Hardware Restoration in Brooklyn

Metal Man Restoration restores antique and architectural hardware for Brooklyn brownstones, row houses, prewar apartment buildings, and converted lofts. We clean, polish, repair, re-plate, and refinish door, window, and cabinet hardware, and we can fabricate missing pieces to match. Every piece is inspected before we quote, so you know what is under the paint before any work starts.

Brooklyn Hardware We Restore

• Door knobs, rosettes, and escutcheons in brass, bronze, and nickel
• Mortise locks and pocket door pulls from brownstones and row houses
• Mail slots, knockers, and entry hardware on original front doors
• Window sash hardware including lifts, locks, and pulleys
• Lobby and cabinet hardware in prewar apartment buildings and period homes

What Hardware Restoration Involves

Pieces are removed, tagged, and stripped of paint and old lacquer. We repair damage and work seized mechanisms loose, then polish or re-plate to the finish you want and seal it.

Missing pieces are fabricated or matched so a set reads as one. Everything comes back keyed and organized for reinstallation.

Why Restore Hardware Instead of Replacing It?

Nineteenth-century and prewar hardware was cast and machined to a standard that modern replacements rarely match, and in a brownstone the lock sizes often do not correspond to anything sold today. Replacing means cutting into original doors.

Restoring keeps the original fit, the original detail, and the house’s character intact, usually for less than comparable new hardware costs.

Metal Man’s Hardware Experience

Hardware restoration is bench work, and it is done in our Mount Vernon shop. In 2006 we restored the exterior bronze lighting fixtures and window hardware at Newark City Hall in our facility, stripping and glass-bead blasting each piece before oxidizing it to a statuary patina.

On the 2014 entranceway restoration at the Franciscan Church of the Assumption in Syracuse, the door handles, lighting fixtures, and moldings came to our facility while the bronze doors were restored in place. We also restore architectural metal across Brooklyn.

Neighborhoods We Serve Across Brooklyn

In Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Bedford-Stuyvesant it is original door furniture, pocket door pulls, and mail slots on brownstones and row houses. In Ditmas Park and Flatbush it is hardware on Victorian houses.

In DUMBO, Williamsburg, and prewar apartment buildings across the borough it is lobby, entry, and window hardware. See the hardware restoration overview for the full process.

Common Questions About Hardware Restoration in Brooklyn

These are the questions Brooklyn homeowners, boards, and contractors ask most.

Can you restore hardware that has been painted over?

Yes, and it is the most common condition we see. Generations of paint in an older house can hide solid brass and bronze underneath. Stripping is the first step, and what turns up is often far better than the owner expected.

Can you match hardware if some pieces are missing?

Yes. We fabricate replacements to match the originals or source period-appropriate pieces, then finish everything together so the set matches rather than reading as a repair.

Do you re-plate as well as polish?

Yes. Worn nickel, chrome, brass, copper, and silver finishes can be re-plated in our shop. See metal plating in Brooklyn for how we decide between polishing and re-plating.

Is hardware restoration done in your shop?

Yes. Stripping, plating, and polishing need shop conditions and proper containment, so pieces are restored in Mount Vernon and returned organized for reinstallation.

Is restored hardware acceptable in a landmark building?

Restoring original hardware is generally the preferred approach in a designated building, because it keeps historic fabric in place. Where a landmark or historic district is involved, we help confirm what the Landmarks Preservation Commission requires before work begins.

For other boroughs, see hardware restoration in Manhattan and hardware restoration in the Bronx.

Restore Your Brooklyn Hardware

If your Brooklyn home or building has original hardware buried under paint or worn past its finish, fill out the form below or call (914) 662-4218.

Projects Like This

Real projects from our own shop and job sites. Every one of these is work we did ourselves.

Newark City Hall In April 2006, Metal Man Restoration was hired to restore the exterior bronze lighting fixtures and window hardware... View the project Alexander Hamilton US Customs House In August 2009, the U.S. Government hired Metal Man Restoration to restore the exterior bronze gates at the front... View the project Yankee Stadium Plaques In April 2008, the New York Yankees and Skanska Construction Corporation hired Metal Man Restoration to restore two... View the project

★★★★★

Being an interior designer in NYC for the past 10 years we have used metal man for all of our plating, finishing and metal restoration work. They have performed amazing work on light fixtures/door hardware/plumbing fixtures (changing fixtures from brass to either chrome or nickel finishes). We just...

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