Broken or loose chairs and beds are the most common types of furniture repair and re-gluing we see at Brandt and Whitney. Other typical repair orders include reproducing turned spindles and legs, wood antique rocking chair repairing, metal hardware reproduction. We also do expert wood furniture touch up of the broken and repaired areas.

Analyzing the problem

There is no "one size fits all" approach to furniture repair and re-gluing. Every wood and furniture repair order requires analyzing on a case by case basis. Generally the first step is to completely disassemble all the loose joinery. Compete disassembly of a loose or separating wood joint is almost always necessary. This is because all old glues, broken fasteners or worn out dowel pins, tenons, nails and screws and wood fillers need to be removed. The reason cleaning joints and thoroughly removing everything but the wood is simple.  It is because most adhesives will only function as intended if you are gluing bare wood to bare wood.

Preparing the broken or loose furniture.

It is very common for items that come in to have been worked on by an amateur or even  professionally repaired, some time in their life. Often when previously repaired areas fail to hold, it is because the furniture repair technique was inadequate. Our staff is very skilled at even the most complicated antique furniture repair. Not all, but most of our furniture repairs are warranted. We can usually tell you what you can expect from and how to care for most of our repair work.

Broken Antique rocking chair parts

Antique Rocking Chair being reglued.

Selecting The Appropriate Glue

Because of Colorado's high and dry climate and because old wood becomes more brittle as it ages, we do not limit ourselves to one type of glue for furniture repair. Aliphatic resin glues (ordinary rosin wood glue) are great for new construction and some minor repairs but are proven to not be strong enough for the everyday stress of vintage seating and beds. There are a lot of high tech adhesives available today. We take advantage of a variety of newer high tech (polyurethane, polyurethane epoxy, cyanoacrylate and epoxies) old fashion and traditional adhesives (aliphatic resin and hide glues) depending on what is best suited for the individual application.

Clamping and dry time

The truth about clamping is that sometimes you have to be very creative to get things doweled and glued. It takes more than some glue and wood clamps. We prefer to perform most all re-gluing and furniture repair work in our shop because the long dry time involved with most of our glues and having all of the shop resources handily available to insure a top quality job. There are many benefits to performing re-gluing and clamping in our shop. While some repairs can be performed in the home, it is usually (but not always) our preference to have the item here at our shop for repairs.

Reproducing missing or broken parts

It is not uncommon for items to come to us that are missing components or have portions of their decorative carving that need reproducing. Items that need pieces or parts reproduced  typically take a little longer to repair. It is really quite common for vintage and antique furniture to need parts reproduced. We have in house the full carpentry staff and equipment to handle most reproduction and retro-fitting tasks. We also have the resources to reproduce missing or retro-fit reproduction hardware on your antique furniture. Again this type of order will take a little longer than the typical repair but the results are fantastic and worth the wait.

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Dining side chair after stripping missing part of a stretcher spindle.

Here is a shot of the spindle installed and the chair finished.

Broken chair stretchers with missing spindle.

The new reproduced spindle will be assembled and stained to match. Good as new.

Even missing or damaged hardware can be reproduced.

To re-carve a missing petal on this rose, first we do a glue up.

After the petal is re-carved it is ready to have the finish touched up.

Piano stool with destroyed broken spindle leg.

Picture of spindle leg after it is turned / reproduced.

Picture of new spindle leg installed on piano stool, ready for the finish to be matched.