When structural work is required to preserve or restore a window.
When structural work is required to preserve or restore a window, we are able to offer our clients the assurance of being competent in replicating or repairing a stained glass window, to as true a condition as it was before any deterioration occurred. With our combination of experience and research skills, we can match all the components of a window, like with like, thus offering one of the finest restoration services available. As part of the restoration service, we offer a full re-leading facility which is mostly required as a reactive response (vandalism). However, there are opportunities when re-leading may be undertaken as a pro-active measure. Examples include when the leading & solder joints have naturally aged and weakened, when a window has severely buckled and started to crack due to poor glazing or in the case of water ingress, when the lead cement has deteriorated and is causing relative water damage within a building.
In 2006, we were awarded the ‘Pearsons Prize’ for the best use of glass in restoration for Britain & Ireland. This is specific to our restoration work on two stained glass windows in the Former Wesleyan Methodist Church in Drogheda, Co. Louth.
For projects that do not require removal for structural work.
For projects that do not require removal for structural work in situ services can be employed; glass cleaning (using specialist conservation grade detergents), glass repairs & re-sealing of the lead cement & framing. Undertaking these procedures makes it possible to rejuvenate a stained glass window at a fraction of the cost by eliminating the site costs for removing and installing a window. These minimal intervention procedures are applicable to circumstances when windows have built up surface residues and accretions or when the glass paint proves too fragile to interfere with. The build-up of deposits can give the impression that a window may need to be restored where a program of cleaning, selective repairs and re-sealing would be more appropriate to preserve the integrity of the window.
