Northstar Glass

The job: Replace broken glass in a wooden door, where the glass is held in place with wood trim.

Short version: The new guy is likely to make mistakes; otherwise a good experience.

The good: Northstar Glass were quick to respond by phone, scheduled promptly (for the next day, which was fine), called back when they said they would, and arrived right on time at the start of the scheduled time.

I had a sticker on the broken window, and asked them to try to keep the piece of glass intact enough that I could try to remove it myself, later on, and they were happy to do so.

The more experienced tradesman clearly knew what he was doing, and measured and cut the glass beautifully.

The not-so-good: The younger of the two tradesmen is clearly just learning his trade, and doesn't know how much he doesn't know, yet.

Credit as due, he did a good job of quickly removing the wood strips holding the window in place, with a minimal amount of damage to the strips, and none to the door.

Fortunately, his boss caught him before he tried to use the huge and hugely inappropriate nails (~6d), to replace the trim, and told him to use the more appropriate brads (~2d) that I'd provided.

Credit as due, after I'd asked what type of putty they planned on using to set the window, so I'd know if it could be painted over, he also thought to ask if I wanted him to use the silicone-based caulk that they usually use, or to just leave it for me to caulk later, with a caulk that was better suited for paint.

Unfortunately, the younger guy didn't know or remember to check to make sure that all of the pieces of old glass had been removed, and ended up installing the new glass on top of two fragments of the old glass, so it didn't sit flat in the frame (something I only discovered that evening, when getting set up to caulk).

I've requested that Northstar Glass make sure that the younger tradesman is told about what he'd missed, and that they make sure that it doesn't happen again -- but in the interest of expediency, just removed and reset the window myself (in a bed of traditional putty).