Restauration de parquets, terrazzo et pierre d'origine dans les bâtiments patrimoniaux.

Le problème

Restauration de parquets, terrazzo et pierre d'origine dans les bâtiments patrimoniaux.

Notre approche

Restauration de Sols Patrimoniaux

La restauration patrimoniale combine recherche documentaire, appariement d'échantillons et technique réversible.

The Challenge

Heritage flooring surfaces — herringbone parquet, hand-laid encaustic tile, terrazzo, and period marble — carry an institutional memory that no contemporary replacement can replicate. When a diplomatic residence, a colonial-era banking hall, or a pre-independence civic building presents with surface wear, delamination, or decades of accumulated finish buildup, the instinctive response is removal. That instinct is almost always wrong. Original substrates, once lifted, are gone permanently; the material, the joinery pattern, and the patina accumulated across generations cannot be reproduced at specification grade.

Ghana’s built heritage presents a specific challenge: decades of maintenance regimes layered over original surfaces — wax-on-wax applications, bitumen adhesives, incompatible sealers — have obscured rather than protected the substrate beneath. By the time a building manager commissions assessment, the surface condition visible to the eye bears little relationship to the structural integrity of the original material below. Accurate diagnosis requires methodical investigation before any intervention is specified.

The institutional consequence of misdiagnosis is significant. A restored original parquet floor in a diplomatic residence or a heritage bank lobby carries demonstrable asset value — provenance, specification-grade materiality, and architectural continuity that informs the building’s entire interior register. The decision to restore rather than replace is therefore a capital-allocation decision, not merely an aesthetic one.

The Floors GH Solution

Since 1972, Floors GH has developed a documentary-first restoration methodology that begins with archival research, photographic record, and physical sampling before any tool touches the surface. Our project office conducts a free on-site survey to establish original material species, finish type, substrate condition, and moisture profile — ASTM F2170 sub-floor moisture testing is conducted as standard, ensuring that the restoration environment is stable before work commences. This investigative phase produces a written specification that becomes the governing document for all subsequent intervention.

Restoration technique at Floors GH is governed by the principle of reversibility. Every material introduced during restoration — consolidants, infill compounds, stain-matching finishes — is selected to be mechanically or chemically reversible by a future conservator. Period parquet is repaired with species-matched timber sourced to the original density and grain character. Terrazzo surface defects are remedied with colour-matched aggregate and Portland matrix, ground and polished through progressive grit sequences to match the original surface reflectance. Encaustic tiles are stabilised, cleaned, and selectively re-grouted using hydraulic lime compositions compatible with the original mortar chemistry.

The result is a surface that reads as continuous with its original installation — not a simulation of age, but the original material itself, stabilised and protected for the decades ahead.

Material + System Specification

• Sub-floor moisture assessment — ASTM F2170 in-situ probe testing prior to any adhesive or coating application
• Species-matched timber infill — Period parquet repairs use sourced timber matched to original density, grain orientation, and nominal dimension
• Hydraulic lime grout systems — Vapour-permeable, chemically compatible with pre-1980 substrate mortars; prevents crystallisation damage
• Progressive-grit terrazzo grinding — Multi-stage sequence from coarse consolidation through to fine polish; surface reflectance matched against original specification sample
• Reversible consolidant primers — All penetrating consolidants selected for documented reversibility per conservation-grade standards
• Multi-stage QC sign-off — Substrate condition → consolidant cure → repair integration → finish coat, each stage documented before proceeding

Typical Project Profile

Heritage restoration engagements typically span 3 to 8 weeks depending on surface area, material complexity, and the extent of previous finish buildup requiring removal. Floors GH operates across diplomatic residences in Cantonments and Airport Hills, pre-independence civic and banking halls in Accra CBD, and premium heritage hotel interiors where original flooring forms part of the property’s listed architectural character. Written guarantee is issued upon project handover, covering material integrity and finish adhesion.

Outcomes

• Original surfaces preserved with full material provenance intact — no replacement, no simulation
• Documented restoration record issued to client for building archive and asset register
• Surface stabilised and protected to a specification-grade finish appropriate to institutional interiors
• Sub-floor moisture risk mitigated prior to finish application, eliminating post-handover delamination
• Written guarantee and same-day response maintenance protocol available upon request