Leadlight Window Restoration in Dunedin
Window and Glass Repair Dunedin restores leadlight and stained glass panels across the city. We take out sagging or cracked panels, replace failed lead came, match and replace broken pieces, re cement and refit them into the sash, and can have a restored panel sealed inside a double glazed unit so it never has to come out again.
- Bowed and sagging panels straightened and re leaded
- Cracked pieces matched and replaced
- Panels can be sealed inside a double glazed unit
- Original glass reused wherever it survives
Get your free quote
Four quick questions. Most quotes come back the same day.
This is a bigger service in Dunedin than almost anywhere. Front door fanlights, hall windows and bay window top lights turn up constantly through Roslyn, Maori Hill, Mornington, Caversham and the older streets of North East Valley, and the churches, schools and commercial buildings from the gold rush era carry a great deal more. Lead came has a working life of roughly eighty to a hundred years, which means an enormous number of Dunedin panels are due now.
Why panels bow, and what it means
Lead is soft. Over decades gravity and wind pressure push a panel outwards in the middle. Once the bow passes about 15mm the cement between the lead and the glass cracks out, the panel starts to rattle, and pieces begin to crack at the corners where the movement concentrates.
A bowed panel is not lost. It comes out, gets flattened, and either has failed came replaced or is re leaded onto the original pattern. The glass is reused. Leave it too long and the pieces start breaking, which adds real cost.
Matching old glass
The coloured and textured glass in a Victorian or Edwardian leadlight is not manufactured any more. Matching it means finding period glass or accepting the closest modern equivalent, and being straight about which one you are getting.
In a busy pattern a small repair disappears. In a plain field of one colour it will show, so sometimes the better answer is to move an original piece into the visible position and put the new glass somewhere nobody looks.
Double glazing a leadlight
A restored panel can be sealed inside a double glazed unit, with the leadlight sitting in the cavity between two panes of clear glass. It keeps the appearance exactly, protects the panel permanently from weather and handling, and brings the opening up to modern thermal performance.
This is the usual approach when a character home is being retrofitted throughout, because otherwise the front door fanlight ends up as the one cold spot left in the house.
Churches, schools and commercial panels
Dunedin's gold rush building boom left the city with a large stock of ecclesiastical and institutional glass, most of it now well past the working life of its lead. Those panels are larger, heavier and usually higher off the ground than a domestic fanlight.
We quote access, removal, bench restoration and refitting as separate lines so a committee or a board can see exactly what it is approving, and we can stage the work panel by panel across a budget cycle.
Handling a leadlight panel
Getting it out without losing pieces
A bowed panel is already under stress and the cement holding the glass has usually cracked out. Lifting it badly is how a repairable panel turns into a rebuild.
We support the panel across its full face, cut the putty or bead back rather than levering, and take it out flat. Once it is on the bench it gets photographed and rubbed so the pattern can be reproduced exactly if a piece is beyond saving.
Re leading against spot repair
Where a few solder joints have failed and the came is otherwise sound, a spot repair is cheaper and keeps more of the original lead.
Once the came has work hardened across the whole panel, spot repairs simply move the stress to the next joint. At that point a full re lead onto the original pattern is the honest answer, and it buys another eighty years.
Leadlight Window Restoration at a glance
- Common faults
- Bowing, cracked cement, broken pieces, failed solder joints
- Repair
- Panel removed, flattened, came replaced, re cemented and refitted
- Glass
- Period glass sourced where possible, closest modern match otherwise
- Double glazing
- Restored panel sealed inside an insulated glass unit
- Lead life
- Around 80 to 100 years before came needs replacing
- Temporary
- Opening glazed or boarded while the panel is off site
- Larger work
- Access, removal, restoration and refit quoted as separate lines
Leadlight Window Restoration in Dunedin: common questions
My leadlight is bowing outwards. Can it be saved?
Almost always. It comes out, gets flattened and re leaded, and the original glass is reused. Left too long the pieces start cracking, which adds cost.
Can a leadlight be double glazed?
Yes. The restored panel is sealed inside a double glazed unit, so it keeps its look and gains thermal performance and permanent protection.
Can you match the coloured glass?
Usually very closely. Period glass is no longer made, so an exact match depends on what we can source. We show you before fitting.
Do you work on church and school windows?
Yes, including staged work across multiple panels and budget years.
Recent Dunedin jobs
Got three quotes for retrofitting the front of the house. Only ones who measured every opening and explained why the south facing rooms needed different glass. Fourteen windows over three days and the difference in the mornings is obvious.
Landlord here. Had four flats assessed before the inspections. Two just needed sashes freed up and stays replaced rather than new joinery, which saved me a fortune. Straight answers and a written report I could hand over.
Slider had been jamming for years and we assumed it needed replacing. Turned out to be rollers and a bent track. Two hours, a fraction of the price we were braced for.
Fogged unit in the lounge, measured on the Tuesday and in by the following Monday. Fair price and they cleaned up after themselves.
Get a price for leadlight window restoration in Dunedin
Free measure, fixed written quote, and a straight answer on whether it needs repairing or replacing.
Start your quote
Four questions and you are done.