Award winning cosmetic repair service saves facilities managers thousands of pounds

20 January 2011

When accidental damage occurs, for more and more facilities managers it’s Plastic Surgeon to the rescue. Whether it’s a damaged sink, a cracked window sill, a scratched door, a chipped worktop or stained brickwork, it’s far more cost-effective to repair than replace.

For every £1 spent on repairs with Plastic Surgeon, customers save on average £3 on material replacements, (and that’s excluding labour costs!)

Plastic Surgeon is the UK’s largest and only national provider of cosmetic repairs - indoors and out. For over 20 years, Plastic Surgeon has provided a highly professional, highly efficient repair service to help facilities managers by taking the hassle out of specialist repairs and avoiding costly, time-consuming replacements when accidents happen.

Working for some of the leading premises and facilities management companies throughout the UK, the company carries out cost-saving repairs to interior and exterior surfaces in premises ranging from hotels and restaurants to hospitals and prisons to leisure centres, retail premises offices and housing.

Don’t skip it – fix it!

That’s the key message from Plastic Surgeon. Whether it’s a damaged sink, a cracked bath, or a scratched door, it’s far more cost-effective to repair than replace. Replacements cost more in terms of money, time and labour. The company’s nationally based teams of highly skilled finishers have the ability to carry out virtually any cosmetic repair on any substrate, quickly and professionally.

Never more important to repair than replace

Today’s challenging economic climate makes the Plastic Surgeon service even more valuable. Times are tough, and all facilities managers are looking to reduce the cost of maintaining their premises, save time and money, and reduce waste. Plastic Surgeon provides a service that does just that.

Controlling waste is not only desirable and necessary on financial grounds but ticks all the right environmental boxes as well. Landfill taxes are rising and therefore repairing damaged products such as bathroom suites or work surfaces, in-situ, is a far more attractive alternative to replacement.

The physical statistics on what Plastic Surgeon’s operatives have saved from going to waste disposal is actually quite mind boggling. For example in 2010 Plastic Surgeon repaired 13,523 internal doors saving 283 tonnes from landfill, 2774 baths saving 69 tonnes from landfill, and 7425 windows which prevented 371 tonnes from ending up in a skip.

In recognition of its environmental benefits, the company was recently voted the overall winner of the 2010 DEBI (Devon Environmental Business Initiative) Awards, as well as winning the Environmental Goods and Services category.

Plastic Surgeon can repair:

Plastic and GRP repair
Whether internal or external, severe or minor, Plastic Surgeon can make good the damage. From conservatories and cladding to window cills and shower trays.
The use of GRP (glass reinforced plastic) and other plastics throughout the modern build process is now very common. These versatile materials are lightweight but have inherent strength which can provide a weather resistant finish. Most commonly found in white but a variety of surface textures and colours are available. The good news is that Plastic Surgeon can repair them all.
Wood and Veneer repair
Laminates are used throughout the modern build process: worktops, floors and doors being the most common occurrences. These materials are easily damaged during the final phase of any building project with furniture moving through doorways or sliding across a floor. A variety of finishes are available but the good news is that Plastic Surgeon can repair them all.
Stone and brick repair
From brick and blockwork to decorative features and mantel-pieces, we can tackle the lot. Often used as an architectural feature, trim, ornament or building facia, modern cast stone is present on many buildings. Cast stone is an excellent replacement for natural cut stone, available in a multitude of colours and appearences. The good news is that stone, natural or artificial, can be repaired using Plastic Surgeon’s fine finishing techniques.
Ceramics and enamel repair
Plastic Surgeon can take chipped, scratched and marked fixtures and fittings and quickly restore them to their former appearance saving on expensive replacements and labour costs. From cookers and hobs to baths and basins, showers, tiles and toilets.
Glass repair

Plastic Surgeon carries out professional repairs to all glass panels, windows, doors and conservatories.
Metal and foil repair

Plastic Surgeon’s finishers are fully trained to repair any type of metallic or foil coated item. Whether internal or external, severe or minor.

Other surfaces

Plastic Surgeon can repair damage to almost any surface:

Air conditioning repair
Wall cladding repair
Boiler cabinet repair
Canopy repair
Meter box repair
Light fitting repair
Cable trunking repair
Radiator repair
Screen and grill repair
Marble repair
Antique surface repair
Powder coated surface repair
...and more besides

Customer examples

Brick repairs

Plastic Surgeon was called in to carry out brick repairs and brick tinting on a chain of hotels around the country that was having new signs fitted as part of a rebranding exercise. Inevitably, removing the original signs from the external facades left scars and needed to be made good.

At one of the hotel locations Plastic Surgeon hired in a long reach ‘cherry picker’ in order to access the high level of the repair area before operations could start.

The work area actually took the form of a tower standing atop the main building’s flat roof and some distance back from the parapet. This allowed the vicinity to be closed off without disrupting business for the hotel, and Plastic Surgeon’s finisher to employ more aggressive cleaning techniques than might otherwise have been possible.

Where the wall was very badly stained by moss and bird droppings, it was first treated with an acid wash before being pressure jetted to remove material adhered to the surface. The finisher then made good the old holes and any chips with a two-pack stone filler.

Although the latter is colour matched using a blend of aggregates before it is applied, depending on the size and location of the repair it is sometimes also given a painted finish. In addition, in those patches where the cleaning processes were not able to restore the masonry to its original appearance, Plastic Surgeon employed its renowned brick-tinting system to ensure the entire elevation had a unified appearance.

Door repairs

Beacons Business Interiors was originally established in 1989 and has grown to become one of Britain’s leading facilities support specialists. Keeping the premises for which it is responsible in tip top condition is then of paramount importance for BBI who called in Plastic Surgeon to make good damage to a number of solid wooden doors where key pads and other security measures had been installed and subsequently removed, at Heron House in Manchester.

The areas of damage were brought back up to the level of the surrounding timber using a two-pack filler together with coloured hard wax fillers, and then smoothed over using a graduation of sanding materials. Amongst the most important skills Plastic Surgeon’s finishers are taught is the blending of colours to replicate an existing material, always taking into account the texture of the surface and the lighting conditions. Thus the finisher involved at Heron House used a selection of tints and stains to spray a background colour over the full area of the repair, before the effect of the wood grain was added by hand.

Due to the care taken and the skills displayed it is now almost impossible for the casual observer to distinguish where the doors have been repaired and BBI’s management was so pleased, Plastic Surgeon was invited to the company’s headquarters in Brecon to give a demonstration of the other types of repair that can be effected.

Leading on from this, Plastic Surgeon was awarded around 40 hours of work for BBI at a variety of sites and the client is benefitting from the other aspects of having an account with the specialist. These include monthly break downs of the categories of work carried out and an estimate of the amount of landfill that has been saved, underlining the sustainability potential of Plastic Surgeon’s unique service.

Polycarbonate screen repair

Plastic Surgeon was engaged by a leading facilities management company to carry out repairs to scratched polycarbonate screens used as an alternative to glass windows in a prison. At one stage during the project Plastic Surgeon had up to 4 finishers on site every day racing against the clock to get the centre completed for handover. Polycarbonate is extremely tricky to repair but the finishers completed the job to a very high standard, saving the customer the cost of buying replacement screens, and ensuring that the handover deadline was not delayed by waiting for replacements and fitters.

Leisure complex repairs

Plastic Surgeon was called in to carry out a variety of ‘snagging’ repairs at a new gymnasium and swimming pool. The centre was due to be opened by a celebrity guest and the customer was facing a very tight deadline.

Plastic Surgeon repaired chipped banisters, scratched aluminium facias, chipped laminate facias, chipped ceramic tiles, chipped laminate doors and stained ceramic toilets. Using Plastic Surgeon’s fine finishing services helped to keep the cost of this project on track by repairing rather than replacing items. Not only that, but the customer also met the opening ceremony deadline.

For further information about Plastic Surgeon’s fine finishing services visit http://www.plastic-surgeon.co.uk or call 0845 141 0000.