F.A.Q / French Polishing
1. What is French polishing?
With professional treatment by Barfords, your tired wood will be rejuvenated, be it doors, panelling desks or tables from the smallest to grand conference tables. We will discuss your requirements you may want a spruce up or colour change, there are many options available. We have a range of ‘before and after’ sample boards, to give an indication of the finished result.
2. What are the advantages?
French polishing is an extremely ecological, cost and time saving method of keeping your woodwork in tip top condition. We usually complete the works at your premises, its dust free and the wood is amazingly transformed without to much disruption.
3. What are the white ring marks on my table tops?
These are normally caused by hot cups or plates, the base of the cup slightly melts the surface lacquer, allowing moisture to penetrate to the wood –it looks like hot breathe on a cold window. Once the cup is lifted the lacquer seals itself up which traps the moisture. This is why its difficult to remove. There are ways to remove the marks
4. What about staining the wood?
If required, we can stain all woodwork, to your personal choice. Staining doesn’t mean dark just a hint of colour can give a new look. We use traditional methods; our favourite stain is made from charcoaled walnut shells!! This gives wood a natural deep nutty brown another favourite is a shabby chic effect.
As all clients needs are individual, we mix the stains for each commission.
5. How long before the item can be used?
Generally the next day depending on the use to allow time for the French polish to harden.
6. Whats the difference between French polish and lacquered finishes ?
French polishing is the method of application, a traditional method that we still use daily is shellac which gives a deep natural colour, but is to soft for table tops, for these we use very low odour lacquer as its tougher
7. Is it best to be taken away or completed in situ
This depends if the you have spare space, if the item is taken away it will be a longer process but all this can be discussed
8. Sounds interesting – What’s next?
Give Alan a call or email, I can discuss your needs and how we can help with your project.
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School Floors Return to Wood
Its been a busy summer, having sanded and restored eight school parquet hall floors with another two to finish before the start of the school term. It’s great to see these magnificent parquet floors restored from a dark sorry state to being bright and clean with our environmentally friendly tough hardwearing lacquers – with the only waste being recyclable wood and at half the cost of covering with vinyl !
Public House Referb.
the oak floor in both bars was worn, sticky and dark, we had one day to restore the floor. With an early start out team protected the bar area, pool table and gaming machines we set about removing the existing finish and then applying four coats of 2 pack satin floorsealer. The work being completed mid evening allowing the pub to be opened the net day.
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- the oak floor before we started
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- Oak floor sanded
Restoring office wooden desk
The office wooden desk was badly worn through looking extremely black and grimey, the choices either to replace or restore. We protected the surrounding area and removed the existing poor state finish. The wood was lighty stained to match the other office furniture and finished with six coats of satin lacquer, in use the very next day to the complete satisfaction of our client.
Advantages
- Cost effective
- Minimum downtime
- Colour matching
- Minor disruption
- Environmentally considerate
French Polishing Apprentice In Action
A Non-instructional glimpse into the hard work involved when “French Polishing.” In the video is our former Barfords French Polishing Apprentice showing that quality never goes out of style.
Spain’s Hall / English Heritage Manor Wood Restoration
Spain’s Hall is a wonderful wedding venue, the panelling was fully restored and coated with class 0 spread of flame lacquer. All English oak floors stained and coated using 17th C methods and materials. We scumble grained large softwood window shutters to match the panelling, then antiqued the shutters to give a superb aged finish. http://www.spainshall.co.uk
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Our recent completed work in Spains Hall….
Click here to view more images of our completed restoration work at the Spains Hall website here. |
New website For Wood Restoration Contractors
After months of hard work, here at Barfords we are finally ready to launch our new website. Feel free to leave a comment in the form below.
New features include:
- French polishing image gallery
- The story of refinishing a floor
- Updated news and information
- Twitter feed @barfords
The site has been designed by ptoone and hosted of Thexyz Server.