Let me tell you a disturbing story of something that happened to me this morning. I was going to one of my customers to pickup a check. When I noticed a glass company installing brand new tinted windows for another customer. They were rather large tall tempered windows. I could easily see they were tempered because my polarized sunglasses showed up the compression pattern. As I approached I made small talk with one of the workers. The glass company they worked for is also one of my customers. I clean storefront windows and am a glass consultant too. Sometimes the two overlap. Nonetheless I decided to very gently "feel" the surface with my car key to see if this tempered glass had the typical sandpaper sound of a scratch sensitive/defective surface. One prone to scratches. I know how to do this without causing any scratches myself. But what I didn't realize is the installation men did not know what I know. One of them was ok with me. But the other became very angry. I wasn't going to educate anyone on the spot so I just calmly walked away. Hoping he got over it. He did say I don't care what you do after we are gone, just don't touch the glass with anything metallic now. The glass they were installing was very smooth by the way. Quite unlike most tempered glass.
But it got me thinking. Obviously he doesn't know that it is way easier to scratch glass with a shard from a broken glass bottle, or a piece of silicon, or a rock, rather than a piece of metal. How could he? I know because I have tested many materials to see what scratches easiest. In my work as a consultant/inspector I will first create a scratch sensitive surface on a sample plate of new glass. By polishing it with cerium oxide. Then I drag different things over it to scratch. Next I will take micrographs of the different scratches to characterize them.
Second he was really afraid that I was going to scratch their brand new glass and he would be responsible! Once they had done their job installing the windows he would have no control hence no responsibility for what I or anyone else did. But the big kicker and main point that I am getting at here is what if they were installing scratch sensitive glass? Then if the owners of the restaurant used a razor blade to get ketchup or even holiday paint off the windows, and scratched every window in the process, who would be responsible then? Would it be the manufacturer at the float glass plant,? How about the company that made the insulating glass units? Or the glass company that installed the defective glass on the building? Or what about the restaurant? Or how about the window cleaning company hired to clean the windows and remove the paint or whatever else was on the glass?
The bottom line here it would probably the very last person who used the razor. Which is usually the window cleaner. Unless someone else scratched the glass and then it was allowed to get covered with dirt hiding the scratches from view. You see NO ONE knows anything about scratch sensitive glass. No one has even had to address it. That includes most every glass company that is out there installing it and every insulating glass unit manufacturer and every window and door manufacturer. But all of these people will continue to carry on in their ignorance UNLESS the public in general is made aware of it! That is why I am writing. That is why I have made videos of this animal. So EVERYONE can watch and listen to them.
In my previous post I embedded a couple of these very short videos. All you have to do is pull them up on your phone and play them for your customers or employees. It will not solve this problem. But it might save a few people from losing their businesses. Because insurance companies do not pay for this kind of damage.
Written by Henry Grover Jr.
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