upvc glass suddenly breaks who pays?

C_Mababejive

Check the window frame carefully to make sure it is vertical/horizontal/square.

If the frame hasnt been fitted properly and/or the lintels are poor/missing,then undue stresses may be being applied to the glass.

Charis

Another person had the same problem during the summer, on a different forum.

From that forum:

If the unit was not installed properly, it could get pressure from one of the packing pieces, or may be too big for the opening, so could crack with a bit of expansion
and
I did ask him about sealed units cracking as mentioned earlier - he said that in his 12 yrs as a glazier he had seen a lot of units with exactly the same problems and they were largely due to manufacturing defects.

If it was simply due to the severe temperature outside we'd all have the same problem as you at the moment. There's been a difference of 20 - 30°C or more between the internal and external temperatures this past week.

Crabman

phill99 wrote: »

Rubbish.

Strange as it may seem, glass breaks. This is why you see 'fragile - handle with care' stickers on glass products. Glass can break by being dropped, hit, and in many cases with the onset of extreme variations in temperature.

Its nothing to do withe the sale of goods act. Its common sense, or is that something you haven't been issued with yet? No trading standards officer woulkd ever say glass breaking is covered by the Sale of Goods Act.

Get real.

I'm not sure why you've decided to make unnecessary personal remarks - if this is how you conduct yourself across the MSE forums, you would do well to refresh yourself with the forum rules.

What sort of temperature variation do you feel would trigger the window to break? Would you expect all windows to break, or just those with manufacturing defects? Is it the householder's fault that the window unit was not fit for purpose?

It is simply not normal for a glass pane to break due to a "temperature variation". Hence the reference to Sale of Goods/Supply of Goods and Services Acts.

Over the past days we've seen temperatures drop to -20C in remote areas - have we seen or heard about multiple glass units in these parts of the UK breaking spontaneously due to the 'temperature variation'?

globalds

I think you will have to just pay for a replacement.Unless you could identify a cause of the glass cracking.
Even though I would not expect a piece of glass to spontaneously fail.

As for the trickle vents I would not recommend them,but I am more sold on the idea of trying to make the building you are in airtight, then working on controlling the environment inside.

real1314

phill99 wrote: »

Rubbish.

Strange as it may seem, glass breaks. This is why you see 'fragile - handle with care' stickers on glass products. Glass can break by being dropped, hit, and in many cases with the onset of extreme variations in temperature.

Its nothing to do withe the sale of goods act. Its common sense, or is that something you haven't been issued with yet? No trading standards officer woulkd ever say glass breaking is covered by the Sale of Goods Act.

Get real.

it's a bit silly to mention that glass breaks when dropped, hit etc. If it makes you feel better to bring that in, then I suppose it serves some purpose, but it's rather irrelevant to a pane fracturing under a possible thermal stress.

If, as you claim, it is possible for galss to break under a certain degree of thermal stress, and as we have not experinced anything like record temperature drops in the UK, and given a prudent manufacturing approach being to allow a good degree of tolerance; Wouldn't all that suggest it wasn't actually fit for purpose?

And, what's more, if it's such a known things that some will fail, wouldn't a decent manufacturer make a provision for failure and therefore replace without charge when it happens?

Hopeful_5

Is the glass 'Low e'? If so, I believe this should reduce the temperature variation between the panes. But if the glass suddenly breaking is due to temperature variation then why didn't it happen during last year's long, hard winter? Tiny faults, virtually invisible to the naked eye, can cause glass to break spontaneously. Also OP, there is a thread on this forum re. Velux windows suddenly breaking which may be of help.

Hope