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By John Schofield
Just like any item that costs higher when they are antique, park benches are also some of the most sought after pieces of street furniture. Not only are they valuable, they are also beautiful pieces that can lend an elegant feel to any place with their classic looks. However, benches such as these are becoming harder to find and in such cases when they are found they are either in bad shaped or need extreme restorations.
Fortunately, just following a few simple steps can now easily restore an antique park bench. The first step of restoration for this kind of street furniture is preparing a bristle brush to be used to remove the loose paint or accumulated dirt on the metalwork or wooden planks of the bench. After the debris has been removed, the bench should be cleaned with soap and water to remove dirt that was stuck on the middle surface of the bench material.
After cleaning the surfaces, it is time to scrape off any loose paint with the use of sandpapers with at least 50 grits. In choosing for the roughness of the sandpaper, choose one that can effectively remove the loose paints while not destroying the base of the bench material. After the initial scrubbing of 50 grits, change the sandpaper into 80 grits finish and end it with a 120-grit roughness for even scrubbing. After the scraping for metal or aluminium benches, use a steel brush to remove the metal debris on the bench.
When the cleaning is done, the next step is to repair all the broken wood boards with the use of either wood glue or wood clamps. If glue is used, leave them to dry overnight. Any hole that need to be filled should be puttied and if any bench parts are destroyed remove each of them and have them sandblasted to make them look new again. Once the bench is on a good state already with all the sandblasting and gluing, apply a water-based sealer as a primer before coating the furniture with a new coat of paint. This procedure is very important for street furniture because it does not only help protecting and sealing the paint but also serves as the base colour of the bench coating.
For wooden park benches that need to be restored on their original wood finish, it is best to bring them to a furniture restorer and have them stripped before starting to apply the sealer. In applying the paint, it is important to remove or cover any metal areas with tape before doing the painting. Applying 2 to four coatings of paint is usually the range recommended though wood usually requires the 2-coat rule because they absorb the colour faster. After painting, remove the tape on the metal parts and proceed to applying 1 to 4 coats of clear metal sealant on the bench surface to help prevent rusting and preserve the wooden or iron cast. It does seemed hard to do it this way but once you get started restoring the furniture and complete the restoration, you would surely feel great satisfaction just like the feeling of recreating a masterpiece.
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