Pressure washing—love it or hate it, it’s here to stay. If you’ve ever stared down at your charming but dirt-caked 1920s bungalow and thought, “A pressure washer can fix that,” you might want to hold up. Sure, blasting away grime can seem like a great idea, but if your house is older than the moon […]
Tin ceiling tiles are an incredibly unique architectural piece of Americana that has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years. Largely thanks to one scrappy company you’ll read about below the tin ceiling is still alive today. Their story is a unique one and whether you are looking to install a new tin ceiling, […]
In June of 2023. I bought a Preservan franchise right here in Orlando. A lot of folks scratched their head asking me why I would buy a wood rot franchise when I already owned a business that does window restoration (which is essentially wood rot repair with the addition of glazing and painting). It’s a […]
If you’ve ever lived in an old house you may have noticed a small little piece of trim running horizontally somewhere in the top 12” of your wall. There is a good chance that small piece of molding is an incredibly unique, and functional, molding called picture rail. Picture rail molding, is a type of […]
If you own a home there is a very good chance you’ll need a contractor at some point. And when it comes time to hire that contractor you want to be sure you are not only getting a good price and the quality of work you’re expecting, but you want to know if your contractor […]
Linseed oil is one of the oldest and most versatile finishes that has been used for centuries to protect and seal wood, metal, and a variety of other products. Linseed oil is derived from the seeds of the flax plant. The oil is obtained by pressing the seeds to withdraw the oil. Linseed oil, also known […]
Sandpaper is an integral part of any almost every kind of home repair- especially finish work. Painting, carpentry, drywall, flooring, they all need sandpaper at some point and you need to know what grit sandpaper for each application. There are a least 1,387,902 different types of sandpaper (that may be a guess, but there are […]
If you are looking to hang out your shingle and start restoring windows for pay then this post is for you. Whether you plan to operate as a solo-preneur, build a small team of dedicated restorers, or have plans to build a major window restoration outfit with dozens of employees tackling the largest restoration projects […]
If you’re restoring historic wood or steel windows then you’re probably dealing with glazing putty rather than the modern glazing gasket systems. Glazing putty is a wonderfully versatile product that was used for centuries to install glass into the earliest windows. In the 1950s and 1960s it began to fall out of favor and things […]
It seems like every tongue and groove porch floor suffers from the same problem. End rot. It makes sense that the ends of the boards exposed to the elements will take in water and begin to rot so fast it makes you want to pull your hair out. On my house, we have a huge […]
I’ve built a few decks in my time and I can assure you that staining a new deck made of pressure treated wood is in some ways easier than restoring an older deck, but it has some unique challenges that trip a lot of people up. So you’re not one of those people who have […]
Old houses get cracks in their plaster walls and ceilings there is just no denying it. Some of those cracks are a sign of trouble brewing while others are completely innocuous. So, how do you know which cracks are which and when you need to take action? In this post I’ll help you diagnosis plaster […]
