Marble and stone
Chips, scratches, acid and wine stains, lost shine, joints, grinding and polishing — including book-matched slabs where one panel cannot be replaced.
Service
Restoration in Dubai
No. 1 for restoration in Dubai for English-speaking villa and apartment owners: an invited master restorer repairs furniture, marble, natural stone, leather and antiques where replacement would cost more, take longer or be impossible. The dearer the piece, the clearer the case: nobody discards an AED 700,000 silver set over a chip, and new stone takes three or four months.
Request restoration
Name and number. You can send photos of the damage on WhatsApp — we will give a first estimate from them.
The climate generates the work. Air-conditioning dries timber, the gap between outdoors and indoors causes condensation, sand acts as an abrasive and sea salt joins in near the water. Furniture that would last ten years in a temperate climate needs attention here after three or four.
The work is led by an invited master restorer — an independent practitioner, not our employee. We match the specialist to your material, introduce you and stay in touch until the job is done. If the material is in stock and the area is easy to swap, the honest answer is to replace it.
Villa restoration in Dubai: what marble, wood and furniture repair costs in luxury homes
Villa restoration in Dubai: a 1 cm scratch for AED 3,500, a Palm Jumeirah marble job for AED 200,000 instead of 800,000, and what cannot be restored.
Read the full article →What we cover
Villa restoration
Villa restoration in Dubai: marble floors and staircases, worktops, doors and panelling, furniture and antiques. Restored in place where replacement is impossible.
More →Apartment restoration
Apartment restoration in Dubai between tenants and before a sale: furniture, leather, worktops, doors, bathroom stone. Fast, without taking the flat off the market.
More →What gets restored in Dubai?
Every ‘living’ material in an interior: stone, furniture, leather, doors, metal and antiques. Marble is the largest share of orders, because a polished surface loses its look after five to seven years of use.
Cabinetry and timber
Chipped edges, water swelling, worn corners, loose joints, doors and kitchen fronts. On veneer the working layer is sometimes thinner than a millimetre.
Upholstery and leather
Re-covering, filling, seams, cracked and worn leather, pet claw marks, colour matching.
Antiques and decor
18th–19th-century furniture, frames, mirrors, gold leaf, brass and bronze — using historical techniques, shellac and wax, reversibly.
When does restoration beat replacement?
When the piece is expensive and time costs money. Three figures decide it: the price of a new equivalent, of restoration and of time. A sofa set bought for AED 35,000 is easier to restore locally after two years than to buy again.
The third is often forgotten. A flat let at AED 120,000 a year loses about AED 330 for every empty day, so two weeks waiting for new furniture is roughly AED 4,600. Restoration usually fits between tenants.
There is a ceiling too: once the quote reaches 60–70% of the price of a new equivalent, the economic case disappears.
When is replacing stone or furniture impossible?
When the finish exists as a one-off. A block of stone was cut and opened into four book-matched panels; a new piece will match neither the veining nor the tone. A discontinued line comes back two or three shades off.
Furniture behaves the same way. It is supplied for a specific project, and a year or two later the factory will not guarantee the colour, so the whole set has to change — and production, shipping and customs add months.
How the work goes
Restoration rebuilds geometry rather than painting over it: every defect is missing material. The sequence is the same for timber and stone; a skipped step returns as a defect within one or two months.
- 1
Diagnosis
The restorer identifies the material, the thickness of the working layer, the old coating and the cause of the damage.
- 2
Rebuilding volume
Failed coating comes off; chips and cracks are filled with wax, shellac, epoxy resin or an insert of the same material.
- 3
Level and tone
Sanding from coarse grit to fine, checked under raking light, then tinting layer by layer.
- 4
Finish and curing
Lacquer, oil, wax or stone polishing, chosen by load. Until it has fully cured, the surface must not be used.
How long does restoration take?
From a single visit to several weeks. One scratch or chip takes 2–4 hours, a worktop with re-polishing 1–2 days, a stone floor in a flat 2 to 5 days, doors 3–7 days, and kitchen fronts with repainting 5–10 days.
Antique furniture takes weeks, sometimes several months, because the structure is stabilised before the surface. Most of the time is waiting for coats to dry. The restorer gives an exact timeline after inspection.
Why does marble need restoring?
Because marble is porous and softer than people assume. Lemon, wine and acidic cleaners etch the polish, and Dubai adds sea salt, sand, hard water and year-round air-conditioning.
The scale follows the area. A premium villa has five to eight bathrooms, and restoring their stone at one such property came to AED 800,000, about 218 thousand US dollars. The result lasts three to five years in bathrooms and up to seven in low-traffic areas.
What goes into the quote?
Material, type of damage, colour matching, where the work is done, the finish and urgency. The quote is worked out before work starts, operation by operation, and compared with the cost of replacement.
It is priced by the surface, not the scratch: the edge of the work follows the geometry of the piece, from seam to seam and edge to edge. A quote ‘per scratch’ means spot treatment and a halo that shows at an angle to the light.
Who does the work and how do you vet the restorer?
An invited master restorer does the work — an independent practitioner, not a member of the brokerage. We choose them by material: stone, veneer, leather and antiques are separate trades.
Vetting is simple: before-and-after photos of your type of surface, a test patch somewhere out of sight, a written scope of work and a guarantee.
Request
Request restoration
Name and number. You can send photos of the damage on WhatsApp — we will give a first estimate from them.
Request restoration
Frequently asked questions
When is replacing better than restoring?
When the material is in stock and delivery takes days rather than months, the damage is structural, the cause (a leak, a moving substrate) has not been fixed, or the property is being renovated anyway.
Does the restorer work on site?
Yes. Most stone and built-in joinery work is done in place, with no dismantling. A notice to the building management and a pass for the workers are usually enough; noisy work in towers is allowed within limited hours.
Will the repair be visible?
Not if the tone and sheen are matched correctly. Plain high-gloss and very light surfaces are hardest; there the whole part is refinished.
How much should a landlord budget for interior upkeep?
The working guide for furnished premium apartments is 3 to 7 per cent of annual rental income. A tenant paying AED 250–350 thousand a year does not haggle over a stain on a cabinet; they pick another flat.
Is restoration worth doing before a sale?
Yes. A buyer reads a chip as a reason to negotiate. In a villa with a lot of marble, AED 150–200 thousand spent before the sale sometimes comes back in the price.
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