West Norwood Door Restoration – Improving Every Aspect of the Door
Original features are at the very heart of a heritage property. Unfortunately, many property owners rush to replace period features when age starts to take its toll. At Fortis & Hooke, we think there is a better way.
Sometimes, wooden door restoration goes far beyond the wood itself. While the original timber is always the focal point, homeowners don’t want other aspects of the door to impair its appearance and function after being restored.
This was exactly the case on a job we completed in West Norwood, South London. By liaising with our customer, we were able to provide a full restoration with new locks, door numbers and even replacement glass.
The result? A door that looked completely brand new across the board, while maintaining the same unique heritage and character.
THE INITIAL INSPECTION
Our team was first contacted by a customer in West Norwood about their front door, which was losing its splendour and looking slightly aged. As the entrance to their home, it wasn’t something they wanted to ignore. Instead, they wanted to restore the door to its original quality.
On inspection, we saw that not only was the paint protection wearing away, the door’s metal features – locks, bolts, chains, letterbox and numbers – were old and jaded. The customer also pointed out that they wanted to repair the broken pane of glass on the door’s window.
While other companies may have simply restored the wood, we coordinated a complete restoration of the door and all its features.
REMOVAL AND RESTORATION
To begin with, the door was removed from the property and replaced with a bespoke temporary wooden door. This is a standard part of our restoration process, which minimises disruption for our customers and allows us to complete repairs in specialist workshop environment.
We completely hand-stripped the existing red paint off the door and removed the old letterbox, locks and numbers. After making the necessary repairs and treating the original timber, we repainted the door by hand. Our customer chose Satinwood White Cotton for the inside of the door, with Dulux Weathershield Gloss in Gallant Grey for the exterior.
This required expert precision, to make sure the timber was completely sealed off and protected, including the iconic Georgian wooden bars between the window’s glass panes.
REPLACING OLD FEATURES
After repainting, we installed two new locks with two bolts and a new chain on the inside of the door to make sure the door provided maximum security for our customer. We also added a new letterbox and pristine door numbers to the door’s exterior to complete its restored appearance.
During the restoration, our team worked with the glass specialists at Morgan’s to replace the broken pane of glass on the door’s window. The result? A door which looks stunning and functions perfectly across the board.