Furniture

According to Covington cabinetmaker Greg Arceneaux, if you have a house filled with solid wood furniture, you’re in luck. Even if the piece is an antique, it still has a good chance of surviving extended exposure to water.

That was music to the ears of former New Orleans Lakeshore residents Roberto and Ana Rodriguez. Among their losses from Katrina were three antique armoires, each more than 200 years old. Ana says the water, mud, mildew and mold that clung to these treasured pieces were “disgusting.” Amazingly, although everything else in the house had floated around during the flood, the armoires held their ground and remained upright in their normal place—antiquity’s mass refusing to yield to nature’s chaos. “When I saw that, I immediately thought of how [we could] restore the pieces,” says Ana.

Remembering Arceneaux’s fine reputation, she arranged to have the antique armoires moved to his Covington workshop. Greg painstakingly worked to restore them to their former beauty. Because he specializes in 18th-century joinery (constructing furniture without nails or screws), Arceneaux is familiar with the mortise and tenon (socket and tongue) method used in these pieces. As he gently runs his hand over the patina of an armoire’s door, Greg reflects on his work. “It’s not just about gluing wood back together,” he says. “It’s also about helping people regain their lives.”

But what about high-quality pieces of furniture drying out and gathering mildew in garages or storage units? Can anything be done for them until they’re restored? Terry Wilde of Ponchatoula’s Wildewoods Fine Works in Wood says yes. Before bringing wet furniture in for restoration, first aid is needed in three areas—old mold, mildew and moisture. First, you must kill the mold and mildew by washing the furniture with a mixture of one-quarter cup of bleach to a gallon of water. Second, keep the furniture in a dry garage. Now that the weather is cooler, it is not necessary to keep the items in a climate-controlled setting, Wilde says. As long as they’re kept away from excessive heat and humidity, furniture will be able to dry out completely. This usually takes months, so check on the furniture periodically to make sure the mold and mildew hasn’t come back. Also, do not apply furniture oil to the piece; let it dry out first. In this case, doing nothing is actually better than doing something.

Once the furniture is dry, it can be restored later. If furniture endures repeated wet/dry cycles, however, it will rot. Remember to keep the pieces in a place where they can stay dry. Wilde says he has worked on pieces that were left in a barn for 50 years, and was still able to restore them beautifully.

Jewelry

For those whose pearls or watches have been in floodwaters, Tommy Boudreaux of Boudreaux’s Jewelers in Mandeville offers hope. “We’ve been having great success with pearls,” he says. Depending on the length of time and the type of water the pearls were in, Boudreaux’s has been able to polish and restring the pearls, restoring them to almost new. As for watches, Boudreaux says that as long as the manufacturer is still in business, the watches can generally be fixed. Water inside a watch causes damage, but even though the movement might have to be replaced, at least the watch can be saved. Boudreaux’s also has a special company that refinishes watch dials that are dulled or discolored by water. In any case, don’t give up on that special timepiece.

An additional caution comes from Brett Lowe of Lowe’s Jewelers in Madisonville: Never open a watch yourself. Take it to a jeweler. For those who have charm bracelets from years ago, Brett adds that as long as the charms are at least 14K or sterling silver, they can usually be saved. And precious stones? Those such as diamonds, rubies and sapphires can withstand toxic flooding much better than softer stones like opals. Once again, what the stones were in and for how long will determine the outcome. Interestingly, Brett has found that jewelry that sat in Mississippi’s salt water survived better than that from the New Orleans brackish/toxic mix.

Which metals have the best chance of surviving the floodwaters? According to Aaron Capdeboscq of De Bosq Jewelers in Mandeville, sterling silver pieces, as well as gold (14K or better), should withstand corrosion. Interestingly, Capdeboscq notes that a 14K or better gold necklace can still blacken. This is because every link is soldered with a metal that isn’t as corrosion resistant. In such cases, he assures customers that the black lines can be polished off and the necklace will look good as new.

Silver-plated items, from jewelry to serving pieces, are more likely to corrode after being exposed to polluted water. This will result in pitting, which may be irreversible, but can be stopped. “One needs to create an opposing chemical reaction by making a paste out of baking soda and water and gently rubbing it on the piece,” Capdeboscq says.

Filomena Mora waded through the muck in her Lakeview house to retrieve jewelry submerged in Katrina’s infamous toxic soup. Despite washing the jewelry in clear water, the pieces were still dirty, and some were rusty. “I didn’t want to handle the jewelry too much because it was contaminated. Also, because I have a small baby, I just didn’t want to deal with it.” So, she let the professionals deal with it instead.

Enter Todd Cardella of Michael’s Jewelers in Covington, who spent countless hours washing and polishing the blackened jewelry for Filomena. The result? “It’s perfect!” she exclaims. “It’s shiny, clean and polished.”

What Todd did, he readily admits, could have been done by any of his customers in their own homes. All that’s needed is a soft toothbrush and a solution of equal parts warm water and ammonia. (Never use bleach!) To obtain that showcase sparkle, Todd suggests repeated polishing with Maas Cream. Don’t be discouraged, he warns, because it may take several attempts to bring out the shine in some metals.

Photographs

For those of you whose boxes of pictures were soaked, don’t despair. Mary Davis, Covington’s expert in photo restoration, has the following suggestions. First, if you aren’t able to work on your photos right away, separate them with waxed paper and place them in the freezer until you have the time. When you’re ready to tackle the project, soak photos that are stuck together in cool, clean water, working them apart gently. Place the separated photos face up on paper towels, changing the towels as they get wet. Do not put photos outside in the sun to hasten drying—this will only further damage them. Instead, dry all photos indoors with gentle air circulation, as from a small fan.

Davis says it’s even possible to salvage priceless, irreplaceable heirloom photos. A practical as well as talented restorer, Davis suggests selecting your most important photos for her to work on—the ones that are worth the expense of having them professionally restored. Restoration prices start at $55 per photo. The damaged picture is restored, reproduced as an archival print and stored on an archival CD so that you can print copies for yourself.

If the photos are stuck to plastic or glass, Connie Briethoff of Barlow Art Gallery suggests using acetone to loosen them. (Test a corner of the photo first to make sure the acetone doesn’t damage it.) Simply lift a corner of the photo then spray with acetone. Allow it to loosen the photo and then continue spraying and lifting until the photo is removed. A good suggestion for torn, faded or mold-damaged photos is to trim off the affected area and make a collage of the pieces that were saved.

As a service to the community, Briethoff has offered to evaluate damaged oil paintings for restoration or repair. While she does not repair the paintings herself, she will advise as to the feasibility of saving them.

Computer hard drives

While the average household may not need to retrieve information from water-soaked computers, businesses do. With an impressive record of recovering at least three-fourths of the data on 66 percent of the computers he’s worked on, Back2school PC’s Derek Legendre is the man to call. Working on one computer, start to finish, he physically removes the hard drive and puts it into another computer. If the computer recognizes the hard drive, he “mounts the drive,” which accesses the data and burns it to a CD or thumb drive. Should that process not work, Legendre sends the hard drive to a data recovery center that will provide an estimate on the cost of retrieving information off the hard drive for a fee of about $200.

An ounce of prevention: Before another disaster strikes, Legendre suggests sending important computer files to an offsite backup. While the upload is free, there is a small charge to download the information should you need it.

Too bad we can’t upload duplicates of every piece of furniture, jewelry or photography we hold dear!