In Discovery Channel's 'Salvage Hunters', modern day treasure hunter Drew Pritchard (pictured centre)  travels across the UK in search of forgotten remnants to restore and sell at his showroom, Fabulously British Salvage. We recently caught up with the restorer to find out more about his work and why mass produced items are ‘soulless’ and ‘nasty’.

How did you become interested in restoring?
I've always been interested in it. My father is an artist and also a restorer. And he would restore paintings and clock faces and antiques for people. So I was, as long ago as I can remember, a small child, involved with the restoration process. And then when I was 16, I went to work for a stained-glass restorer and I started at the beginning just clearing and sweeping the floor. And then I did seven years with him. It's something I've always done – I can't remember a time not ever doing it. If I wasn't restoring windows I was restoring cars, motorbikes and antiques, that type of thing and push bikes as well. I was more interested in broken things than new things, always.

Has there been any item which you lovingly restored and didn't want to part with afterwards?
Everything. Once you've put a lot of time into something you don't really want to let it go because you have to actually love the item. If you don't love the item, you can't restore it correctly. But a good restoration job should always look like you've never touched it; it should always look as if it was perfectly old. But there are hundreds of things that I don't want to let go.

What kind of an eye for detail do you think someone needs to have to do what you do?
You need to have an educated eye. You need to have looked at and handled and dealt with a lot of things. And also, you do need to have been taught the basics about form, design and function and why something is good or bad, and that's a gradual learning process. But my father, being an artist, taught me at a very young age why something is right and why something is wrong. And then what you do is you develop that as you get older. I will not say I'm the best person in the world but I'm not the worst and basically you just develop it. It's called having a good eye.

You do a lot of negotiation on your show. Do you have any tactics to share?
Well, some people call them tricks and tactics. But all I do is I'm very, very honest with people. So I say to them, ‘Look, I'm going to sell this item for 500 pounds.  It needs some work. I can give you 200 pounds.’  And so I start them off to a point where we both know where we stand.  And it makes the negotiations easier and there are no tricks.  I prefer to be extremely honest with people. And it's always worked for me. I've always done it that way.

Tell us about your antique shop and showroom Fabulously British Salvage.
Well, as a child there were scrap yards all over the place because in the 1970s it wasn't as politically correct as it is today. There were always old cars lying around everywhere. And I always wanted my own scrap yard, and I've ended up with a shop, basically, full of old pieces of buildings. It's great fun. I'm able to buy and sell fireplaces, doors and peaceful lighting and garden ornaments. So it's about 20,000 square feet; a great big shop and it's completely full – you can hardly move. I'm going to have my restoration workshops and office in there as well.

As a child, did your parents ever get mad at you for bringing home a lot of old stuff?
Yes. When I was 15 I started buying and selling vintage and old, old cars. Because I was young, people would call me up and say, ‘Are you the little boy who buys cars? I've got one in my shed, come round.’ And I had 13 of them in my parents’ garden. Then the local council came and put a banning order on it and closed me down. My mum went completely mad. She made me get rid of everything in a day.

Because you’re fond of antiques, what's your view on mass produced items such as generic furniture that doesn't really have any story to it?
To be really honest with you, I really hate it all. I have no time for it. I find it heartless, soulless, tasteless, cheap, nasty and it doesn't enrich anybody's life by buying it. It really, really doesn't. You don't get any pleasure from it. And I never understand why somebody wants to buy something from a shop and then the minute you walk out of the shop it's worth nothing. You can go out and buy a good piece of antique furniture for less money than going somewhere and buying some plastic rubbish. Also, buying antiques and old stuff is very ethical. It's very good for the environment because you're not reproducing something else. I don't understand why anybody buys anything modern.

‘Salvage Hunters’ airs Thursdays, 9pm on Discovery Channel (Ch 551).