Starting a Furniture Stripping Business
Whether it’s your favorite antique chair, a priceless family heirloom, or that one-of-a-kind table that you’ve had for years; eventually, you’re going to have to think about refurbishing the surface of your favorite piece of wooden furniture to bring back some of the original luster. For that, you’re going to have to strip the old finish then re-paint or stain and varnish the surface.
While this is certainly a job that just about anyone can do with enough time and determination, most people don’t have the patience to put in the required effort to see superb results. In fact, people are more than willing to pay an expert to refinish their priceless antiques because it’s simply too much work – well that and they also want a professional job.
And that is where your furniture stripping service comes in.
People are willing to pay top dollar to have their priceless furniture professionally refurbished and they are trusting their valuable items to a top professionals such as yourself.
Starting your very own furniture stripping/refinishing business can be done on a budget. Of course, this depends on where you live. In some municipalities, you’ll be able to start your fledgling business in a garage or work shop, in others, you’ll be forced to rent or lease a commercial space.
The real concern here is the caustic chemicals used in the furniture stripping process. No one wants to live too close to someone that is running a business using such chemicals. The other big problem is the safe disposal of used chemical solutions and rags used in the process. Of all the hurdles in starting this business, this will probably be your biggest. You’ll find that most municipalities have strict bylaws governing such an enterprise. One of the first things you should do is check with your local city hall for specific rules and limitations.
Before you get set up (either at home or in your commercial location), you’re going to want to decide on which method you’re going to use to strip your furniture. This will be determined primarily by the type of business you’re going to be going after and the type of work you will specialize in. Keep in mind that, of the three methods available, only one is practical to use if you’re running your business from your home.
Here are the three processes used :
Manual stripping
In this procedure are all work is done by hand. A stripping agent is applied to a small section of the piece and the old finish is wiped away with a rag. Special chemical resistant gloves are used to wipe away the caustic material. This method can get quite dirty and you’ve always got to be wary of getting the chemical solution on your skin. Generally, this is the only practical method for a home-based, shoestring operation.
Cold Tank Method
This procedure is fairly straightforward. It consists of simply dipping the furniture piece into a vat of stripping solution. Afterwards, the piece is rinsed off with water. The cold tank method is a commercial process and is used for higher volume furniture stripping. Undoubtedly, you’re going to need a commercial site to start up this kind of stripping business.
Heated Tank Method
Similar to the cold tank method, this procedure uses a heated solution to aggressively strip the old finish from furniture pieces. The chemical residue (mainly lye) is washed off with water and in some cases, the piece must be neutralized with an acidic solution. This method is ideal for stubborn surfaces and multi-layered paint/varnish. Many contractors will use this method to strip antique moldings and fine woodwork belonging to century homes.
Challenges
You’ll quickly discover that not all surfaces and finishes react the same way to the stripping process. Some pieces that incorporate detailed designs can be extremely difficult to strip due to the fact that each little groove must be cleaned out. The situation is further complicated if it’s a particularly old piece that has had multiple layers of finish applied over the years. Many times, you’ll need to resort to very fine instruments, such as a jeweler’s screwdriver, toothpicks, or even pins to get every last bit.
Though the hand stripping process is fairly straightforward, it never hurts to have some experience stripping different types of furniture. People will be trusting their most prized possessions to you in a lot of cases. The more experience you have stripping different kinds of wood, the easier your life is going to be as a furniture stripper.
One other thing: make sure you have liability insurance and have the customer sign a work order that contains a clause whereby your liability is limited to the replacement value of the item only. This prevents people from suing you for exorbitant amounts of money by citing sentimental value. Don’t be sneaky about this, make sure you tell them in plain english before they sign to have the work done.
Advertising
If you decide to become a commercial furniture stripper, you’re going to get most of your business from trade shows, Yellow Pages, industry magazines, and word-of-mouth by people in the business. You likely won’t be dealing with the general public because most of your work is going to be subcontracted from someone else.
Alternatively, operating a retail service catering to the public, you’re going to be working from your home or a small commercial location. For advertising purposes, the newspaper is always a good bet (even the classifieds). You should also try to get your business card out there and leave it with complementary businesses such as antique shops and used furniture stores. You might even want to try talking to a few dealers at your local flea market. These are the people that others come to for advice on furniture stripping – and unless they also offer this service, most will be glad to refer that business your way.
So if you’re looking for a fairly easy and inexpensive business to start, consider furniture stripping. Start by doing some work for friends and family and work your way up from there.
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