Double glazed Window went bang and shattered advice needed?

teddybear154

I appologise in advance if I'm posting this in wrong place. I hope some one can help me.

I live in a housing association house it's a fairly new build house, house is about 12 years old. Have lived here since house was finished being built.

My son's bedroom window was fine yesterday but I noticed last night I could not close window. It just would not close and I didn't want to try forcing it. I was going to ring housing association tomorrow  (tuesday) to report it as at weekend and on bank holidays you can only report emergencys and was sure it was not  classed as a emergency. If you try and report something thats not a emergency, my housing association give you a fine and you have to pay a call out fee. So always terrified to report any thing when it's not in working hours.

I had to just leave window a little open last night.

Me and my children were all downstairs this morning eating breakfast when we head a very very loud bang from up stairs.

Ran upstairs to check what had happened and found my son's  bedroom window shattered. Not on side that opens but the other side.

Window is shattered on inside but outside seems to still be intact at moment.

It's still popping and cracking.
I was not sure whether to report it today or not as there website is not clear as to what is a emergency repair.

I decided in the end to phone and report it as was concerned that glass could collapse at any time and go every where in bedroom that could be very dangerous.

They gave me the talk about if it's classed as not a emergency you will be fined and have to pay a call out fee. 

Would you class a shattered window as a emergency or should I have waited until tomorrow.

I'm now worried I'm going to end up with a big bill and can't afford that. 

This is not the first time this has happened. 

About 6 years ago we were all down stairs eating tea when we heard a loud bang. It was my daughter's bedroom window, it went bang and shattered for no reason.

Why do are Windows keep going bang. Are we really that unlucky.

Any thing I can do right now to make window safe or should I just leave it alone.

Attaching a photo so you can see how window has shattered.

theoretica

What is under the window on the outside?  As the inner sheet of glass is not broken it will protect people inside, but if you put bins or something to stop anyone going under the window it would do no harm - and help explain why you classed it as an emergency.

teddybear154

The inner sheet of glass is broken that's the bit that's cracked and still making popping and cracking sounds.

Photo is taken from inside looking out of window.

To answer your question below window is path to get to house and there is a bench 

MikeJXE

It sounds to me pressure is being applied to the window either above, below or to the side and cracking the glass

Have you checked the walls and lintel  ?

Could you tape some polythene sheet to the frame to cover the glass, even a plastic shopping bag will do the job 

teddybear154

Walls and lintel look ok but don't have a tall ladder to be able to get up there and have a close look.

I just don't understand why this has happened twice now.

I have some strong bin bags so will tape some of those over window just to be safe, don't want any one hurting them selves.

We live in a small village in country side,  and are on the path where war planes train, they oftern fly very low and fast and make house shake.

We are also at bottom of a mountain and oftern have a lot of search and rescue helicopters fly over our house to go and search the mountain.

They tend to use above are house to turn helicopter around, this makes house shake too.

If either of these flew over today the vibrations could easily send glass every where.

None have flown over yet today thankfully 

HampshireH

If it can be made safe by taping a bag/bin liner over it for now that's the best thing. And phone the repairs team in the morning. That's all they would be able to do out of hours

Tomorrow stress its a child's bedroom and needs to be made safe properly (glass removed and boarded) pending replacement glazing.

I wouldn't expect this to be chargeable as it's a genuine health and safety issue. So if you needed to call them because you don't think it can wait/you can make it safe then do 

Mr.Generous

In some tenancy agreements glass breakage how so ever caused is a chargeable replacement. Otherwise no tenant ever admits to breaking it. The good news however is that it's toughened safety glass, so it will just leave small pieces than might cause a tiny cut or scratch but nothing worse. If that was me I'd just knock it out now, sweep it up and hoover the last bits. The intact outer pane of glass will look like its a normal window until a replacement sealed unit is obtained.

I doubt its a stress breakage or both sheets would have broken. Toughened glass often goes with a bang some time after its had an impact, a sharp tap in a corner with a metal object or something would do it.

FreeBear

Mr.Generous said: Toughened glass often goes with a bang some time after its had an impact, a sharp tap in a corner with a metal object or something would do it.

A scratch or tiny nick on an edge during installation could also cause a unit to shatter.

teddybear154

Window has never had a impact we have alway been very careful. And no one was in room at time it went bang.

We were all downstairs eating breakfast.

Like said it's not the first time this has happened, my daughters window went bang a few years back The same way. 
No one was in room and no impact to window at any point.

I'm wondering if it was a bad batch of windows or something.

The builders who built these houses were cow boys. Housing association wanted them built as cheaply as possible. We have had constant problems with this house ever since first moved in.

To give you a idea of how bad the builders were who built house. 
When we first moved in I ran my children a bath on first night they bathed and then I pulled out plug.

Lights in upstairs  including bathroom light went off, I had no idea why, went down to stairs to check fuse box and saw water and sewage pouring out of boiler cupboard and flooding kitchen.

It had all poured through boiler, boiler was ruined.

It turned out that they forgot to connect house up to main drainage, there was still a cap on waster pipe going out of House.

Absolute nightmare and took ages to fix.

There were electrical problems when moved in, back door didn't lock. Front door didn't lock l could go on.

We have had constant problems with boiler since. 

Last  year in November boiler went completely and still 6 months on it's still not fully fixed, we still have no hot water downstairs. 


They might have damaged windows  when installing I don't know.

There are no impact marks on the broken window, it's shattered evenly all over window, it's very strange.

FreeBear

teddybear154 said: They might have damaged windows  when installing I don't know.

There are no impact marks on the broken window, it's shattered evenly all over window, it's very strange.

There only needs to be a tiny chip on the edge of a sealed unit, or perhaps a small scratch - Either will act as a stress point, and being toughened glass, it will just give way for no obvious reason. Now that the glass has shattered, it will be next to impossible to point a finger at the probable cause. It could have been a manufacturing defect, damage during installation, or an impact at a later date. It is unfortunate that you have been the victim of two failures.

MikeJXE

FreeBear said:

teddybear154 said: They might have damaged windows  when installing I don't know.

There are no impact marks on the broken window, it's shattered evenly all over window, it's very strange.

There only needs to be a tiny chip on the edge of a sealed unit, or perhaps a small scratch - Either will act as a stress point, and being toughened glass, it will just give way for no obvious reason. Now that the glass has shattered, it will be next to impossible to point a finger at the probable cause. It could have been a manufacturing defect, damage during installation, or an impact at a later date. It is unfortunate that you have been the victim of two failures.

It's not just the glass though is it ? 

A window won't close either, that to me says something is getting pushed out of shape