A large share of the structural work we do is undoing earlier repairs. Screws through joints, nails in drawer runners, metal brackets under tables and filler pressed into cracks are all common, and they all cause the same kind of trouble.
Why screws make joints worse
A traditional joint is held by its shape and by glue between two wooden surfaces. When it works loose, the glue has failed. A screw driven through it pins the parts together for a while, but it does nothing to restore the glue line, and the joint keeps moving around the screw. Over time the screw enlarges its own hole, splits the timber around it, and the joint ends up looser than before, with less sound wood to repair.
Why filler causes trouble
Wood filler sets hard and does not move. Timber does, swelling and shrinking with the humidity. A crack packed with filler cannot close or open as the wood around it moves, so the stress goes somewhere else, often into a new crack beside the old one. Filler also rarely matches the colour of old timber for long, and many fillers are very hard to remove later.
How we undo it
We take the joint apart, remove the screws or nails, and clean out the old glue and any filler. Holes left by fixings are plugged with matching timber. Then the joint is re-glued with an adhesive suited to the piece and clamped while it sets. Cracks are closed and glued where they will close, or fitted with a thin sliver of matching wood where they will not.
The result
A joint repaired this way is held by glue and good wood, as it was made, and a future restorer can take it apart again without damage. That is the standard we work to.
