About

Tony Doody is a fully qualified Civil Engineer Technician who has many years experience working with various consulting engineering offices in Dublin and subsequently in the refurbishment of old buildings. He established the Old Irish Pine Ltd trading as DipStrip in 1986.

Dipstrip specializes in the stripping and refurbishing of wooden doors architraving and furniture. Dipstrip have a wide range of business both domestic and commercial. Some of our larger commercial clients have included Trinity College, the Merrion Hotel, John Sisk and Son Ltd and the Mater Hospital. In 1987 Tony Doody had an idea for a new business the ideal was to refurbish and transport old Irish pine furniture over to the USA.

Wardrobes, cupboards, chairs, tables, stools, wash stands, chest of drawers, hall tables, small doors all went to America. Building on this success and realising he had a good system working on the West Pier, he decided to concentrate on paint stripping. The system he developed and used was, innovatively, to heat the stripping solution until the water was hot.

This business took off during the heyday of stripped pine in your home. Customers were interested in have their old antiques stripped and refurbished, or even having new items distressed. While others were using a cold solution of paint stripping chemicals we were using a hot soothing solution, which resulted in doors and furniture getting back to customers perfectly dry.

Many have expressed surprise at getting their doors back dry, as they had been to other paint stripping companies, and found that the doors when they were returned, were still soaking wet and remained so for quite some time afterwards. We get doors and stripped items back to people dry or almost completely dry. It was in that time that Tony started diversifying into making furniture for people as well.

Using old stripped shutters we made some custom kitchens. Then in 2002 disaster struck and a fire in the car breakers next door to Old Irish Pine destroyed the stripping plant and all the equipment. Despite this loss the stripping tank itself was still workable so together with volunteers an effort to get a new heating system was put in motion and a power washer was hired and business started off again but with far less roof than before ( :-D ).

Tony put a bid in on a property on York Road (the Clock Shop) and was successful in purchasing the property. Refurbishing the premises was done while the work of stripping was being carried out. Then one year later we moved to our new premises on York Road with a much bigger stripping vat, and best of all we had a gantry with a block and tackle to move much heavier and more cumbersome items around. A new shop was set up at the front to sell furniture, a new workshop fitted out, a back entrance, and best of all an enormous amount of space to work in. The range of customers and jobs we deal with range from small private projects to conservation architects, car enthusiasts and bakers, from small one up/one downs to major hotels to, we've done them all.