Had a job in Tacoma where the old leaded glass just shattered when we tried to lift it.

It was a big church window, about 4 feet by 6 feet, and the lead cames were totally rotten. My partner Mike and I went to lift it from the frame and the whole thing just came apart in our hands. We spent the next two days on our knees picking tiny colored glass bits out of the grass. Anyone ever deal with a leaded panel that just gave up like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

masongonzalez25d ago

Remember reading that lead cames don't actually rot, they just oxidize and get brittle. The metal itself doesn't break down like wood, it just loses all its strength over a hundred years or so. Sounds like that's exactly what happened with your window, the support structure just turned to powder. Did you manage to save any of the bigger glass pieces for a repair?

kaih3625d ago

Oh man, that's the worst. Actually, Mason's close but not totally right. The oxidation is a kind of rot for metal, it's called "dry rot" in the trade. The lead turns into this white powder and loses all its strength, so it can't hold the glass at all. It's not just brittle, it's basically gone back to being a soft ore. Sounds like your cames were way past gone if it just fell apart like that. That's a brutal cleanup job for sure.

allen.aaron25d ago

Ever notice how many things are just quietly falling apart around us? It's not just old windows, it's like sidewalks cracking from tree roots or that weird smell from an old power strip. We build stuff to last but everything has its own hidden clock, and when it hits zero things just turn to dust. Makes you wonder what else in your house is doing the same slow fade right now.