It's far easier to replace damaged or old wooden fittings than to repair and refurbish them. Investing in repair, however, is far more sustainable for the planet. This project brought us to do what we feel is important and somewhat lacking in Singapore: to repair and refurbish existing solid wood fittings.
The timber fittings in this shophouse, located in Chinatown, has seen extensive termite infestation, water damage and general wear and tear over the course of two decades. While our craftsmen have the technical knowledge and skill to undertake the work, we were hesitant to take on the project for a number of reasons.
“ It's far easier to replace damaged or old wooden fittings than to repair and refurbish them.”
One, it is actually far more cost-effective for consumers to purchase new fittings, which are usually produced in Indonesia or Malaysia and shipped to Singapore for installation, than to engage in expensive repair works. When the disparity in labour and material costs in the region is so high, repair work by artisans in Singapore can never be priced competitively as compared to new work produced at far lower overheads in the neighbouring countries. Second, to build window and door frames require costly, specialised machinery that we do not have as a start-up.
At the same time, it is a rare opportunity for us to practise what we believe, that repairs should be made where possible and sustainable. Hence it was back to hand tools, generic power tools and trusting that our wood crafting expertise would see the project through.
Over the course of two weeks, we managed to complete our hit list of urgently needed works:
- Reinforced windows. The original window frames had a number of problems, such as short dowels made from softwood (which had rotted by then) and wrong installation (such as having the stops facing outwards, thus exposed to the elements, instead of inwards). We took the most unstable windows down, reinforced them with strong hardwood dowels and gave them a fresh coat of lacquer.
- Dismantled a termite-infested and eaten door frame and installed a new door frame. As the frame is non-standard in size, we made one from Chengal wood. The original door was reinstated.
- Dismantled a broken floor panel and installed a new Chengal wood panel
- Dismantled a termite-infested and eaten handrail and installed a new handrail. To our surprise, we were unable to find any retailers carrying the specific profile, so we made one from Nyatoh wood.
- Dismantled and replace two bathroom window frames. The original bathroom window frames were poorly designed and trapped water whenever it rains, leading to extensive rot. By the time we were called in, the glass panels were held in place by the owners with raffia string. Our craftsmen painstakingly made new frames from Chengal wood, this time with stronger dowels and adapted the design so that rain water would slip off rather than pool on the frame.
- Repairing is always more challenging than making from scratch, as it means having to respect existing dimensions of other surrounding fittings and working round them. But knowing that we have played a role in lengthening the use life of these wooden fittings is ultimately rewarding.
