By Barry Stone
Dear Barry,I was sitting in my family room, when the inside pane in my sliding glass door suddenly shattered with a loud bang. At first, I thought it had been struck from the outside, but the screen door was undamaged, and the outside pane was still intact. The two-year builder's warranty on the home just expired last month. Do I have recourse with the builder or the glass-door manufacturer? --Lowell
Dear Lowell,
Door glazing consists of tempered safety glass. Tempered glass is produced by subjecting plate glass to a specialized heating process. This causes the glass to shatter into tiny square-edged bits in the event of an accident, such as when someone walks through a glass door. Glass that is not tempered breaks into large pieces that are sharp and pointed and can cause serious injury. The disadvantage of tempered glass is that any slight scratch, crack or even stress along an edge can cause the pane to literally explode at an unexpected moment. Such occurrences are rare but can be unsettling to those who might be nearby. A worst-case scenario would involve glass particles in someone's eyes.
In my own home, a shower door once shattered in the middle of the night, spewing glass particles across the bathroom. Fortunately, no one was in the room at the time.
Whether the manufacturer or builder will take responsibility in the aftermath of your warranty period is uncertain. It they do, it should be accepted as an expression of good will, rather than an obligation.
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