Plastic Surgeon Home Repair Services

Cherished wood sideboard repaired

Plastic Surgeon Admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:21:37 +0000

Plastic Surgeon, the national cosmetic repair specialist, was recently called to a home in Newcastle where a hardwood sideboard, bought 18 years ago when the owner’s daughter was born,was accidentally damaged by a satellite TV engineer.

The engineer reported the incident to his company, which resulted in a call to Plastic Surgeon.

Read the full sideboard repair case study.

Plastic Surgeon can restore almost any damaged interior or exterior surface in commercial or residential buildings. Thanks to specialist training the company’s finishers are expert in repairing and fine finishing practically any material including;

For more information from Plastic Surgeon Fine Finishers and Repair Services, subscribe to our blog here.

Brick repair solutions

Plastic Surgeon Admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:22:05 +0000

Repairing damaged bricks is far more cost-effective than replacing them, which is exactly what we do at Plastic Surgeon on a regular basis for construction companies, facilities or estates managers across the commercial, care home, health, social housing and other sectors such as schools, hospitals and the MoD. Plus, of course, individual homeowners come to us, looking to repair unsightly brick damage before they put their homes on the market, for example.

Read the full brick repair article

Plastic Surgeon ready to repair party ‘hangovers’

Plastic Surgeon Admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:30:28 +0000

Stiletto marks in wood flooring, gouges out of the dining room table, cigarette burns in worktops, or even a ‘tag’ scratched across the front door window – here at Plastic Surgeon we get asked to deal with all of them; and as insurer Allianz has just reported, teenagers’ parties are a prime source of such damage.

Plastic Surgeon repairs party damage

It is only a couple of years ago that a large country house, close to our West Country headquarters, was trashed when the owner’s daughter announced her birthday party on Facebook and hundreds of uninvited guests turned up. The police spent all night dispersing them back across the county, while the damage ran into tens of thousands of pounds.

Not all parties go that far wrong but Allianz reports that the average repair bill has risen by a third in the past year to reach £162, a considerable sum and one that will often include the purchase of replacements for the damaged property. Also, while girls tend to create more mess, it is teenage boys who are likely to cause physical damage.

The Allianz survey covered 2000 parents, of whom 45 per cent had suffered damage done to the family home of varying degrees. Andy James of Allianz Your Cover advised that parents need to be more vigilant about the use of social networking sites, and to set tighter “boundaries”. All we would add is that if damage does happen then consider our Finishers as offering the best and speediest means of putting it right.

Those who are as long in the tooth as your blogger might recall a Yellow Pages advert where a scruffy teenager comes to after a party and finds a big scratch in the coffee table beneath the debris, and wants to conceal it before his parents arrive home. A French Polisher duly does the deed, but then just as he hears his parents coming through the front door he spots a moustache drawn in felt tip pen on an oil painting.

Now we have full respect for the skills possessed by French Polishers and cabinet makers, but they don’t have the array of repair systems at their disposal that our Finishers are trained in using. And with the way our business operates – where clients can opt to buy the Finishers time in half day or other time units – it is possible for them to address a number of very different repairs during a single visit.

Dents or scratches in furniture, floors, kitchen fittings or doors and window frames will normally be repaired using a two part filler and carefully smoothed to restore the original surface. Then the Finisher’s training in colour matching comes into play as they ensure the area is blended back in with the background, while lacquers and other treatments are applied to protect the repair and help get the level of reflectance right.

Our R&D team is constantly working to devise ever more effective interventions as well as ways to match new materials being employed by manufacturers of household objects and building components, while glass polishing is a skill being taught to ever more of our Finishers.

So it is possible for them to take out even quite deep scratches from glazing or ornamental glass by using powered sanders fitted with a succession of ever finer abrasives. An important part of the art being to ensure the glass surface does not become distorted as the area of the repair is reduced.

The good news for homeowners whose offspring have left them with a party ‘hangover’ is that many household insurance companies now sanction our services as a first response to minor damage: reducing cost and disruption for all concerned while also cutting down on the environmental impact of installing replacement items.

Boys from the Black Stuff

Plastic Surgeon Admin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:45:24 +0000

During a recent presentation to a major contractor, our Managing Director, Rob Mouser was asked whether we could patch tarmac. Well I am sorry to report that while we have a repair strategy for virtually every type of building substrate from natural sandstone and marble, through to laminate work-surfaces and or chipped bathroom suites, we choose to leave road-mending to Yosser Hughes and the rest of “The Boys from the Black Stuff”.

Floor repair

In fact over the years, our Finishers have made good different degrees of damage in virtually every other surface you might walk on including stone flags, terrazzo and some very nice brick pavers, where the electrician had got carried away and drilled a lot of holes for garden uplighters in completely the wrong place.

Then inside properties our operatives are regularly called upon to repair wood and laminate flooring, tiles and even travertine; for the most part dealing with scratches of varying depth that have been caused when people move furniture, or another tradesman has dragged something heavy like a toolbox.

In most cases, thanks to the intensive training they have received from Plastic Surgeon, our Finishers are able to bring the damage back level using a build-up of our special two pack fillers and then rub them smooth so that the surface profile is restored. Next then the repair is colour matched with its background.

In the case of hardwood flooring or a wood laminate product, this requires them to mix a number of colours and then paint the grain pattern in with a fine brush. One or more coats of lacquer will also be applied to ensure the intervention lasts as long as the surrounding area. Random or geometric patterns in tiles and the lustrous swirls in marble are also replicated through the Finishers’ skill.

One of the biggest jobs Plastic Surgeon has tackled during recent times – in terms of area – was the restoration of two large floating wood floors within the new Chichester museum that has been built to make old Roman ruins accessible to the public. And then in one of London’s most fashionable leisure destinations, one of our specially trained Finishers made use of the unique glass polishing techniques we have developed to take some unsightly scratches out of the treads to a toughened glass staircase.

As with all of the work we at Plastic Surgeon carry out, the ethos of “repair rather than replace” almost always presents the most economic and sustainable solution. Which is why our clients call us in to repair kitchens, bathroom suites, doors, windows, cladding, fascia boards and of course, flooring.

Gizza job!

Fascia repairs help to avoid The Plank

Plastic Surgeon Admin — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:34:46 +0000

Fascias are important parts of our buildings, being that they protect them from the extremes of weather we see in the unpredictable British climate. The word comes from Latin, and literally means ‘band, bandage, ribbon or swathe,’ and in this wet country, the fascia is typically used as a carrier for guttering.

Our Finishers at Plastic Surgeon are often called in to repair damaged fascias and the associated eaves, soffits and bargeboards – and sometimes, even the gutters, downpipes and their fittings. One might well ask how our repair service becomes necessary on these external items, which are due to their very nature, usually well out of reach, one would think, from being at risk from damage.

On newbuild sites, we often repair fascias before they have been mounted, and even when they are in-situ – accidental damage occurs from being struck by ladders, cherry-pickers or forklift trucks.

Dents, scratches, gouges and splits are all common types of defects we deal with on the poor old fascia. In the case of uPVC fascias, we can repair quite extensive damage such as large cracks and splits and even burn marks.

Meanwhile for plastic, composite, timber and wood fascias, our Finishers can fill damaged areas, sand back and then exactly match the original hue or tone of the original colour and finish.

Thus saving the home owner, contractor or facilities manager the agro of having to order or purchase a replacement, bring it on site, pay for the expense of scaffolding, and then dispose of the old fascia. Meaning, of course, that repair is far more cost-effective.

Repairing a fascia in situ will also keep the health and safety team happy too; they will sigh with relief that they are not going to risk scenes similar to those in The Plank, where Eric Sykes and Arthur Lowe caused mayhem …

Odd jobs – Unusual Cosmetic Repairs by Plastic Surgeon’s finishers

Plastic Surgeon Admin — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 08:26:25 +0000

Here at Plastic Surgeon we repair all sorts of damaged construction products on a daily basis, ranging from the ubiquitous chipped sink or gouged worktop, through to dented cladding panels and scratched window panes. And we work in a variety of surroundings too, such as on large development sites, hospitals, shops, leisure destinations and individual homes.

So it is not surprising, perhaps, that our Finishers find themselves doing some unusual repairs, quite often in equally unusual places.

For example, we have repaired cracked urinals in the executive washrooms at a premier league football stadium that has seen its share of European success as well as controversy about the prawn sandwiches served after matches.

Some other ‘fishy business’ saw one of our Finishers helping the Environment Agency, where he repaired damaged electrodes on a resistivity machine that counts the number of fish swimming past it in the River Tamar. This involved us in developing a specially coloured, bespoke translucent version of a filler to repair the electrodes so that the fish would show up on video when swimming past the sensors.

Another very visually sensitive job involved a Finisher donning his artistic hat, when the owner of an art gallery called us in to repair a piece of modern art. The 1960s sculpture in Perspex had been scratched in transit to the gallery and the intervention of course needed to pass constant close attention from visitors.

Also straying into the art world was the work carried out by a team of Finishers asked to make good water damage to a mural covering the entire wall of a West Country hotel’s swimming pool. Rainwater seeping in through the parking deck above had done a lot of damage, meaning the Finishers had to stabilize and repair the plasterwork before they could begin to repaint parts of the highly colourful mural to match the original.

Staying with sport we’ve recently repaired engineering bricks at one of the venues for the 2012 Olympics, which had suffered damage to the jointing. The extra hard bricks had been cut in the manner of a mitre, but at an oblique angle, and previous attempts to repair the edges and mortar had failed; preventing the contractor from getting the area signed off.

Current major projects include repairing and re-enameling all the baths for a city council’s housing stock, as well as carrying out the fine finishing and repairing the inevitable snagging damage at one of the largest new office developments in the UK.

And while a lot of building workers like a pint after they finish for the day, we had a couple of our operatives putting the finishing touches to the bar on the historic pier at Weston-Super-Mare, which was completely refurbished after being badly damaged by fire.

What we’ll get called upon to repair in the future is anyone’s guess … all we can do is cite a couple of clichés: no two days are ever the same – and as they say, it’s all in a day’s work.

Become a Finisher

Plastic Surgeon is always looking for potential new trainee Finishers. If you have a good eye for colour and detail, are good with your hands and want to be fully trained for a new career with an award winning, nationwide company, then visit our website at http://www.plastic-surgeon.co.uk/ContactUs/JoinTheTeam.aspx

For more information from Plastic Surgeon Fine Finishers and Repair Services, subscribe to our blog here.

Plastic Surgeon ‘Enriching’ The Repair Process

Plastic Surgeon Admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:27:57 +0000

As popular as period properties may be with purchasers across both the commercial and private residential sectors, trying to preserve or repair the various architectural enrichments – such as cornices – that define their interior and exterior elevations remains a real challenge; though it is one where Plastic Surgeon is uniquely qualified to assist.

Cornice Repair

The term cornice dates back to the 16^th century, though it is thought to derive from the Greek word koronis, or coping stone, and is most commonly applied to the plaster decoration that runs around rooms, beneath the edge of the ceiling. Depending on the grandeur and expense of a property, cornices may vary from a relatively plain profile, to incredibly elaborate designs incorporating representations of fruit, flowers and heraldic devices, often subtended by rectangular dentil courses. And outside the building you can find similar decorations run around the roofline or the edge of some entablature, but formed from stone or stucco, rather than plaster.

What all of these embellishments have in common, unfortunately, is a level of frailty that often sees their sharp edges and other prominences broken off; either by accidental damage or natural degradation, including freeze/thaw action. Which is why property owners wanting to protect their investment, or comply with conservation requirements, are increasingly calling on the services of the Plastic Surgeon, to help preserve such details.

Finishers from both our Stone Care and Home Care teams are experienced in dealing with such damage as chips, cracks, flaking and even replacing extensive sections which may have broken away.

Whereas plaster cornices were once run along the wall by an artisan using such strange contraptions as the ‘horse and slipper’, our Finishers are equipped with an array of hand and power tools as well as rapid repair materials which enable them to rebuild the original profiles. Then when they are rebuilt and rubbed down to a suitable level of smoothness, the Finishers employ their training in mixing pigments by eye to exactly match the colours of the surrounding work.

Externally, a blend of different sands, pigments and cement – possibly supplemented by Plastic Surgeon’s special rendering system – will achieve the same results.

Cupboard love

Plastic Surgeon Admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:45:23 +0000

‘Cupboard’ is, if you think about it, a strange combination of words, but if you look back in history, you will easily find out how these two became bedmates.

Originally, one or more boards for storing cups formed the first cupboard. It then became a place to deposit leftover or surplus food for distribution to the poor as a form of alms; built-in shelves then followed and later, freestanding enclosed shelving units.

Cupboards used for other kinds of storage became completely enclosed, similar to the storage alcoves of medieval times. While in the 18th century, cupboards frequently formed part of the paneling of a room. And so we could go on … armoires, wardrobes and linen presses are all variants of cupboards, as are wall hung and floor kitchen cupboards, vanity units et al.

All, though, are susceptible to damage. At Plastic Surgeon, we are frequently called in to undertake cupboard door repair. Indeed, last year alone saw us repair 8,673 cupboards and another 6,243 doors, saving nearly 20 tonnes of waste from going to landfill.

Our Finishers can repair cupboards made from wood, MDF, laminate, steel and plastic, as well as composites and those with decorative glass and tile inserts. Glass fronted cupboards we repair by smoothing down the scratch or chip with increasingly fine abrasives on our power tools – in effect, polishing out the damage, until it is virtually indiscernible to the eye.

Click here to watch our cupboard door repair video

The other materials used for repairing cupboards we treat in a fairly similar way. Basically, we fill in the gouge, scratch or dent with a proprietary two pack filler. This is then sanded down to the original level. Then we hand-mix and apply the paint, lacquer or other finish to match the rest of the cupboard, using spray guns and fine paint brushes. Indeed, our Finishers can replicate the knots and grain found in timber, the brushed steel effect so popular these dates, and the pattern and texture found in tiles.

But additionally, if the damage is to the carcass of the cupboard – for example, the door handles or hinges have become loose – we can often rebuild and repair the hardware fixing site, and then finish around the repair using the above techniques.

Calling in Plastic Surgeon to undertake your cupboard repair will save you a fortune, as well as the disruption and mess associated with replacing, for example, damaged kitchen cupboards. Think about it; to replace does not just require purchasing new units, if the range is still available. It will involve a carpenter and possibly a tiler to make good around the new unit, and possibly even a plumber if pipework is affected.

If you can’t make up your mind about the new kitchen or bedroom design you want, or you just don’t have the money available at the moment, then why not enjoy seeing your existing one looking as good as new.

For more information from Plastic Surgeon Fine Finishers and Repair Services, subscribe to our blog here and follow us on Twitter @finefinishers

Construction repair specialist Plastic Surgeon wins at the National Recycling Awards 2011.

Plastic Surgeon Admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 08:24:01 +0000

Plastic Surgeon – cosmetic repair specialists and experts in material and building product repairs such as – Plastic and GRP, Woods and Veneers, Stone and Brick, Ceramics and Enamel, Glass and Glazing, Metals and Foils, and other Surfaces scooped the award at the 2011 National Recycling Awards, under the category of ‘Waste Minimisation’ for their ‘repair not replace’ sustainable strategy.

Their construction repairs can include anything from fixing scratches on shower doors and chipped kitchen worktops to restoring damaged sinks, baths, stone facades and uPVC windows.

The team of experienced Finishers make invaluable repairs that save their clients hundreds of thousands of pounds on expensive replacements. Plastic Surgeon fought off tough competition to win the award from Costain, Crystal Clear Window Works, London Borough of Hackney and a joint venture by Skanska and Balfour Beatty.

A spokesperson from MRW said:

“The judges loved that this was a business all about repairing rather than replacing materials – and saving waste in the process.”

Rob Mouser, Managing Director of Plastic Surgeon said:

“We are delighted to have won such a prestigious award. By taking on the ‘snagging’ or damage inevitably caused by building contractors during the build process, and helping to repair and maintain surfaces in existing buildings, our team work to avoid the need to replace damaged items, thereby reducing the huge volume of material sent to landfill every week.”

He went on to say:

“Last year we saved 64,938 items from landfill and carried out 208,221 repairs, this award gives us credible recognition for our commitment to sustainability.”

By carrying out cosmetic repairs, Plastic Surgeon can assist builders and contractors to improve their waste management dramatically. Legislation, such as the legally enforceable requirement of Site Waste Management Plans for any project valued at over £300,000 will only increase, so a long-term commitment to repair rather than replace will become ever more important.

Plastic Surgeon’s expert repair and fine finishing service is quickly expanding into new sectors such as social housing, facilities management and insurance as more companies see the value in reducing waste and sending items to landfill.

VisibilITy and Control – Plastic Surgeon provide construction, FM and housebuild customers with full visibility and control, from quotations right through to invoicing. The in-house team of IT specialists have designed highly sophisticated, yet simple to use systems that give customers the fine detail on all their construction repair projects – Ideal for them to manage their site waste programmes. The VisibilITy online reporting system provides comprehensive data, including detailed statistics on landfill savings, cost per repair and site specific information.

The winner’s of the National Recycling Awards were announced at a prestigious awards ceremony on the 14^th July at the London Hilton Hotel, Park Lane.

www.plastic-surgeon.co.uk

http://www.plastic-surgeon.co.uk/Gallery.aspx

About Plastic Surgeon: Plastic Surgeon is the UK’s market leading expert in fine finishing and repair services, and the only nationwide provider. Established for over 20 years, the company was one of the founders of the fine finishing sector, now employing over 100 staff based at its headquarters in Devon and operating from seven regional centres throughout the UK.

Construction Industry Sectors: The company’s commitment to a flawless finish means that some of the most respected names in the UK house building, construction and insurance sectors rely on them to get the job done. The company also provides specialist fine finishing and cosmetic repair services to many industry sectors including fit-out and retail, and social housing, as well as working with individual trades and homeowners.

Expert Repairs: The company prides itself on a very high standard of workmanship, providing a fine finish and virtually undetectable repairs that save customers thousands of pounds on expensive replacements.

Sustainable Solutions: Plastic Surgeon is committed to helping achieve sustainable construction and to minimising the impact on the environment. It prevented nearly 60,000 damaged items going to land fill waste last year by repairing rather than replacing them. The company also provides customers with a unique online reporting service which shows a wealth of statistics such as the number of items repaired per customer site and the associated landfill savings.

Contact Details : Plastic Surgeon Limited Blue Waters House Pottery Road Bovey Tracey Devon TQ13 9DS T: 0845 141 0000 F: 0845 143 0000 E: priority@plastic-surgeon.co.uk

For media interviews or comments, please contact our PR agency: SMPR (Simply Marcomms Limited) – Kirstie Colledge 0870 199 4044 Email: kirstie@simplymarcomms.co.uk

Making an entrance

Plastic Surgeon Admin — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 09:03:59 +0000

We have all walked past them – beautiful old Victorian and Georgian terraces, ruined with replacement windows and doors, their appeal ripped out, not only in the sense of history, but also in their visual character and interest. The rich variety of colour, texture and form, the individuality of natural wood and hand-made furniture, the abundance of intricate details from paneled timber and moldings, flanked by ornate railings and street furniture, set against the softness of mature landscaping, are something special to be preserved.

I know I am waxing lyrical, but a property displaying its original features and charm is a joy to behold, you must admit.

Indeed, a dear friend of mine, rather than get her fine old Victorian front door repaired, replaced it with a version featuring vacuum molded panels, black rubber seals, modern fan-lights within the door itself, and the icing on the cake – stuck-on strips in imitation of leaded lights.

The result? The building now looks cheap and phoney, and has more than likely gone down in value, as well as losing a lot of its kerb appeal. Being that first thought from a potential buyer is going to be wondering what other period features have been removed from within. Don’t get me wrong, though, because molded and composite doors do have their place in modern buildings.

So, rather than replace a period door, or any door, whatever its age, that has been designed in harmony with a building’s overall appearance, it is better to call us in from Plastic Surgeon, to repair it. For preservation is our first instinct, which is why our company has a growing list of contracts involving conservation situations and building components so badly damaged that trades like carpenters and French polishers had declared the patient “beyond help”.

Door Repair by Plastic Surgeon

Damaged Door - Before Repair

In most instances the damage we deal with is due to knocks and scrapes from shopping trolleys, pushchairs and moving furniture, or the modern curse for properties with no rear access – the wheelie bin.

While a carpenter will struggle to ‘let in’ a new section of timber and the average painter – armed with a tube of decorator’s caulk – has to admit defeat, our highly trained finishers have a van full of solutions at their disposal. A variety of tools and fillers, plus a wide choice of smoothing products mean defeat is not an option.

While a build up of two or three pack fillers, and careful sanding enable the original profile to be restored, it is in colour matching that our finishers excel. All of them being trained in blending pigments to replicate the original finish in hue and reflectance, while lacquers are applied to protect the repair in the future.

As well as undertaking repairs to timber doors we also tackle those manufactured from timber, steel, PVC-U and composites; while we can save trims and even door furniture. Plus we can polish out scratches on glazing in doors, by skillfully using a graduation of abrasives on our very controllable powered tools.

Just like our namesakes in the medical world, Plastic Surgeon lets you show your best face to the world outside.

For more information from Plastic Surgeon Fine Finishers and Repair Services, subscribe to our blog here and follow us on Twitter @finefinishers