Gerry
and Jill inspect the window and write a condition report or survey.
The reports they write are not the minimum required to persuade
a custodian to give the restoration job to them, but to tell custodians
and future generations everything about the window now, and how
it was restored. This information is relevant for the life of the
window, which may be several or many centuries.
The
inspection and the subsequent condition report are the basis
of everything that follows.
It describes the current state of the window and the condition
of the glass paints. This determines all the techniques and the process
of the restoration, the extent of the work/s, the time it will
take and what it
will
cost.
Gerry
and Jill’s condition reports satisfy the needs of Heritage
bodies and insurers and custodians need only append this to their applications.
Reports
are always accompanied by a series of annotated photographs. Some condition
reports may comprise only ten pages of text and thirty photographs, while
reports on
all the windows in a church or on one large window could comprise fifty
pages of text and two hundred photographs.
An
appropriate fee is charged for a report.
Gerry
and Jill believe a comprehensive condition report is the
custodian’s
best guarantee of excellent restoration, because the custodians
are given a clear understanding of the condition of their window/s
before
work begins,
with an
invaluable record on the past and present history of their window
for the future. Then they can make informed decisions about
what
needs to be done.
Custodians should be judicious in who they give the condition
report to. If they are seeking three quotes (a practice fraught
with danger)
they
should NOT give
the report to rival tenderers. It is frequently the case that they
do not have the experience to undertake the restoration they
are quoting
on, and
giving them
the condition report allows them to mouthe practices and processes
they do not know or understand.
Gerry
and Jill believe that being a custodian of stained glass in Australia
where there are
no regulations for restorers whatsoever can easily
become an impossibly
daunting task. Unscrupulous operators abound! They have met far too
many custodians who have raised the funds to “restore” a
window, which, after it has been reinstalled, is found to be unserviceable
or ruined. There have been
court cases following such restorations. |