Professional Glass Restoration Services: Your Questions Answered

Got scratched or damaged glass? Get expert window restoration glass services for homes, businesses, classic cars & more. Clear answers, reliable solutions & a no-distortion guarantee! Our skilled team utilizes advanced scratched glass restoration techniques to restore clarity and brilliance to all types of glass surfaces. Whether it’s a cherished family heirloom or a storefront window, we are committed to delivering exceptional results that enhance visibility and aesthetics. Trust us to bring your glass back to life, ensuring it looks as good as new without the need for costly replacements. Our dedication to quality extends beyond just restoration; we also provide valuable glass restoration techniques and tips to help you maintain your glass surfaces in pristine condition. With our guidance, you can learn how to care for your glass, preventing future scratches and damage. Elevate your space and protect your investments with our expert services, ensuring that your glass always shines bright and clear. Our commitment to customer satisfaction means we work closely with you to understand your specific needs and provide tailored solutions. By utilizing our restoring scratched glass techniques, we can effectively tackle any level of damage, ensuring your glass looks impeccable and performs optimally. Experience the difference in clarity and appeal that our services provide, and let us help you preserve the beauty of your glass for years to come.

Glass Restoration Services | Scratch Removal, Resurfacing & More | Unscratch the Surface

Introduction

At Unscratch The Surface, we understand that when you’re dealing with damaged glass, you need clear answers and reliable solutions. Whether you’re a contractor, home builder, classic car restorer, store owner, or an individual homeowner, we’re here to help. Here are some of the most common questions we receive about our glass restoration services:

General Questions About Our Services

What types of glass restoration services do you offer?

We primarily offer glass resurfacing, specializing in large quantities of scratched dual pane, tempered glass on new construction sites. This includes both commercial and custom home residential applications, often involving very large, oversized, tempered panels with amazing views. We also provide complete resurfacing of classic car glass, restore performance (exterior reflective) glass commonly found on buildings from the 1980s, and restore badly scratched glass tables, usually larger ones.

Can you restore scratched, etched, or hazy glass?

Yes, we resurface and restore scratched, etched, and hazy glass, bringing it back to its original clarity.

Do you work on residential, commercial, automotive, or specialty glass?

All of the above, including yacht and other marine glass applications.

How long does the restoration process typically take?

When performing large projects, we can typically completely resurface approximately 125 sq. ft. per person per day. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Factors such as accessibility and the closeness of scratches to the frame, and whether or not the glass is tempered or annealed affect the glass restoration completion speed.

Do you offer on-site restoration services, or do we need to bring the glass to you?

For large custom homes or commercial glass restoration, it will always have to be onsite. However, with most classic car glass projects, the glass is either brought to us or shipped to us.

Questions Specific to Contractors/Home Builders

Can you handle large-scale projects for new construction or renovations?

Absolutely. The largest project to date was 50,000 sq ft of scratched glass at the Shangri-La Hotel in Toronto, Canada. We have done numerous 7,500 to 10,000 sq. ft. projects as well. With large projects, we usually will have the contractor provide a helper, which we will train to assist in the final polishing and cleanup. This saves time and considerable expense over bringing employees and paying for all their out-of-town expenses along with their salary. Always better to use local help. Also keeps more money in the local economy.

Side note: The largest individual glass panel we ever resurfaced was 20 ft long by 10 ft high!

Do you work with tempered, laminated, curved, or specialty glass used in modern buildings?

Most of the glass scratches occur on tempered glass because of fabrication debris. But we have worked on every type of glass imaginable. You can read more about this on my website. Our extensive experience has equipped us with effective scratch removal techniques for glass that can restore the surface to its original clarity. Whether it’s minor scuffs or deeper scratches, we tailor our approach to the specific type of glass and the severity of the damage. Additionally, we ensure that our methods are safe and do not compromise the structural integrity of the glass, giving our clients peace of mind in every project we undertake.

What is the cost and timeline for restoring multiple windows or panels?

Cost for resurfacing large curtain walls and large tempered panels ranges between $25 and $35/sf. Local minimum is $500 within 45 miles. Usually, we are booked 1-2 weeks out. However, if we are on a large out-of-town project, it could take longer to get a smaller job scheduled.

Do you provide estimates or consultations for large projects?

We are able to give highly accurate proposals. We know how long it takes to resurface scratched glass. We are almost always done within 1-3 days of what we estimate before we even see the job, based on the type of glass, severity of scratches, and accessibility to the glass. Occasionally, the weather can adversely affect how long a project takes to complete. So, yes, we provide estimates and consultations for large projects.

Questions Specific to Classic Car Restorers

Can you restore vintage car windshields or side windows with scratches or chips?

We rarely work on windshields on older cars because windshields are laminated, not tempered, and are usually pitted as well as scratched. Laminated glass will crack if it becomes overheated. We usually do all side and rear classic car glass because it’s tempered and holds up to aggressive grinding and the heat of polishing.

Do you work with curved or rare automotive glass?

Most classic car glass is curved, as is yacht glass and RV glass. We have specialty equipment we designed to conform to the curvature of the glass, thereby maintaining uniformity during the grinding and polishing phases.

How do you ensure the restoration process won’t damage the integrity of classic car glass?

Car side and rear glass is tempered. As long as you don’t remove approximately 1/10th of the glass thickness of tempered glass, everything should be fine. If there is a deep pit or welding damage, we will not risk grinding too much glass off and causing a shattered window.

Questions Specific to Individual Customers

Can you fix hard water stains, scratches, or other damage on my home’s windows or shower doors?

Yes. We have a formulation of cerium and 4f pumice that works great at removing heavy limescale, sea spray, and even hard water damage in showers. In some cases, we still need to sand and polish to get the etched-in water spots. Scratches in flat glass are the same as resurfacing in tempered glass.

What information do I need to provide before getting a quote?

• Size of all scratched glass panels
• Tempered, annealed, exterior reflective, or laminated
• Accessibility issues
• Who is responsible for payment
• Timeframe you need completed by
• Cause of scratches or other type of damage

Do you offer any guarantees on your restoration work?

We have had on our website, “The only no distortion guarantee,” since 2006. In some cases where a deep scratch is within 2 inches to the frame, we may see some minor distortion. But we always tell the client beforehand. Otherwise, there will be no haze, swirls, or distortion. Something many of our competitors will never claim.

Information You May Need From Customers

To streamline the process and provide accurate quotes or timelines, here’s what you might ask customers to provide when they first contact you:

Description of the Damage

• What type of damage is present (e.g., widespread tempered scratches, isolated scratches, chips, welding slag, grinding damage, welding spatter, metal specks in glass, cloudiness, hard water buildup, haze, swirls (from inexperienced glass restoration company)?
• How severe is the damage? What caused the scratches? Window cleaners with scrapers, post-construction cleaning, vandalism, carelessness during construction, normal wear and tear (classic car glass), or unknown?

Type of Glass

• Is it residential, commercial, automotive, shower glass, yacht glass, large windows, curtain walls, sliding doors, or some other type of glass?
• Is the glass tempered or annealed (not tempered) or heat strengthened? Flat glass or curved?
• What size and shape is the glass? Most tempered glass restoration requires resurfacing. What is the square footage of the damaged glass? Provide a list of all the damaged panels.

Photos

• Can they send clear photos of the damaged area(s) for evaluation? Sometimes to get clear images of scratches on glass, you must put some blue tape or masking tape next to the scratch, back off about 8 inches, and get the camera to focus on the tape, tricking the camera into inadvertently focusing on the glass surface.

Location

• Is the glass located on-site (e.g., in a home or building), or will it be brought to our facility? What is the accessibility of the scratched glass? Do we need swing stage, scaffolding, boom lift, or scissor lifts? Customer/contractor will always be required to make accommodations for these. We can access glass safely to about 11 ft above ground when the ground is flat and stable. This work cannot and should not be done from an extension ladder for safety reasons.

Timeline

• Are there any deadlines for completing the restoration (e.g., before a project completion date)?

Additional Details

• For contractors/home builders: Number of windows/panels involved and project scope. List of all damaged windows/panels. Tempered or annealed. Cause of scratches. When needs to be completed by. Also, any accessibility issues. Can we safely access the glass to work on it without any special equipment.
• For car restorers: Make, model, and year of the vehicle. But mainly, just the number of side windows, vent windows, rear windows, fastback or not, and whether we can remove the “bug” or date code if there are scratches nearby it.