A Second-Storey Window Exploded Over the Driveway on a Weekend
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A toughened glass window on the second storey of a Curlewis home spontaneously exploded over a weekend. Nothing hit it.
The failure was nickel sulphide inclusion, a microscopic particle trapped in the glass during manufacture that can expand over time until the panel releases all at once. It gives no warning, and it is the reason toughened glass occasionally fails with nobody near it.
The first problem was underneath
A second-storey failure is not just a hole in a wall. The glass came down over the driveway and garage area below, which made the ground the immediate hazard rather than the window.
Our glaziers attended quickly to make safe, clearing and securing the area below before anything else.
Why this needed scaffold, not a ladder
Reaching a second-storey opening to remove a frame and place a new panel is not ladder work. There is nowhere to rest the glass, no safe way to control it, and no margin if it shifts.
We arranged scaffold hire so the window could be reached and worked properly, to Australian Standards.
Once the replacement glass was manufactured we returned and installed it within a short turnaround, restoring the window in new toughened safety glass.
Before
During
After
High-access glazing
Height changes the method, not the outcome. We use scaffold, scissor lifts or cranes depending on the opening, across Curlewis and the Bellarine Peninsula, including after-hours and weekend callouts.
The job in short
- Site: Residential, Curlewis, second storey
- Failure: Toughened window shattered spontaneously, no impact
- Cause: Nickel sulphide inclusion
- Immediate hazard: Glass over the driveway and garage below
- Access: Scaffold hire arranged for safe working height
- Replacement: New toughened safety glass unit
