The Evaluation Process Of The Del Rio Church Stained Glass

At Denver Stained glass one of our fortes is restoring stained glass to its former look and luster.  One such example of this is a job we did for a small but lovely chapel in Del Rio Texas– The First United Methodist Church.  As diminutive chapel yes but rich in history and stunning beauty.

This church had 29 stained glass windows that were almost 100 years old, making them antiques. After the church noticed some sign of deterioration they called us in to evaluate the glass and give them our opinion as to whether they were worth restoring or if they needed to be repaired altogether.  After a thorough inspection of the glass, we were incredibly impressed by the quality and beauty of the stained glass. The glass itself was of superb quality and the hand-painted details had been executed flawlessly.  The biggest issue we found was the stained glass was in need of extensive and immediate restoration due to improper lead caming.  In fact, the caming wasn’t lead in some places at all–it was zinc.  This paired with a plexiglass covering that had been installed to protect the glass (which should never be done) had caused extreme expansion of the caming. Because of the movement in the leading, the putty holding the glass pieces together was also starting to fall out. It was only a matter of time before pieces of glass would start to fall out of the windows or break due to the increase in pressure.

However, we got to it in time and began the restoration with the full approval of all the church committee members.

The Restoration Process For The Del Rio Church Stained Glass

Because of the intricate glass work of the windows approximately 20,000 pieces of individual glass needed to be restored.For this reason, we decided to complete the work in phases. This also helped the church by giving them enough time to raise funds for each phase since the work was being funded almost entirely from donations.

For the first phase, we removed four of the largest windows for restoration. At the same time, we had exterior framing manufactured for 17 of the windows that required protection. For phase 2 we re-installed the first four windows and six more windows were removed for restoration. After 24 weeks, we returned and reinstalled these windows then began phase three. The final 17 windows were removed during this phase and brought back to our workshop to be cleaned and restored and reinstalled.  

The Results Of The Del Rio Church Stained Glass Restoration

In total, the restoration took 19 months to complete.  Most of the original glass was restored instead of replaced and now these historic treasures have easily another 100 years in them before needing to be restored again.

See the restoration video below:

If you have a church in Denver with antique stained glass that needs to be repaired, contact us at Denver Stained Glass, we are one of the country’s foremost stained glass experts and you can trust us to give your stained glass a beautiful new life.