Church Pew Restoration

There’s a layer of grease on the seats and top rails that has to be cleaned out for subsequent new finishes to properly adhere.

Church pew refinishing bid, Church pew restoration estimate, Pew refinishing cost per foot, Get a church pew restoration quote, How to request a church furniture bid .

scott beddome

August 29, 2025

Church Pew Refinishing/Restoration is a Specialty Trade.

scott beddome

August 29, 2025

Hiring a company to refinish, restore or modify existing church pews is likely a once in a lifetime experience for those tasked with the assignment.

In the course of the nearly 30 years of talking with church business administrators, priests, pastors, lay committee members or volunteers, there’s one story that often comes up.

“We called the local furniture stripper and when we talked to them about our pews- we got worried- so we kept looking.”

Those were the lucky ones.

I've heard many horror stories about the difficulties encountered when a church would mistakenly contract with a well-intentioned local who has never taken on a pew project before. Most of the time they find that the local furniture shop is unsure about how they would go about doing the work or how long it would take. This tends to create a lack of faith in their ability to execute the project in a timely and professional fashion.

And rightly so.

Furniture “stripping and refinishing” is a completely different trade. The equipment, process, scale and sequence of execution of their local furniture work is designed around dressers, wardrobes, tables, chairs and treadle sewing machines. The average church pew doesn't fit in the dip tanks they soak furniture in or on the “flow over” tables they use to strip finish. (And THAT harsh process is tremendously damaging to old wood- even solid wood). The awkwardness of the church pew size leaves them cussing and cursing as they attempt to handle the sometimes very heavy load. Most use high pressure water to blast off paste style strippers making quite a mess when the confines of their small booths are extended.

furniture companies can't refinish church pews

Furniture refinishers also don’t have an idea of the scale of the project. Thus they tend to price church pew refinishing/restoration in the same manner as they would furniture. They have no sense of an efficient process or sequence choosing to piecemeal the work over a long duration of time. Often they wildly overbid the work or, worse, underbid. Nothing is worse than a person who is working on your church pew project who about halfway through realizes he isn’t going to make any money. The quality takes a dive as he rushes to find a way to seek more payment. Then local politics enters and you have a mental mess that needs to be managed.

Also, furniture isn’t a church pew. Most furniture won’t be subject to the rough wear a church pew gets over many years. Thus the finishes tend to be sprayed on and surface oriented and are easily rubbed off the pew top rails and ends. I’ve written specifications for work on public projects (courthouses, state capitals, etc) and the “hand touch” areas of public buildings (ie stairway handrails) always require special treatment that is compatible with hand wear. There is no “lifetime guaranteed” surface finish that actually will last a lifetime. Best recent reference is the “baked on polyurethane” finishes of the 1970’s. Most strippers have a very difficult time removing them but hand rubbing on the top rails? The finish disappears. Hand oils are potent! It’s also why simply re-coating pews with a cleaning and light sanding deteriorates in just a few years.

A mere topcoat over that unstable substrate is more likely to stick to YOU then the wood below. It’s particularly noticeable on the hot summer days when you have to peel yourself up off a “re-coated” (some call it “refinished”) pew at the end of a service.

Even the sanding and staining steps differ for furniture shops. The damage the harsh processes cause often require an inordinate amount of sanding- rough, medium, fine, superfine- to restore a smooth feel. Then they almost always “paint” on a highly opaque stain to even further cover the damage up. The result is a two dimensional flat aesthetic that looks “stripped and refinished” and not even “like new” as they promote. Wood should always have a rich, warm and resonant look. The grain- particularly in a church- should not be covered over by thick finish. The intimate tactile aspects of wood help to remind us of the power of the Lord. (I know- that's a bit heavy...)

If you want your church pew refinishing/restoration project to be done well in a timely and professional manner- it’s important you contract with a company who has done this many, many times before.

That, we hope, would be us! God bless you! Call anytime.

V. Scott Beddome

262.527.8969 cell

email:

woodworkrestoration@hotmail.com

Church Pew Restoration .com

scott beddome

December 6, 2023

A Rep of a Rep of a Rep: Who's 'reppin who?

scott beddome

December 6, 2023

Just a quick warning. There are a lot of "we do it all" church suppliers and contractors out there. All of them will tell you, "We can do that AND that AND that and THAT."

What they really mean to say is, "We know someone who does that and we can call them and tell them about you and make a hefty commission from it."

So what happens? The person you first talked to tells you you'll get a call from another person who will tell you another person- his manager or area sales rep- will call you who will then have yet another actual manager of the work meet with you who will then hire unskilled labor to perform the work.

It's a nice way to meet a lot of people!

We suggest you consider holding out for a person who actually does the work. There are really only a few of us. And contacting and contracting with them directly is much more likely to result in a fair price for good work.

Good luck on your project!

Scott Beddome

262-527-8969 cell

Email: woodworkrestoration@hotmail.com

scott beddome

January 4, 2021

Church Pew Refinishing: What NOT to do!

scott beddome

January 4, 2021

Is it "refinishing" or actually "re-coating"?

Over the years church pews get very greasy. You can see it in particular on the top rails and seats. Hand oils are very pungent. They can rub off every type of finish known to man. Once that has been done then those same hands grind black, dirty grease deep into the wood grain. That’s not a substrate that more top coats of finish will properly adhere to. A light sanding doesn’t remove it. It takes just plain good old elbow grease to get it out using mild solvents to assist. A new top coat sitting on greasy soiled finish is more likely to stick to YOU than the finish below. That explains why pews will feel sticky on hot humid summer days.

Minwax

stain has wax in it. It always has. (Thus the name.) Even with the addition of

Japan Dryers

it takes at least a full day in air conditioned spaces and sometimes two or three days to dry in humid air. There are pew refinishing companies who use Minwax as a top coat over existing soiled finish. Worse yet they are spraying it INSIDE the church.

Over time hand wear will destroy this weak finish easily. You’ll be lucky to get 5 years out of it. I’ve seen it, stripped it off (it rinses off like water on a duck’s back), and listened to the stories about how the budget was tight etc.

It’s best to wait until the church can afford to do the church pew refinishing in a durable manner than to do this deeply flawed compromise. In my humble opinion, it’s simply 100% wasted money.

And, of course, we’d love to help you do your project well.

Email

or call us today. (Don’t worry. I promise! I’m not always this grumpy!)

V Scott Beddome

262-527-8969 cell

scott beddome

June 16, 2020

Church Pew Restoration/Refinishing at Sacred Heart Church Gettysburg, SD

scott beddome

June 16, 2020

This past summer Sacred Heart Parish began a major remodel of our 60 year-old church. The year before we had completed a new parish hall and spacious lobby to serve both the church and new hall. As part of this remodel we wanted to refinish our oak pews which were showing signs of 60 years of wear-and-tear.

We researched several companies and based on recommendations chose Woodwork Restoration of Wisconsin. Scott was excellent to work with by phone, email and also on on-site visit prior to the work being done.

The work was done in a timely fashion. I and my parishioners are delighted with how good the pews look after being refinished. He and his crew also finished a new pulpit, celebrant's chair and new baptistery to match the 42 pews and 7 sanctuary chairs and a credence table.

Now all the church furnishings in the church have the same look.

Since the work was done in Gettysburg -- parishioners would stop by the work site to observe the progress. Scott and his crew were always most cordial.

I highly recommend Scott and Woodwork Restoration of Wisconsin for your next project.

Fr. Jerry Kopel, Pastor

Sacred Heart Church

Gettysburg, SD

Do you need church pew refinishing?

Call us!

Scott Beddome

262-527-8969

Email: woodworkrestoration@hotmail.com

scott beddome

August 20, 2015

Pew Refinishing: The Most Cost Efficient Way

scott beddome

August 20, 2015

The old model of a church pew refinishing company was regionally based revolving around a warehouse in a fixed location and the area surrounding it. Church pew restoration and refinishing projects, thus, were limited to the distance from the shop that was near enough to be cost efficient for the contractor. This business model was (is) heavily laden with the overhead of monthly warehouse, utility, insurance and full time employee costs. When the shop is empty the expense has to be amortized or added in to the pew restoration bids of potential clients. Beyond that, each year shipping expenses increase. The average cost to refinish a church pew has skyrocketed from what was once about $60 per lineal foot to between $120 and $200 per foot for the few contractors who are still around. Recent economic times have filtered out many of these "fat" structures leaving just those who do church pew refinishing as an "aside" or "also"service they provide along with pew manufacturing and/or other similar liturgical contract trades. There are few companies left that are exclusively providing church pew refurbishing.

Church Pew Restoration .com comes to you. The reasons are endless but the most important of which is price. Budget is ALWAYS an important matter when it comes to church renovation, preservation or restoration projects. So providing the most economically efficient manner that the work can be achieved is more important now than ever before. So called "fat" contractor structures have priced themselves out of the market. The result is more church committees are choosing to abandon high quality solid wood pews for cheap foam and fabric new alternatives.

But there are many other great reasons for having your work done close to home.

A hardy group of volunteers had the site work done at St John Church in Duluth, MN in about 4 hours. They also helped load the pews for shipment to the local warehouse.

That saved about $14,000 off the pew refinishing price.

There can also be cost savings when the church volunteer community does the on-site portion of the work and/or provides the space for the work to be done. If the church has helpers who can remove the book racks, take the pews up from the floor anchoring and disassemble (if needed) a savings of $20 per foot can be had. If the church has a parishioner who has an unused warehouse space where the work can be done nearby and the ability to transport the pews to that space there are many more thousands of dollars of savings.

Church Pew Restoration .com's core business is the stripping (rinsing), repairing, sanding, staining and finishing of church pews. The degree to which we only do THAT work is the more cost efficient manner for the work to be done. THAT'S the way to maximize your budget and find the greatest savings.

Another benefit of having us come to you is that you are able to keep track of the progress of the work on a daily basis. You are completely in touch with the day-to-day execution. It's a much more comforting circumstance than to watch your pews head out on a truck to a far off land and then have to take the contractors word for it on progress or color match. Many church renovation projects have been surprised by the way the pews look in the church upon completion verses the color sample that was approved. By then it's too late to make a change.

Of course Church Pew Restoration .com is happy to do the "full monty." Many times the church wants to have us to "handle it all." About half our projects are "turn key."

For your church pew refinishing project consider having us come to your town. Call us today for a list of previous projects where this cost efficient way of pew restoration has worked well.

Thanks!

V Scott Beddome
262-527-8969

Email: woodworkrestoration@hotmail.com

scott beddome

June 24, 2015

Re-configuring the Church Pew Layout

scott beddome

June 24, 2015

Re-using your existing pews in a more contemporary layout may be easier than you think. Here are a couple projects we completed recently that might give you some ideas.

THIS is the standard rectangular typical layout of many older liturgical spaces. The long middle aisle flanks rows of pews set at a perfect 90 degree angle that all faces the altar and pulpit at one end of the sanctuary.

Using the original existing good quality solid wood church pews you can re-configure the layout to be more reflective of the current worship goal of bringing people closer to the action and closer to each other. This creates a better feeling of community.

This is the new plan for the modified church pew layout at St Richard Church in Chicago, Illinois.

Here are couple photos of St Richard's pew layout after we completed our work.

Another example is St Mary Church in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. St Mary started out with the first layout we showed above and, similar to St Richard, decided to attach the former wall mount pews to the ends of the former center aisle pews. Here is an amateurish cell phone video of that how that turned out:

We hope this helps YOU in in your quest for a better worship experience using your good quality existing church pews.

And, of course, we'd like to help. Call or

email

us anytime.

Scott Beddome

262-527-8969 cell

Woodwork Restoration .com

scott beddome

May 27, 2015

Solid Wood Church Pews Are Very, Very Rare!

scott beddome

May 27, 2015

Out if the dozen or so church pew refinishing and restoration inquiries I receive each week about ONE of them is a worthy project. Why? Well that's going to take a couple paragraphs to explain.

Church pews generally have an original finish life of about 40 years. After that the ground in grease, worn pew top rails and general appearance begs improvement. So then comes the question, "Should we buy new or refinish/restore?"

40 years ago was the mid 1960's. That's when the quality of manufactured church pews began to drop off precipitously (ok... fast). Solid wood materials and trade labor started to become scarce and/or expensive. Not only that but technologies also began to find ways to more efficiently use the dwindling wood resources. The answer? Veneer. Very thin veneer. Another answer? Foam and fabric. Upholstering church pews began to replace solid wood formats. OR- thin veneers (1/32") over plywood began to simulate solid wood. The point is that now many of the church pews folks are considering refinishing aren't projects that can be done well and last another 40+ years. Take a look at other articles on this blog to get the details but suffice it to say- if you have all solid wood church pews you are VERY lucky. New pews of exactly similar structure would run $200-$300 per lineal foot. It's not complicated math that shows the value of what you have. Church pew refinishing and restoration runs from $60 per foot to $100 per foot (depending on the amount of site work the church can self preform). Now that IS the same price as cheaply made new church pews. Let's call them "disposable" church pews. They aren't likely to have pews ends. They lack solid wood other than a top rail piece or a seat front rail. They are fabric and foam. They are IMHO- bleck!

Before you consider throwing away great church pews or if there's any consideration of doing such on the planning committee/etc- send us some photos. We'll be happy to help you discern good from bad. The bleck from the choice. Here are links to other articles that will help:

Church Pews: Restore or Replace:

/churchpewrefinishing/2012/11/church-pews-restore-or-replace-cost.html

Bid Estimate/What We Will Need:

/churchpewrefinishing/2013/03/church-pew-refinishing-bidestimate-what.html

Of course I'm always willing to talk with you. Feel free to call us at 262-527-8969 .

Or email to woodworkrestoration@hotmail.com .

Thanks!

Scott Beddome

http:churchpewrestoration.com