OTish Replacement Garage Windows

[Jimk]

cheep cheep thud...

All they have to is run it through an automated conveyor oven (like a pizza oven) then cool it fast with jets of air..

Possible you have been done?

[Jimk]

No regs I know of. Plastic sounds like a reasonable replacement & I doubt you'd find much saving attempting to single glaze a frame made for double glazing,. They are not expensive (from manufacturers) & easy to fit IME.

Go on you know you want to.....

[Adrian]

Unlikely to be a DIY job (for me anyway), so OT.

I've have a detached garage, and one of the window frames and cill board is looking like it is in need of replacement. The cill board has been rebuilt with plastic wood several times, but is now getting to the stage where there is very little real wood left to bind the plastic stuff to. I've also noticed that the frame has a split in the wood, so I think that is on its way out too.

I'm aware of building regs / FENSA for houses, but do these also apply to detached garages ? It would be helpful to know before I start talking to window manufacturers.

Thanks

Adrian

[The Natural Philosopher]

Nope. you can pretty much do what you want.

Its not a habitable space so insulation and most of the safety aspects go by the board. For example you can glaze a greenghouse with unaccepbly dangerous single glazing of 3mm agricultural glass that is quite dangerous should you fall through it.

[charles]

About a month ago, a bird flew into one of greenhouse panle. 4mm toughened glass - took a week to get a replacement piece - and it wasn't cheap.

[The Natural Philosopher]

surprised that it was toughened and actually broke

[Tim Lamb]

snip

I think they call it horticultural:-)

Happened here. I had just finished erecting an aluminium framed, toughened glass greenhouse when a curious Mallard took fright and flew through the glass.

While clearly not a sharp impact, the glazing was secured at intervals by stainless steel clips which may have led to a localised stress point.

[Jeff Layman]

+1

I had a 1500 x 600mm roof panel of toughened glass sucked out of a greenhouse (caused by strange air flow over a 6m high conifer hedge close by) and deposited on the lawn 6m away. That happened twice and the glass didn't break. I doubled the number of clips holding the glass on until I had the hedge removed.

Also, we've had birds fly into double glazed french doors many times and the glass hasn't broken. Sounds to me like the Charles had some dodgy glass.

[charles]

I talked on the phone to the firm that made the greenhouse (to get the exact size of glass) and was told this isn't an unusual event. I certainly heard a very heavy "thump". Most likely a pheasant.

Small birds hit the house windows from time to time. The other day a tit knocked itself out, but a few minutes later was up again and flew away.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

I had to laugh some years ago when I looked at a garage window which ran along the edge of a pavement on a street corner, as one of the windows looked like that olde Worldy bottle glass with dimple in the middle. Tapping it I was a little disappointed to not it was merely plastic.

Some people will stick anything in garages, I know that when I had my old Asbestos one I turned into a store and workshop many old bits of glass and plastic were pressed into use 'for now' and many lasted for years. Brian

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail]>, charles [e-mail]> writes

Buying *cut to size* horticultural glass for a greenhouse, I was interested that it was referred to as * half cloche*. Apparently historically horticultural glass had a fixed size with all others being a simple fraction.

>

[Adrian]

In message [e-mail]>, Adrian [e-mail]> writes

Thanks for the info. I shall draw up a "hit list" of local suppliers, and see what they say, now that I have an idea of where to set the BS-ometer.

Adrian

[alan_m]

Could it be the way the glass is supported? In DG units the glass is supported on all sides and for the full length of each side. Greenhouse glass is usually clipped in a a few point places, and probably on two sides only. It is relatively easy to crack greenhouse glass when fitting.

In a house belonging to a relative bird strikes were once common, possibly because the birds could see the front to the back of the house through two windows, or possibly because the reflection of the outside world. There were no net curtains. The window never broke. The cure was to stick something on the middle of the glass (a small stained glass type motif).

[Tricky Dicky]

The FENSA requirement is a nice little earner racket for installers. At the end of the day the main required specifications are met by the window manufacturer in the majority of cases all the installer does is fasten it to the opening, installs the glass and seals the frame/opening interface all of which any competent DIYer could do. Yet come to sell a house without a FENSA or other equivalent certificates gets convayencing lawyers having melt downs.

Richard