This is the Entrance to the Reception Hall in an 1870's Victorian House.   Twin arched doors, deep paneled Chair Rails, carved Marble Fireplace, etc.

While in rough shape, the room has all the original elements to make a spectacular impression to all that visit.  An aggressive restoration is in order here

This house had some rather severe settling issues years ago, which have since been addressed, but the plaster Crowne Mouldings were badly damaged, and large section were missing altogether.

The walls were in pretty good shape, so we decided to keep them in place.  The old plaster moldings were removed.

The left is a piece of the original plaster moldings after it was removed from the ceiling.  The right is another piece after we carefully stripped all the years of paint off it to get to the original plaster.

The ceiling was warped from the settling of the house.  This picture shows a Sub-Frame that was built onto the ceiling to form a level surface for the new ceiling.

The new ceiling is now installed.  Perfectly level.

The next challenge was the marble fireplace.  It's a tough call as to why it was built wrong, but looking at the construction we can venture a guess why.  By the end of the 1860's a home building boom was taking place in various parts of the country.  Materials were becoming more readily available, and fireplaces were no exception.  Many fireplaces came as kits to be built by the onsite Mason.  It looks as though the kit may have arrived with a broken piece or pieces were missing.  Namely the two pieces that flanked either side of the firebox.  In response it looks as though they substituted these sections with brick and moved forward installing the lower half of the fireplace.  When the upper portion  was added, it was probably discovered that they made the bottom too wide, but it was too late, so they completed the installation and left it misaligned.

In order to correct the problem, the bottom half of the fireplace was removed.  We also extracted two long pieces of marble that ran along the wall behind the fireplace.  They will be cut to fit the space where the brick once was, making it whole again.

This picture shows some of the pieces laid out - ready for diamond pad polishing

The lower half of the fireplace was carefully re-constructed with the new masonry in perfect alignment with the top.

The original hearthstone was broken and stained beyond restoration.  A new one was installed that was a beautiful match.

After reassembly.

The two Corbels that adorn the archway were in dire need of restoration.  They had been mercilessly painted over the years slowly burying their detail.  The only way to restore them is to remove them.  The only way to remove them is carefully...

We covered the corbel in a chemical paste and wrapped them overnight to keep the chemical wet and active.  The paint was removed and the Corbel was cleaned.

The restored Corbel is then remounted in the re-built archway.

The Main staircase was simply not safe to use anymore

This may look like a mess, but this is how an old staircase is functionally restored.  First, hardwood wedges are pounded under each tread.  This is how the treads were secured when it was originally constructed.  Then, galvanized wood screws are carefully driven through the back of the risers and into the treads.  This is done, one step at a time, checking each one for creaks as you go along.  Once the staircase is completely solid and creak free, we then inject construction adhesive in every joint and over the wedges to prevent any premature loosening over the years.  Last step was to close up the underside of the stairs.

The Newel Post was missing some of its original parts.

Lucky that the ornamental pieces on all sides are the same.  We extracted some of the elements for duplication.

The picture on the left shows the original parts in the mold making compound.  The right shows the original parts and their duplicates.  Ready to be reinstalled.

The treads were then scraped by hand, not sanded.  This is essential because scraping preserves the natural wear of the treads that takes a century to form.  We scraped off all the paint, then light sanded in preparation for a new stain and finish.

The rest of the woodwork was restored and replicated as needed.  The floor here once had the built in cabinets and doorway.  These left large gaps in the floor.  The filler floorboards are staggered into the existing floor to hide any seams

The staggered boards are cross sanded until smooth

The whole floor is then grain sanded

The following pictures are of the completed Reception Hall