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My guests called me today to say that an inner ceiling panel of our lower ground conservatory extension had shattered and crashed down of its own accord. I went over and it was a complete bomb site.
Considering that this is a high-end extension which has stood strong for 8 years, I can’t believe it would shatter and crash down of its own accord.
Can any more experienced people let me know whether it’s possible for an inner double glazing ceiling panel to shatter of its own accord?
I have seen glass showers break under a slight touch, windows crack and break for no reason. All it takes is one small unseen imperfection and under the right conditions they will shatter. if there are kids I of course would be dubious that it did it on it’s own but IMHO if they have been good guests I would give them the benefit of the doubt.
Freak occurrence, driving on a windy day, a piece of cardboard (cardboard!) hit the little antenna sticking up on the back of the car, the end of which in turn hit the rear window, which crumbled (safety glass) into a billion pieces and fell onto the back seat.
Looks like you don’t have any evidence to dispute the guest’s description.
It seems then, that the answer is yes - glass can break for no apparent reason. Although I think that the chances of it being hit my some missile - a stone, or branch or something - is more likely.
Will your insurance company cover it?
Thank goodness the guests are okay though. Do you have any recourse with the people who built the extension or was it ages ago?
Lol @ people asking if it was a branch or rock etc. How would something like that be able to get through the outer panel leaving it unscathed and smash the inner one?
Could it be just cause by stress over time from the frames flexing in the weather (or maybe exmapnding/contacting from ambient temperatures varying over the 8 years since installation) - if so it may be advisable to get the others checked out - assuming you can check the integrity of a double glazing panel.
@Cindy_Turner_Dodd is correct that when tempered glass breaks violently and what seems like spontaneously, it is caused by a tiny imperfection (like a scratch or chip or some manufacturing defect) along with expansion/contraction due to temperature change. I have personally had it happen with baking dishes, refrigerator shelves, and vehicle windows.
Edit to say that the imperfections can be there for years before the breakage.
One of our rentals has glass shower doors and I HATE HATE HATE them. It’s not only the shatter aspect but they are an absolute nightmare to clean. Even one nighters use the shower so the glass doors need a full clean and polish every single time. I HATE them
Jacquo, I have a squeegee hanging on the shower wall. I’d say at least half my guests use it which helps reduce clean and polish time. Has anyone tried that no-streak stuff you put on car windows? Whoa – just googled it and of course there’s a rain-x product for showers on Amazon. I’ll let you know if it works.
Thanks. I’ve got a squeegee in there and whilst most of my guests are lovely clean and tidy people, it seems to be invisible. Maybe I need to get one in bright pink or something
I use RainX, the sort that racing drivers put on their visors, but the shower doors still need many of my vaulable minutes to get looking right. One day, I’m just going to have them removed - and especially now I’ve read about spontaneous shattering…
The one in our full time home exploded in my husband’s hands after having been taken out to clean the rails and rollers, he barely nicked the corner on the toilet bowl and it exploded. We still occasionally find a square piece of glass on top of a door ledge or something and that was years ago.
The one in our VR had never apparently been properly cleaned. It was full of hard water scale and ick around all the hinges and such and knowing we were going to do VR with it, I just didn’t want the risks. Besides hating them in the first place. We removed it as one of the first things we did after closing on it. The 2nd bathroom didn’t have glass and we were glad.
My goodness, that’s awful. I’m going to put the removal of ours high on the list.
Thankfully our other rental has a nice old fashioned shower curtain. It’s much easier to just lob it into the washer than all that glass cleaning malarkey.
