Lead came color glass set in double glazing.

Some time ago we were asked to restore some lead came colored glass in an older house and upgrade it at the same time.

We happily accepted this project because we just extended our skills with this double glazing technique.

We started this restauration project with removing all the old layers of paint from the woodwork.

After this we removed the window and took the stained glass piece out of the frame.

Not too bad we only broke 3 pieces of clear glass.

In the double glazing technique, the stained glass is put in a y-profile making the original size of the piece a wee bit too big.

This means that we will have to take the whole piece apart, clean it, re-cut it and put it back together again.

In this case the owner wanted to incorporate more transparent glass to get more light into his house.

After putting the lead came piece back together again, it was time to start making the aluminum frames that go on both sides of the y-profile.

This aluminum profile is filled with a drying agent that will get all water molecules between the layers of glass out to prevent condensation when the temperature goes down and the heating goes up.

You always must use different thickness of glass on either side of the lead came piece to prevent mirroring of items in the finished product. For example 4 mm complemented with 5 mm etc.

When all of this is done it's time to clean all the glass and fill the space between the outer pieces of glass with rubber putty to get an airtight seal around the whole piece.

This putty has to dry out for about a week. Then the time comes to place the piece back into its frame and see the results.

The last thing to do for us is to put sealant on the glass frame connection to make it waterproof for years to come.

Fred Hebing