More Restorations

A delight for me at the moment is the start of a small restoration of some stair windows in a William Leiper designed house.  These windows are fixed directly into the stone above a sloping roof.  The owner took advantage of the erection of scaffolding to repair the roof to have me come to restore broken pieces of glass and to try to eliminate the amount of water coming into the house from the windows.

Taking glass out of stone is always difficult without breaking the edge pieces of glass, hence the tradition of one or two lines of narrow glass around the perimeter of the window, as these can be replaced without affecting the whole of the window. With the help of a friend and one of his tools, we managed to get the windows out without a great deal of breakage.

A more local appreciation of William Lieper

Caledonian Road Church

I was out looking at an old church during the week.  The east window remains in place.  I was unable to find out the artist.  It was dedicated after 1872.

This is done in a traditional style and is just before the flourishing of the arts nouveau in Scotland.

Secondary Glazing

I have had the opportunity to work on a stained glass window in a cottage located in Carstairs.  The lintel over the door has the date 1762*.  A lot has been done to the building since then, but it is good to see it standing.

My task was to repair four broken panes in the bathroom and establish secondary glazing on the outside.  This is the only window that is not double glazed at the back.  It is in a steel frame, so that probably puts the window in the 1920's  

The repairs required are at the bottom corners, next to the right lower rose and the pane covered with black tape.

The repaired and cleaned window now has this appearance:

Meanwhile, the establishment of a timber frame for the secondary glazing was going ahead.  The frame needed to accommodate the hinges on the left outside and the slope of the base of the window.  The frame was attached to the sides of the opening and sealed at the top to prevent water entering there.

The frame was made square so that there is ventilation at the bottom of the frame to prevent condensation building up between the two panes.

The picture below shows the trial of the glass pane into the new opening.

The final picture shows the secondary glazed window in place among the double glazed windows.

This was a satisfying project to complete, as removing the steel framed window would have presented a completely different appearance to the stained glass that was made to fit its present setting.




* The lintel is a copy of the original, and I did not want to identify the location, so I have not taken a photograph of the front of the building.

Arts and Crafts House

Today I had the opportunity to view the "in-progress" restoration of a large Arts and Crafts house in central Scotland.  The house has approximately 150 windows I am told by the owner. If accepted, I am to make and install 19 window panels by the time of the visit of the Mackintosh Society on 6th June.

Eastern elevation

South east elevation

Southern elevation

This last image shows the extensive work required to remove later additions to get back to the foot print of the original house.  The windows to be replaced are in these gaps.

Apologies for the rain drops; it was raining very hard on the day of the visit.  I hope to show some of the tremendous work being done on the house to bring it back toward the original decorative state.  My contribution will be preparing windows of this pattern.