The brief was uncompromising: original profile, original ironmongery patterns, and a listed-building consent that had already been rejected once by the local conservation officer for an earlier joinery firm's proposal. Here's what a Grade II restoration actually looks like from workshop to installation.
A 17th-century Grade II listed manor house in the Cotswolds. The existing front door was original — an oak six-panel door with hand-forged iron ironmongery and small-pane leaded glazing above the middle rail. Structurally the door was failing: bottom-rail rot on both sides, a split running two-thirds down the right stile, and later ironmongery drilled into the timber that had introduced modern rot pathways.
The conservation officer had already rejected one joinery firm's proposal — a modern replacement with a "sympathetic profile" — as unacceptable for the Grade II listing. The correct answer here was restoration, not replacement.
Our surveyor visited the site with the conservation officer present. We photographed the door and ironmongery in detail (each piece separately, plus in-situ), took paint samples to identify original layers, and templated the frame and door for our workshop drawings.
Key decisions taken during assessment: (1) preserve every original component that could be preserved, (2) splice rather than replace damaged timber sections, (3) restore rather than replace all original ironmongery, (4) match original paint colour using microscopy of preserved undercoats, (5) retain original leaded glass panels — all four survived intact.
Week 1: Door removed to workshop. Temporary door fitted at property. Paint stripping in workshop tank — six layers came off, revealing original mid-18th-century oak in reasonable condition beneath the damage.
Week 2: Structural repair. Both bottom-rail sections spliced with matching-grain English oak. The right-stile split was chased out and inlaid with matched timber, glued and clamped. The later ironmongery drill-hole was plugged with matching oak.
Week 3: Ironmongery restoration. All original hand-forged iron pieces (three-strap hinges, box lock, thumb latch, four escutcheons) were ultrasonically cleaned, mechanism-restored where operating parts were seized, and re-blackened with traditional linseed-oil-and-carbon-black finish. The box lock mechanism required a new spring hand-cut to match the original from our forge partner.
Week 4: Refinishing. Colour matched to the second-layer paint from our microscopy sample (a warm Georgian umber). Traditional linseed-oil paint applied in three coats. Leaded glass panels cleaned in-situ and re-puttied where perimeter putty had failed. Weather sealing added invisibly to the door edges — modern draught performance without altering the visible fabric.
Door rehung on-site. New heavy-duty butt hinges concealed behind the original hand-forged strap hinges (which are now decorative — the original hinges had lost their structural integrity from centuries of use). The conservation officer inspected on completion and signed off without amendment.
The client has an original 17th-century oak door that operates smoothly, seals against wind and rain, and looks correct against the Grade II listed elevation. The listed building consent for the works was granted retrospectively (as restoration to original condition, which doesn't strictly require consent — though it was applied for anyway as a precaution).
Total programme: 4 weeks door removal to rehung. Total cost: £3,650 including workshop time, ironmongery restoration, glass repair, refinishing and installation. A new bespoke door to match this specification would have cost £4,800-£6,200 — and would have lost the original character worth many multiples of the price difference on a listed property.
Three things: (1) early engagement with the conservation officer at survey stage, before any workshop programme was locked in; (2) commitment to preserving original components rather than defaulting to replacement; (3) workshop competence to actually deliver on the preservation commitment — splicing, ironmongery restoration, leaded-glass work all in-house or with regular specialist partners.
For any listed building work, that combination is the correct answer. Modern joinery firms who quote for "sympathetic replacement" on listed buildings usually can't preserve, so replacement is what they specify. The right joinery firm for listed work is one that can restore.
