36 years. One city. One standard.
Sue Wheeler has been refinishing architectural woodwork in St. Louis since 1989. She has never dipped a door.
Sue started Wood Refinishing by Sue Wheeler with a simple conviction: the right way to refinish wood is by hand. Chemical strip, hand-sand, stain, seal. No shortcuts that look good for two years and fail in three.
That conviction hasn’t changed in 36 years.
She has worked on pre-Civil War rowhouses in Lafayette Square and first-time historic homes in Benton Park. She has refinished the pocket doors of Central West End mansions and the kitchen cabinets of young families in Maplewood. The houses are different. The standard is the same.
The method is the same on every project. Hand-stripped. Hand-sanded. Stained to match or chosen new. Finished with oil or water-based polyurethane — the only finish that performs the way architectural wood needs to perform. Nothing else.
Hand-stripped. Never dipped.
Dip-stripping — lowering a door or cabinet into a chemical tank — is fast and cheap. It is also damaging. The caustic solution raises the wood grain, softens the profiles, dissolves hide glue joints, and washes out the natural tonal variation that makes old-growth wood beautiful. Pieces come out looking flat, feeling rough, and holding finish poorly.
The National Park Service’s Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation specifically recommend hand-scraping and hand-sanding as the appropriate method for historic wood. Chemical dipping is not recommended and can compromise wood integrity. Sue’s method is compliant with those standards.
Sue has always stripped by hand. Not because of the standards. Because the standards are right.
The credentials that matter for this work.
EPA Certified Lead Removal
In St. Louis City, 89.8% of homes were built before 1978. That means lead paint — in the trim, the doors, the cabinets, the stair railings. Work on those surfaces without EPA certification isn’t just careless. It is a violation of federal law and a health risk to your family.
Sue Wheeler is an EPA Certified Lead Removal. Every project on a pre-1978 property is handled with full lead-safe protocols: containment, HEPA filtration, documented disposal, and a completion certificate you can keep with your property records. You don’t have to ask whether it’s being handled correctly.
St. Louis Magazine — “Perfect Finish”
Sue Wheeler was recognized by St. Louis Magazine in their annual Best of St. Louis feature. The work speaks for itself.
Ready to talk about your wood?
Free estimates. No obligation. Sue answers every call personally.