Chapel Glass Removal and Reinstatement

The brief.

Konstruct was engaged as the specialist glazing subcontractor on the facade remediation of The Chapel at Sanctuary Cove, a landmark wedding chapel with a fully glazed perimeter facade. The chapel's heat-strengthened laminated glass panels are carried on twenty-two steel mullions, with structural silicone facetted joints between the vertical panels. Corrosion in the steel mullions required structural remediation, and Konstruct's scope was the careful removal, cataloguing, and storage of the low-level glass panels and associated framing, followed by full reinstatement once the steel works were complete.

The challenge.

The glass could not simply come out and go back in. Each panel was bonded into facetted structural silicone joints and had to be cut free without damaging its neighbours, then handled, stored, and protected across an extended structural works programme. The original sill detail had also allowed water to sit against the steel, which was a contributor to the corrosion in the first place, so reinstating the facade like for like would have rebuilt the defect the project was there to fix.

How we delivered.

The works were programmed in two distinct phases, removal first and reinstatement after the structural remediation, keeping the glazing and structural trades cleanly separated on site. Each panel was cut free, catalogued, and stored under Konstruct's control. In parallel, Konstruct developed a new sill glazing channel detail with the head contractor and facade engineer: a new aluminium channel matched to the existing profile, packed to height to suit the existing glass, fixed at 400 millimetre centres, with weepholes drilled to the external face and the waterproof membrane terminated with a drip edge over a waterstop angle. The detail was refined through multiple revisions and approved before a single panel went back in, and the glass was then reinstated with new perimeter weatherseals throughout.

The outcome.

The chapel facade was reinstated onto remediated steel with a sill detail that now drains water away from the structure instead of trapping it against it. The project shows the value Konstruct brings beyond the ropes: identifying latent design defects, resolving them through the engineering process, and delivering precise glazing works on a building where every panel is on show.