Removing paint from stained glass

Hi. The previous owners of our 100+ year building painted over a stained glass window, incredibly. We’re having paint stripped from all of the wood trim, and one of the strippers bidding on the work said they could easily clean the window, too. Meanwhile, we have another stained glass in need of repair, so I had a glass guy look at that, and he said of the painted-over window that we’d ruin it if we stripped it with stripper for wood paint. He said his process would be to take out the whole window, and remove every piece and give them a “chemical bath” using different chemicals for different glass colors. Needless to say, he quoted me a price ($2,000) that was far more expensive than what the wood strippers would charge for it.  I’m wondering if he’s blowing smoke up my butt, or if I’ll really ruin it if I doing it with regular paint stripper. Rick

crownheights12

in Doors & Windows 12 years and 1 month ago

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rvflswkta | 6 years and 3 months ago

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@crownheights12 – Not sure if you’re still around, but if so I was wondering how the stained glass restoration turned out. Incredibly, our stained glass is also painted over. Three separate panels. WHO DOES THAT?!?!? Gotta figure out how to fix this mess. ? Let me know how yours turned out and who you used. Thanks!

kevinbrown | 12 years ago

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I think Chemical paint thinner/stripper is good to go as it won’t damage the lead came. If further attention is needed then use a fine steel wool with a little elbow grease, it will go a long way without giving scratch. Be careful with razor blades, they WILL scratch. Make sure not to push too hard on the window as you can bow it out or break individual panes.

crownheights12 | 12 years and 1 month ago

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Hi RedRobin. I already spoke with Peter, and he recommended I have him do it, not the paint stripper guys. I’m conflicted, as the paint stripper guys wouldn’t charge me anything extra and they insist they’ve done it before and the stained glass guys are feeding me a line. Another glass guy in Crown Heights quoted me triple what Peter did, so I would give him my business. I am likely to go ahead and pay Peter the $600 he quoted to remove the window and clean it just to avoid the fear that he’s right and the paint strippers will destroy it. But secretly, I think the paint stripper guys are probably right, that it would be fine if they did so. With a 100+-year-old window, it just seems too much of a gamble to go the cheap route.

Guest User | 12 years and 1 month ago

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Call Peter at the Stained Glass Store in Park Slope for an expert’s opinion: 718-768-7964\. He’s a nice guy and would probably answer your question even if you didn’t give the job to him. (He restored 6 of our stained glass windows, but they hand’t been painted over — who does that?)

ParkSlopePS | 12 years and 1 month ago

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I’ve also never heard of using different chemicals for different colors! Real stained glass (that has the color in the glass) would not be affected by stripping chemicals, but thereis  a european style of stained glass that is really painted glass- that might be affected. makes sense to test a spot if you’re not sure

cate | 12 years and 1 month ago

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We just stripped etched glass panes in a pocket door with Zip Strip as well as regular glass in a French door and didn’t have any problems. It didn’t seem to affect the glazing compound that keeps the glass in place, although I had read elsewhere that stripper will remove glazing compound. I suppose it’s remotely possible the stripper might affect the lead that holds the stained glass pieces together, but it seems unlikely. Why would you need different stripper for different colors of glass? That doesn’t make sense to me. Be advised that if you strip in place, any pressure on the glass can cause it to break. I hope your strippers are experienced. Ask your strippers if they’ve done stained glass before and how it turned out. You could call some other stained glass person and ask over the phone about stripping. Good luck.