A Sliding Door That Exploded at 10pm With Nobody Touching It
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Late on a Monday night, a homeowner in Armstrong Creek heard their toughened sliding door shatter at around 10pm.
Nothing hit it. Nobody was near it. It simply failed.
Why toughened glass sometimes does this
This kind of failure is usually caused by a manufacturing defect called nickel sulphide inclusion, a microscopic particle trapped inside the glass during production. Over time it can expand, and when it does, the tension that makes toughened glass strong is exactly what makes it let go all at once.
It happens without impact and without warning, which is why it is so unsettling for the homeowner. There is nothing they did, and nothing they could have seen coming.
Within the hour, then back the next day
Our team was on site by 11pm, within the hour of the call, and carried out a full make-safe and board-up to secure the house overnight.
We returned the following day to complete the permanent replacement.
Why it went back in laminated, not toughened
We replaced the failed toughened panel with laminated safety glass, and that choice is the point of the whole job.
Laminated glass has an interlayer bonding the sheets together. If it is ever broken it holds itself in place rather than releasing. It is not subject to the same spontaneous failure mode as toughened, so replacing like-for-like would have left the same risk sitting in the door frame.
Before
After
The job in short
- Site: Residential, Armstrong Creek
- Failure: Toughened sliding door shattered spontaneously at approx. 10pm, no impact
- Likely cause: Nickel sulphide inclusion
- On site: By 11pm, within the hour, make-safe and board-up
- Next day: Permanent replacement in laminated safety glass to AS1288
