Brian Rand President of Professional Restoration, Inc.

Professional Restoration, Inc. is a registered General Contractor who specializes in the restoration of buildings and structures with a distinctive emphasis on historic properties. The company was founded in 1994 and established an on going instruction program to develop and train artisans in the skills of restoration. We now have a substantial number of team members all full time direct employees of the company who are regularly involved in the reinstatement of brick, terra cotta, stone, concrete and lumber coupled with many other materials that go to make up the whole spectrum of building structures. Before we begin work on any project, contract, or other construction activity, we take time to ensure that the quality of our work and performance will meet certain criteria. By communicating with our clients, finding out what is important to them and combining their input with our knowledge and expertise, we develop custom solutions to meet specific customer's needs. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words so please take a little time to develop an overview of our capabilities through this portfolio.

Please Take a few moments to Browse through Our Projects or to learn more about the Company.

Our latest project is the beautiful Elizabeth Hall at Stetson University. The original building was commenced in the late 1800's and further additions added in the very early 1900's.The Building also houses one of the most famous pipe organs in the country and represents one of the finest examples of the early development of the founding concept of the University system in FloridaIn May of 1997, Professional Restoration, Inc. was appointed to supply the artisans and the craftsmen ti carry out the restoration of the external facades of this historic building.The Task at HandThe initial inspections of the Athens facades soon confirmed the formidable task ahead. In the fifties, when the whole concept of the theatre was changed, a remodeling program included the demolition of extensive areas of stone and brickwork. Substantial areas of those bricks that were left were totally encased with stucco, plaster, cement, tiles and the like and the photo's in this sections simply highlight the destructive nature of these events.BrickworkThe Restoration of the Brickwork at the Theatre represented our greatest challenge. The bricks themselves had a strong, deep herringbone pattern and much of the cementitious products that had been plastered on top of them was extremely hard and impervious to the traditional chemical softeners that are often used to clean brick surfaces.Eventually, our technicians developed a program of operations which included small electric tools, a lot of modified hand tools and a great deal of devotion and attention to detail, finally winning out on the day.Towards the conclusion of this section of work our final challenge was to match up the subtle color changes of mortar required to blend with brickwork as the whole facade underwent a complete tuckpoint.StoneworkThe major challenges during the stonework restoration were the removal of the demolished stones whilst maintaining the structural integrity of the building and producing various color co-ordinations matching the old and new together.
Extensive repairs were carried out to many stones left in place and long hours were spent by the craftsmen mixing various repair compounds and adding and subtracting dies and coloring materials to get a particular color balance in a particular area.Last but no means least, many of the stones weighed up to 700 lbs. and handling and placement sometimes required some real entrepreneurial skills.