Holy crack batman!!

Roach · January 8, 2004

Before I left my job, I was doing this womans house.. the paladium above the door and a small half-moon in her living room. My boss totally ripped her off on price.. like $8 or so a sq/ft. She had asked me if I would do four other casements on the side.. I said no, blah blah blah. Shortly thereafter, my boss found out that I had started my own business and fired me.

Anyway, so I drive by her place today to see if she still wanted those windows done. At this point it's fair game. I pull up and look at the paladium, and it's cracked!!! I could have died. I'm not sure, but I thought I had put up V-48. The window wasn't too big.. maybe 50"Wx70" long?? If that.. The crack went from the bottom left corner and went up 75% of the window.

Needless to say I didn't stop. I know I didn't crack it while I was there... and I don't remember if that starting point of the crack tells ya anything, but the house isn't new. Has to be at least 10-15 years old.

RoAcH

January 12, 2004

oh well, you don't work there anymore :booga

January 12, 2004

Cracks from thermal stress do not begin from the corner. This sounds like one of those instances where the glass man may have snipped the glass edge to get it to fit the frame and... :rollin

If the glass pane is substantially weakened by edge defects, a true thermal stress fracture will only meander partially across the window. With a better quality glass pane the fracture will complete its travel to another edge.

Thermal stress cracks begin at the middle 1/2 - 3/4 pane edge running exactly perpendicular (or 90 degrees) to both surface edges (external/internal, can only be determined upon glass removal) as a 1-2 inch straight crack before branching across the glass.

If there was any window treatment placed back in the frame and was within 4 inches of the glass surface, it would contribute to increased thermal stress.

:booga

tintslut · January 14, 2004

can it be honestly said the glass would have cracked without film?

Or was added thermal stress from the film application enough to push it over

the edge? :evileye

Devil with bad attitude · January 14, 2004

can it be honestly said the glass would have cracked without film?
Or was added thermal stress from the film application enough to push it over

the edge?

No for the forst bit and yes for the second.

devil

January 14, 2004

can it be honestly said the glass would have cracked without film?
Or was added thermal stress from the film application enough to push it over

the edge?

Yes to the first... for the following reason:

"If there existed any kind of unseen flaw or minor crack at the pane edge and as time passed the structural settling caused flexing stress to the glass or a bird bouncing off its surface causing impact stress"

and if so, Yes for the second.

No to the first, if the crack does not originate within 1-2 inches of the corner and displays tell-tale signs of a thermal crack...

For reason of obsurity and multiple variables in the answer, it is very productive to visually inspect the crack's origin point in order to determine the existence of thermal stress characteristics.

LLuLLu films Tech Bulletin #31 discusses the phenomenon of cracked glass in depth.

:poop