He said they came and looked at the project about half a year ago. Part of it was understanding what kind of wood was needed, how to replace the stained glass, how to put it back together again. He said planning was as much as the work itself. As they are working with Heritage Manitoba, they are trying to replicate the window as much as they can. This meant using paints and putties from the era it was put in. They tested the wood, found it was old fir and were able to get the same.
As Lampert explained, the exterior of the frame was rotted out. Moisture was getting in through the window, and causing damage. The protector window was starting to slide into the wall. When they started moving it out, the bottom pieces broke because it was frozen into the wall.
They have taken pictures while they are taking everything apart, so they could figure out how to put it back together again.
They replaced the outside glass with a tempered version. This means it is more resilient and if it breaks, and will do so in a safer way. It is removable for cleaning relatively easily. All of the woodworking was completely replaced all around the window, although they were able to salvage a piece of it.
They had to take down all of the stained glass to do the outside project and store it safely. Lampert said this was a rather hair raising situation.
“Every single piece, I’ve been on edge for months now,” Lampert admitted. “We actually built wooden crates with notches in them. When we pulled the glass out, we put them in the crates in their slots. Then we could carry the crates to put them somewhere else.”
He said there were three pieces of stained glass that were broken. One part had to be rebuilt, with Lampert sending it out to be redone. The stained glass came back the week of the unveiling.
They covered the window last fall, and it took 12 weeks of labour to complete the work.
Lampert said the project was a neat one to be involved in. For example, in order to bend the wood to fit the archway, they had to learn how to steam bend it. They had to research the process, which meant slowly heating and bending it.
He added there were other local companies helping them out, and he said they were not used to having this much community interest and support for their work. As well, Lampert stated he could take great pride in what they had accomplished.
“It is so out of my scope. I have pictures on my phone of random projects I’ve done, but this one is different. If we get other work like this I would like to do it, but this one is going to be ‘I did this, that was me’. I really hope Heritage enjoys this because we have really tried to follow what they wanted. It’s been really neat to replicate it.”
He was excited to show off their work, and proud of his people for what they had done.
“It is exactly the same window, but not the same window. They have a new, old window.”
by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff