At Pater Leadlights we specialise in repairs and restorations of leadlight windows. We have done hundreds of repairs and consider ourselves experts in this area. We can do most minor repairs on-site. For the more damaged window, we may need to pull the leadlight out and temporary glaze the window. If possible, we will repair the window from a bench we can set up from the work van or as a last resort, take and repair the leadlight back at the factory. Of course we can make that assessment when we come out to give you a free quote.
With very old leadlights, the solder joins tend to break and the lead tends to get brittle causing the leadlight to get significantly weaker. In this case it may be necessary to completely re-lead the window with all new lead but still using the original glass to maintain the character of the leadlight. This effectively gives you a new window that will last again for many years to come.
With Stained Glass windows, the scenario is different in different situations. Sometimes the broken pieces can be re-painted but sometimes the original pieces need to be conserved using varying repairing techniques depending on whether the Stained Glass windows are heritage listed or not. For the most part, the repairing techniques are similar to that of leadlight windows.
If painted pieces need replacing, we use expert Stained Glass artists to carefully reproduce the broken pieces to match as close as possible. We take great care to replace all broken pieces to match the original as close as possible. We can’t match what we can’t get. Fortunately there is a lot of glass still produced today that match the glass of yesteryear so if it doesn’t match exactly, it will be close.
Other ways of repairing unmatchable glass is to use a method called “lead overlay” over the crack, if possible, or to replace other pieces to balance the look of the window. Either way our expert repairer will assess what needs to be done and advise you at the quotation stage. Here are some examples of complete restorations that we’ve done and some windows which just needed some repair work.
Leadlight Repair and Restoration
