Writen by Lyle Kelly
There are many wonderful pieces of furniture you may want to use for the care of your child. I know that I sat in the same high chair my mother did and I remember how important those family antiques are to us. Over time these little treasures will go through the normal wear and tear of use, storage and moving. Often finishes can dull, wood can be dinged, scrapped and even broken. You want to keep the family heirloom looking its best but you're not the handy type. That means its time to find a good quality furniture repair and refinishing shop.
When looking for the right shop you need to do a little hunting. A good place to start is your local antique shop. Often the antique dealers will find a great refinisher by word of mouth in their community. In our shop, we would frequently do work for dealers at a reasonable discount so that they would put the good word out to their customers. No dealer will mention the wood workers name if he has not done consistent quality work. Despite the discount an antique dealer will not call you back if you ruin a $1200 lawyer's book case.
The internet and yellow pages are not a bad place to start your search, but advertising costs money, and I know from experience that they will have to pass a little of that cost onto their customers. A refinishers work it put out there for everyone to see, trust the word of mouth from your local antique dealers it's a pretty safe bet. Once you have a small list say 2 or 3 refinishers its time to shop.
I call it shopping for its goes without saying you want to get the best for your money and why should you settle? If your schedule allows try and plan for an unannounced visit to each of the refinishing shops on your list. Call then a head of time to check their hours of operation, but don't tell them you're coming by. It's better to have a look at the inside of their shop in as is conditions. There are a few things you should look for and I'll explain why they are important. First how clean is their shop? The simple fact is refinishing and repair is a messy business. You get covered with stain, saw dust, mineral spirits and just bout everything else to do with wood. It's important however to clean up after any process. If I'm cutting wood to repair a table leg or sanding the back of that high chair the wood dust must be cleaned up before I start to spray finish or apply stain. Little wood particles can be stirred up with simplest of movement covering your freshly sprayed finish or dusting over that new application of stain. Also, a dirty shop is not a very safe one.
When you meet the shop manager or owner ask if they have standard pricing on Labor or is it by the piece. Most any shop will want to see what type of repair it is before they mention price, but don't let them charge you an hourly rate. This can vary wildly from piece to piece and from my own experience I always worked on several different pieces in a day. Only the most organized shop will log each minute they work on your piece and in most cases this simply does not happen. You will usually get an "off the top of their head" number of hours which just isn't correct. If you bring the piece with you, get a written estimate for the completed repair/refinishing job. Any shop worth their salt will already have a good idea of the time and material that will go into a piece similar to your own. They will build plenty of wiggle room in the final estimate so don't let them come back and charge you more later. On that point I would suggest your read the fine print of the estimate. Some shops will allow for up to $150 dollars or more in unexpected repairs on top of the final price. You're not going to be around when the work is done, so make them stick to a final price or go some where else. In addition to this be aware of how much time the shop allows you to pickup your furniture. We on many occasions had to sell a client's furniture when after the first week we completed their piece we never saw them again. Work flow for a refinishing shop is fairly fast and room is limited. Your furniture will need to be moved not only so the shop can get paid, but they need to make room for the incoming pieces that are definitely on the way. Once the piece is completed most good shops will allow for 1 to 2 months of holding time. Don't get the wrong impression about shop owners though they will work with you, just keep in contact with them so they know you still intent to return and pick up your baby furniture.
Finally my last piece of advice will not sit well with some of my colleges. When you visit the shop find out or just look for what we call a "dip tank". When it comes to intricate cribs and high chairs the dip tank is the shop owner's best friend and your worst nightmare. Dip tanks are moderate to large vats filled with certain chemicals to strip away the finish, paint and or stain from a piece. One of the favorite ingredients of a dip tank is lye. Some refinishers love the dip tank for you can strip a way the old finish and stain in mere minutes. Some pieces such as a crib or high chair that have smaller more intricate pieces will be dipped a little longer to get into all the nooks and crannies. The primary problem is that the piece is fully immersed in the chemical which soaks deeply into the wood once the finish is removed. At first this does not seem like a problem. You can even pick up your newly stained refinished furniture and have it for weeks before you will even realize a problem. What happens is the chemicals that soaked into the wood will start to soften the glue holding the joints of your furniture together. In some cases I have received a piece with what my customer thought was a lose leg and with my hands just pulled the entire chair apart. I have seen this time and time again. I would avoid using a shop that strips with a dip tank. You may end up paying good money only to have the furniture repaired again just weeks later.
There are many alternatives to the dip tank that quality shops use. One is a spray and filter system. The piece sits in a shallow vat and is sprayed with the chemical stripper. Both finish and chemical drip off the piece and is collected in the vat. From there the chemical is drawn from the vat and filtered where it is pushed through the spray nozzle once again. This is an excellent system for many reasons. It's economical for the shop owner and its environmentally friendly for the shop can get many more uses out of the chemical batch before they have to recycle and purchase more. What will be more important to you is that only as much stripper is used as needed. This leaves little chance for it to soak deeply into the wood damaging the joints on your family's heirloom.
There are many good shops out there so worry little about finding one. Visit your local antique shops they will surely be in the know on who is doing the best refinishing and repair. Visit the potential shops in person and get a written estimate for their work. Ask to see pictures of what they have done. Take your time and be picky about who does the work and avoid those dip tank users they could do more harm than good.
Lyle has spent most of his life involved in wood working and many years in the family business of antique repair and restoration. His current project is http://aa-baby-furniture.com , a site to promote the sale of safe high quality furniture for young children and babies. If you find this article useful please feel free to use it, but I ask that you maintain the URL to my current project. |