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Clear Security Film On Residential Windows


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I've never had to do any safety film until now. I have a customer that wants SunTek 4mil clear safety film installed on his home. Most of the windows are old Aluminium single pane windows, largest one is like 4x4'. Will just safety film, without any anchoring, actually improve anything?

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Very little... it will hold the glass together in the case of a breakage, but without something to hold it to the frame, it's just going to pop out of said frame, just held all together. 

 

The value I could see would be if someone tries to break in, hits the window once, sees that there is film on it, and decides to move on to the next house. 

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I've never had to do any safety film until now. I have a customer that wants SunTek 4mil clear safety film installed on his home. Most of the windows are old Aluminium single pane windows, largest one is like 4x4'. Will just safety film, without any anchoring, actually improve anything?

4 mil is great for upgrading annealed (plate) glass to tempered safety standards, for golf ball protection and to a limited degree, smash and grab. If they are looking to have anti-intrusion protection then 8 mil would be the bare bones least thickness to apply.

 

Tempered lites are found around doors, large panes within 18  inches of the floor, in sliding doors and in bathrooms when near shower or tub. These should have a bead of sealant applied to retain glass fragments in the event the glass gets broken. Tempered pelletizes when broken leaving a very weak edge bite strength at the frame to the point one could knock the pane out with repeated blows. 

 

Annealed (plate) glass does not need an edge sealant due to the fact it breaks in large shards, which holds to the edge with much greater strength than tempered pellets and has much more film/adhesive in contact with the glass over larger surface areas compared again to tempered 's pelletized surface area. 

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Thanks for the replies. After explaining this the customer still wants it. So I have another question-

How do you prefer to cut 4mil? Does everyone precut exactly to size? Do some rough cut and final trim on window? What works best. Thanks

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Guest Applied Products

When we apply 4mil especially on older frames which are likely to have been painted so that paint will get on to the glass, so when you clean them with a scrapper blade the paint flakes off and unless you clean the all the paint off (which is very difficult as it gets everywhere and when you place the film on the glass to trim it in the capillary action draws the water out, along with the flakes of paint from under the frames) which can get caught under the film and look terrible.

To get over this we clean the window with a scouring pad then we pre-cut the film to within a 1-2 mm using the film handler, then trim it in with the knife.

But you are able to leave a 1.5mm - 3mm gap around the perimeter of the frame which will bring the glass up to EN12600 BS6206 (European Standard for safety glazing). This way you avoid disturbing the paint on the glass (don't get me wrong, if there is paint quite far onto the pane of glass then you will have no option but to scrape it off, best way to get rid of all the paint is to put the nozzle on your water bottle to jet rather than fine mist and blow the paint away, just make sure you put dust sheets down as you use a lot more water.

 

Follow this link to see 3M™'s installation do's and dont's, scroll down to page 67, point 7 on the PDF.

 

http://www.appliedproducts.co.uk/images/pdf/3M%20Window%20Film%20Manual%202012.pdf%C2'>

 

Hope this helps.

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