I recently purchased a house and one door had a crack in the impact glass. The builder said it did not matter, so it was not repaired. During a recent hurricane, the glass blew into the room and caused thousands of dollars of damage from wind and rain.
Did the crack in the glass contribute to the failure of this glass? Should this window have remained in it's frame and keep the water out of my house?
what is impact glass? tempered? laminated? wire?
a crack in glass dramatically weakens it. any slight force at all against it would have caused the crack to run the rest of the way and cause the entire pane to shatter.
regards, charlie
Most likely. Did any other windows sustain damage or fail in that hurricane? Adjacent windows are the most illuminating.
Since there's no indication about what exactly happened to that window, and you seem to be basing your question on the crack alone, can't tell.
If the house had cracked glass in a regular window, most people would have asked for it to be replaced. The fact that it was a cracked impact glass in a high wind area made the request mandatory.
If the builder steered you wrong, he is partially at fault. You are also partially at fault for not protecting your own home.
Lesson learned. Sorry about your loss.
R
Your kidding, you BELIEVED the builder!
Glass gets it strength from being solid. Not cracked.
I sure hope your insurance takes care of the damage.
The crack probably would not have been a problem under normal weather conditions but a hurricane is an extreme. A crack certainly would have reduced the windows resistance to failure due to wind pressure or impact. Something may have blown into that window and that's what the builder will say if you try to sue him.
No, the crack did not contribute, it was the cause Scratches may contribute to failure, but a crack was failed to start with.
Your builder lied to get out of replacing it at his cost. I would never accept cracked glass on anything. Cracked glass is garbage waiting to get a bigger crack, it was weak, defective on instal.
Assuming your loss was large enough that you've filed a homeowners insurance claim on it, those are excellent questions that you should direct to your insurance company's subrogation department. Homeowners insurance companies have whole departments that spend much of their time going after builders for improper work and manufacturers for defective products. If you can document what you're saying, your insurance company could well pursue a claim on your behalf to recover the value of the damages.
Disclaimer: unless you see my name on your policy declaration pages, I am not your insurance agent. (And since there aren't any hurricanes around here, I'm pretty sure my name isn't on your policy.) So I don't know the specifics of your policy or the laws of your state. Ask your agent or claims adjuster for details.
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