.

Teak garden furniture restored

A client recommended me to her Mum - who asked me to restore this iroko garden chair and table.  The chair had collapsed and needed structural repairs.  The table had faired better.  Both were scraped to remove rot and decayed surface wood, sanded, and treated with algicide.   For this I use a product called Boracol which is an industrial-grade but environmentally friendly algicide.  The underside and frame were then treated with hardwood oil to improve longevity, whilst the top surfaces lightly oiled to bring out the grain and beauty of this top quality hardwood. Sadly I only took 'after' photos of this one - but chair and table now returned to a very happy customer!

Stable refurbishment and recladding

Nice little post-lockdown job in the summer sunshine.  The timber cladding on this stable block was beyond repair on the South-facing side so replaced with new treated softwood (from Equestrian Fencing & Timber Limited in Shirrell Heath - highly recommended supplier).  On other sides a simple sand, treatment and stain to match was enough.  Bit of rot treatment and replaced frame timbers in one corner will keep this stable block in service for another 5 years.