Anyone who may be familiar with our company knows that we specialize in many types of repairs, particularly on older homes and buildings, which may not be easy to typically find someone to help you out with.
One such item that falls under this umbrella would be ‘wooden shutters’.
When embarking on an exterior home improvement project and wooden shutters may be involved, the first question that has to be answered is are the wooden shutters staying, are they being changed out to some other type of material (vinyl, composite, etc.), or are they being removed and not going back up at all.
Assuming that you enjoy the wooden shutters and have every intention of putting them back up and not converting to an alternate shutter material, the next question would be are the existing wooden shutters going to be re-utilized or are they going to be replaced with new wooden shutters.
While many folks may have the first inclination to simply change out the old wooden shutters with new wooden shutters, there is something important to consider while working through the process.
More modern easily available wooden shutters (think from a box store) are usually NOT made out of a material that will be super long-lasting on the exterior of your home, even when properly prepped & finished on the entire shutter.
The other option is to have the wooden shutters special-ordered from a lumberyard with access to them, while this can definitely be done, pricing on special-ordered wooden shutters can end up being QUITE the investment!
The option that I work to steer people toward most frequently in these types of scenarios, is to restore the existing wooden shutters to the point that after the rehabbing they can be re-hung and admired for many years afterward.
This option, both ensures that the shutters will be most in-line with what was originally on the home and avoids the significant amount it may require to truly replace the shutters, especially if only 20% (as one example) of your shutters need deeper attention.
The way our restoration process works:
– Shutters are thoroughly cleaned
– Rotted areas are repaired through an epoxy repair process (with an epoxy a friend of mine in Upstate New York invented a little while back, that I believe is quite simply the best epoxy for wood repair that I have ever come across!)
– Areas in need of repair are taken care of (example: broken/missing slats)
– The shutter is properly prepped
– The shutter is appropriately finish coated
After this has all been completed, the shutters (which in many cases are previously thought to have been completely shot!) are now ready to be re-hung.
While restoring the shutters can absolutely be a bit of an endeavor, the value of doing so is it saves you the heartache of having lesser quality shutters serve as replacements and begin rotting out after a short period of time, it saves from dishing out a high sum for custom-made wood replacements, and it enlightens the soul as you can feel good about restoring something that was made to be on your home without having to sacrifice for some type of modern attempt to replicate a version of them.
There always seem to be someone’s shutters hanging out in our shop and working their way through the restoration process.
Every time I pass by them being worked on, it makes me feel good inside that someone is taking the time, energy, and putting in the resources to restore something that in the end I am confident they will be extraordinarily happy with for a long time to come.
