The trouble with laminating is that it melts plastic into the actual document. The plastic then starts to degrade or deteriorate and this in turn starts to damage the paper, but the plastic can't be removed from the paper. It's a no-win situation. There are so many archival-quality plastic pockets around these days that it's easy and cheap to just pop documents into one and file them away with no harm done
Re. conservators: we train for 3-4 years and then have to continue professional development for our entire careers. There is a lot more that goes into a conservator rebinding a book than just getting it done at a commercial binder, who will just trim all the edges of your book and then glue the spine and stick a cover on it. The book conservator repairs every page, and the folds at the spine edge of the sections all have to be consolidated so that they can hold the stitches. The sections are stitched together, then the spine edges are lined ready for the cover to go on. The cover is then repaired, or a new one made, and re-attached to the text block. Of course all this requires an indepth knowledge of the original techniques used to make the book, the materials being dealt with, how they work together and how they will behave as they get older.
You are paying for the benefit of the conservator's training and experience, and the knowledge that they are sympathetically repairing your precious objects to ensure their continued use and longevity. It's not cheap, but you do get what you pay for, like everything in life
Having said all that, yes - you should definitely get an estimate, just as if you were going to get any other work done around the house or on your car etc. Not sure about the other websites, but the AICCM website that is on the link I posted above has a guide to commissioning conservation work, which is helpful to look at.
Cheers
Prue
