Windows first. Then stone. Then pews. Nothing replaced that can be saved.Church renovation that starts by cleaning the glass, because everything else in the building is lit by it. We've re-leaded windows from 1340. They're still the originals.
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the oldest glass we've handled. Grisaille, in a chancel window. Cleaned, re-leaded, back in.
panes in the east window at the last job. Each one out, cleaned, and back where it was.
for a full renovation. Glass first, stone second, pews last. The order matters.
panes replaced that could be saved. A crack is a repair. A hole is a repair. Missing is a replacement, and it's marked.
New glass is flat and even and the light through it is flat and even. Old glass is full of seeds and ripples and a hundred years of weather, and the light through it moves. That's the thing we're keeping.
Glass, stone, timber. Always in that order, because the glass tells you where the water's been getting in, and the water tells you what the stone needs, and the stone tells you which pews have been sitting in damp for a century.
Every pane numbered. Cames cut new, glass kept. Ferramenta straightened, not swapped. Isothermal glazing where the parish can afford it.
Lime, never cement. Stone from the same bed if the quarry's open, and it's usually closed. So we go and find where the last mason got it.
Ends spliced, seats re-glued, the numbers on the doors kept. The pews go back last so they go back onto a dry floor. That's why they're last.
Eighteen months, five steps, one window. The east window at the last job, in order.
Tell us the church and which window worries you. We'll come with a ladder, a torch and a notebook, and leave a report the PCC can read. If the glass is fine, we'll say so. Sometimes it is.
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