Restoration
Antique Chimneyplaces in Ireland
Restoration
Ryan & Smith offer a full period fireplace restoration service. Over the past 35 years we have restored period fireplaces in listed buildings, parochial houses, monasteries and National Trust properties throughout Ireland and the UK. In Ireland we have worked extensively on many 18th and 19th century houses at addresses including Merrion Square and Waterloo Road Dublin, and Malone Road, Belfast.
Our restoration services include:
Removal of chimneypiece from building and delivery to our professional workshop
Complete restoration of chimneypiece using desired material - wood, marble, cast iron etc.
Delivery and installation of chimneypiece with new hearth, fire back or fire brick if necessary
Marble Restoration
With marble chimneypieces we remove all stains, fill in chips and repair breaks. Any pieces damaged beyond repair can be replaced with new parts made from suitable old material which we have a huge stock of. Missing carved components can be recreated by our carvers, with reference to our huge library of plaster casts and drawings of period chimneypieces. We reconstruct the chimneypieces the original way they were intended, using marble resin and polish using an antique marble wax.
Restoration Example
We removed two 18th century marble chimneypieces from an old building that was not lived in for over 15 years. The chimneypieces had to be removed from the walls in separate components as their condition was unstable.
You can see from photograph 1A that the front pilaster had already fallen off, but thankfully was not broken. As you would expect from chimneypieces this old there were many cracks and chips which needed repaired.
Over two hundred years of dirt and grime had accumulated on the surface which required a marble poultice to remove.
Small pieces of Spanish Brocatello (photograph 2A) were missing, but we were able to replace these with old marble we had in stock that was a perfect match.
The chimneypieces were reconstructed using marble resin and then waxed, bringing them back to their original 18th century condition.
