Religious Stained Glass Restoration & Repair

Stained Glass Restoration & Repair

When it comes to church, temple, and other religious stained glass, Salt Lake City has more than its fair share of stunning examples. The religious stained glass in the Salt Lake City Temple was installed in the late 1800s, and many other churches and temples in the area boast antique stained glass as well.

This stained glass is a national treasure, an inspiration, and we hold it dear to our hearts. But as stained glass gets older, it can develop problems which require repair or restoration. Here at Salt Lake City Stained Glass, we are always honored to be able to bring antique stained glass back to live. We appreciate and respect the work of the stained glass craftsmen who came before us and did such incredible and uplifting work, with amazing attention to detail and aesthetic beauty. Our stained glass repair and restoration process offer Salt Lake City churches a viable solution for preserving their beautiful artwork.

Religious Stained Glass Deterioration Reasons

For those reasons, we have developed renowned, comprehensive repair and restoration techniques, that can return a religious stained glass window, door, or other panel back to its original glory. After we’ve completed our restoration, your stained glass’ life can be prolonged for another century or more.

If a stained glass window has a few cracked or missing pieces of glass, it might only need a minor repair to replace those specific pieces. Unfortunately, many antique stained glass windows require a full restoration for a variety of reasons:

1. Although stained glass is held together with lead strips, this lead is a heavy yet soft material. The weight of the religious stained glass and the tug of gravity over the decades might be causing the window to sag or bow inward. Lead naturally begins oxidizing at around the 75 year mark due to natural exposure to moisture. This causes the lead to deteriorate while leaving a fine white dust on your stained glass window. Seeing this dust is definitely a sign that your window needs restoring.

2. The glass itself may display signs of deterioration by displaying warped shapes. Depending on whether your glass is convex or concave shaped, we can determine what wind elements have been affecting it over the last century.

3. To protect religious stained glass, many churches, temples, chapels, and other houses of worship have added a piece of plexiglass to the exterior. This has the unfortunate effect of trapping heat between the plexiglass and the stained glass, which can further damage the lead and glass itself by warping them with the trapped heat.

4. If the window does start to sag for any reason, the pressure this puts on the glass can cause extensive cracking, splitting, or even for the pieces of glass to drop out. Falling glass poses a dangerous situation for your congregation.

Religious Stained Glass Restoration Process

Salt Lake City Stained Glass offers religious stained glass repair and restoration for houses of worship located in all areas of Salt Lake City. We repair temple, synagogue, cathedral, and chapel stained glass of all types. Whether your delicate, hand-painted window is starting to fade and peel or your colorful mosaic piece has been impacted by hail, we’re confident that we can provide the assistance you need.

Once our team of experienced, local stained glass artisans complete their on-site assessment of your religious stained glass, they’re able to determine a proper course of action that’s custom fit to your glass’ needs. By determining the underlying causes of deterioration, we can manipulate our restoration process to better prolong your stained glass.

After the assessment is completed, we carefully remove your stained glass window and transport it back to our repair studio. We then soak the stained glass panels in a proprietary soap blend for at least two weeks, ensuring we completely remove all pieces of dirt and impurities that have built up over the last century. After that is completed, we take your stained glass window apart piece by piece.

We begin rebuilding by replacing all damaged glass pieces with matches from our vast inventory of over 50,000 stained glass pieces or have one custom blown. If your stained glass panels feature any painted glass, our design experts can replicate any technique, baking the freshly painted pieces in a kiln to ensure the paint bakes into the glass like the original.

Once all the glass pieces are in place, we rebuild your stained glass window with a mixture of lead and tin, strengthening all the joints. We then cover the window with black cement, forcing it into all the cracks, guaranteeing durability for the next century.

After polishing off all the black cement from the stained glass, we reinforce your window with two additional clear glass panes, protecting it from any natural elements. Once reinstalled, your congregation will be stunned and re-inspired by your brand-new looking stained glass window!

Contact Us for Stained Glass Repair & Restoration in Salt Lake City

Our church and chapel stained glass windows are built to last for many generations, perhaps even centuries, to become a part of the magnificent history of religious stained glass. For more information or to set up a design consultation, please contact us today.