Here’s a quick restoration we did last Spring for Great Falls Construction in Brunswick, Maine. The arched transom had all of its lead medallions intact, but the window was caving in and the glass was in danger of breaking or falling out.
In the course of releading these, we found a couple of areas where we could provide additional support to the windows without changing the design. The deflection that happened in the transom, along the middle curves, was likely due to the fact that there was one continuous piece of lead on the curve. By breaking that up and building some of the lines from top to bottom, we’ve added to the overall stability and can hopefully avoid some of the bowing in the future
The sidelites are tall and narrow, continuing the lines of the transom to the sides in an elegant way. But the manner in which they were originally built left them vulnerable to sagging. Additionally, the lead was cracked at the solder joints. By adding three support bars to the panels, that slot directly into the sash, we were able to redistribute most of the weight away from the panel itself.
With the releading complete, we reattached the original medallions and integrated the panels into their refurbished and primed sashes. The windows are now complete and have been reinstalled.
