Preservationists raid the pantry

From atop 30-foot-high scaffolding, Dayton Spence works his way across the vaulted ceiling of the 113-year-old City Opera House in Traverse City, Mich., painstakingly cleaning the Victorian mural with ... a loaf of Wonder Bread.

Yes, you read that right. Mr. Spence, an architectural preservationist and president of New Millennium Inc. in Suttons Bay, Mich., uses all sorts of everyday household products to restore vintage buildings. And so do most of his fellow preservationists.

To make a Wonder Bread poultice, "take any white bread, cut the crust off, then mush it up into a ball and dab it on the painting," explains the 35-year veteran of the preservation business. "It gently draws out any impurities, but won't hurt the pigments or varnish."

Sure, there are plenty of commercial products available to clean and restore architectural treasures, but quite often, preservationists turn to items such as Ivory soap, candles, sponges, spatulas, tea, and eggs. It's simply a matter of using common sense to determine which products work best, says Spence, who has overseen such restoration projects as the Helmsley Palace in New York and Chicago's City Hall.

Often, his workers come up with ingenious solutions to problems they encounter. Once a female employee suggested using Pam cooking spray when Spence's team ran out of their usual relief agent - wax - while making angel-shaped plaster moldings during a church restoration.

"We were having a fit because it was Saturday and we had to get these things made, and we didn't know what to do," recalls Spence. "When someone suggested using Pam, all the guys were telling her she was out of her mind, that nothing but wax would work. But we bought a case of Pam, put the plaster cast on it, and let it set up for about 20 minutes. The mold popped right off, without damaging the original at all. Now we use Pam all the time."

While most of us dread tea stains on anything, Hyman Myers has an opposite view. As program director of the historic preservation department of Vitetta, an architectural and engineering firm in Philadelphia, he instructs his crew to brush tea on stonework to make it look old.

"When you add new sections of stone, they often look very white compared to the original pieces," he notes. "Tea works great to tone down the color and make it look like part of the original wall. You just make the tea with ordinary tea bags, then brush it on. You can add more water to lighten it up." Tea also darkens too-white grout and sealing joints in brick and marble surfaces.

Low-sudsing household cleansers are the preferred cleaning agents of Mr. Myers and his colleague, Nan Gutterman. "We often use Bon Ami or Fab to clean interior stone that's not very dirty," she says.

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