Leadlights Adelaide

LEADLIGHT RESTORATION

This is a complete step by step guide to show you how we restore your leadlight panel.

Our qualified glazier/leadlighter arrives onsite. He will assess the leadlight and give you a full rundown of what he is going to do on the day.

STEP 1

The leadlight will be carefully removed from its frame and a replacement sheet of glass or timber board will be put back in its place to give you safe and secure premises, not to mention peace of mind.

Lawrence Leadlights' Leadlight Restoration Process

STEP 2

The leadlight is taken back to our studio to begin its transformation. We start by making a paper template of the leadlight design to give a guided map of each piece of glass in that leadlight.

Lawrence Leadlights' Leadlight Restoration Process

We then carefully remove the lead that surrounds each piece of glass in the leadlight, piece by piece.

Lawrence Leadlights' Leadlight Restoration Process

We place each piece of glass in a bath of a mild acid to remove any build-up of dirt/paint etc.

Lawrence Leadlights' Leadlight Restoration Process

Once the leadlight pieces are all cleaned they are put into a position to make the overall leadlight design.

Lawrence Leadlights' Leadlight Restoration Process

We also cut new pieces of glass to replace broken or damaged pieces of glass from the original leadlight.

The glass will be matched or as close as possible to the original and usually

ends up with a great result. There are times where glass cannot be matched and we will advise you before removing your leadlight and also show you close alternatives.

Lawrence Leadlights' Leadlight Restoration Process

STEP 3

Now we start with the leadlights border lead which surrounds the entire 

the panel, and from the corner, we start putting the leadlight back into its 

original format.

Slowly molding each piece of lead into the shape of each piece of glass 

and locking in each piece with horseshoe nails until the leadlight is 

back to its original design and also its size.

Now the leadlight is fully reconstructed, we square up the corners and 

lock the leadlight into position so it cannot move when we solder the 

panel back together.

Lawrence Leadlights' Leadlight Restoration Process

STEP 4

Lawrence Leadlights' Leadlight Restoration ProcessWe prepare the joins to be soldered by using a flux which binds the solder to the lead to secure a solid join. Once we heat the join using a Soldering Iron, we melt the solder onto the join, and it bonds and welds together.

This procedure is done to join the leadlight. The leadlight is then 

removed from its position and turned onto the opposite side to start the 

procedure again.

STEP 5

Now the leadlight has been fully soldered we now push putty in between the lead and the glass of each piece. This makes the panel more rigid and it also stops the glass rattling and makes it weatherproofed to stop wind and rain. Once this is done we remove any excess putty and then it is left to dry. Once dry, we hand polish the panel to buff the lead a shiny black color.

Lawrence Leadlights' Leadlight Restoration Process

In some cases we need to match other existing panels onsite, so we leave 

the lead in its original color, and in a short time it looks fairly 

weathered so it does not stand out from the adjoining panels.

Now your leadlight panels are ready to be installed.

Once a day has been arranged with you, we will come back out and remove 

the temp glaze and install the leadlight back in its original position 

and bring it back to its former glory more info click here