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So my apartment window exploded last night. **NOW w/ PICS**

V

venk

Banned
At about 3:30 AM last night, as I was lurking on ATOT, I heard a loud "Crash/shattering" sound just over my left shoulder. As soon as I heard it, I instinctivly did a barrel roll and grabbed my laptop to use as a weapon (just in case). When I looked at the window, it had shattered and there was glass everywhere but I didn't see anyone outside (either standing there or running away).

We have ruled out vandalism or someone throwing a rock through it since we didn't find any rocks in the vicinty. On top of that, we are pretty sure we haven't pissed off anyone to that extent. Here is what we do know, their are 2 Large holes in the window, one about half a fot in diameter and the other about a foot and a a half. Broken glass is lying both inside the apartment and outside on the ground.

I thought it might have to do with expansion and contraction of the glass considering inside my apartment it is VERY warm (we get free heat, so we crank it up) and outside it was very cold last night (below freezing, don't know the exact low in Michigan at 3:30 AM).


Any Guess would be more than welcome.

PICS!

Pic 1
Pic 2
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Pic 4
 
I thought it might have to do with expansion and contraction of the glass considering inside my apartment it is VERY warm (we get free heat, so we crank it up) and outside it was very cold last night (below freezing, don't know the exact low in Michigan at 3:30 AM).
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My guess as well.
 
Maybe a ghost got pissed off and started boxing with your window... 🙂

Seriously though... could have been the temperature extremes... I live in Ontario Canada, and it was fvcking cold out last night!
 
PS. We have a grand total of 11 windows in my apartment (5 in the common area and 3 in each bedroom) and only one shattered.
 
Ice ball? It melted and you cant find it. Or maybe the house shifted its weight and somehow a supporting force of the house caused it to buckle.
 
well you see, there are little leprechauns that live in your window, these little leprechauns watch over your window and make sure it doesn't get fvcked up or something, and you must have pissed them off, so they stopped working
 
Hey! You would have done the same thing if a giant window shattered less than a foot from your neck. 😀

 
Not a temperature differential situation - glass doesn't suck THAT badly. Possibly temp differential combined with pressure differential (think strong wind) would do that.
 
If you only hear one sound, that means both holes shattered simultaneously. Unless the ppl throwing stuff had excellent timing, most likely the two holes were caused by one source of stress. It was probably the heat vs cold thing, unless you had some really loud high pitched sound that shattered it. The window might have had some weak points already, and that may be why it shattered while the others didn't.
 
Originally posted by: Albis
is that south quad you're looking at?
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No, I live on South Forest in the Forest place apartment complex. I'm looking at the complex next door. First Floor rooms do have disadvantages. 🙁

Originally posted by: Schrodinger
Originally posted by: venk
Originally posted by: Brutuskend
Man, what a dismal view you have out of your window. 🙁
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🙁

I concur.
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Are you a student?
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Yeah
 
Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Not a temperature differential situation - glass doesn't suck THAT badly. Possibly temp differential combined with pressure differential (think strong wind) would do that.
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I don't recall it being very windy last night, but then again I got back in at around 1:30 AM so it could have changed.

 
Originally posted by: thelanx
If you only hear one sound, that means both holes shattered simultaneously. Unless the ppl throwing stuff had excellent timing, most likely the two holes were caused by one source of stress. It was probably the heat vs cold thing, unless you had some really loud high pitched sound that shattered it. The window might have had some weak points already, and that may be why it shattered while the others didn't.
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^^^agree^^^
 
I can't believe no one noticed this, but that glass is nto window glass. It is picture glass, the same kind you would put over a picture in your house. That glass is UNTEMPERED and very weak compared to actuall window/door glass which is tempered.

The reason that window broke and not another was because that window had the glass replaced at some point in the past, and the replacer used the WRONG GLASS.

Nontempered glass does not handle tempeature extreames very well. It was very likely that the middle of the glass was a few degrees above outside tempeature, while the glass right around the aluminum frame was 10-20 degrees below inside temp. BEcause of this, the glass would have actually bowed towards the heat (into the room) and the limit of the glass was reached, which cracked the glass in 2 places along the frame. The crack spread across the glass with the stress, and split in nice "semicircles" that curled back to the frame.

I bet if you look closely at the frame, there is somethign in the frame at the point the cracks started and ended. The frame was prolly nailed in at that point, which kept the window frame from moving with the glass (the frame is supposed to stay stationary, this is why Tempered glass is used) or a local heat cource was there, which could also be caused by a nail (which helps with heat transfer) or an electrical pipe, or missing insulation in the wall cavity)

In addition, the person installing the glass probably did not take into account the fact that glass expands and contracts, so the glass got stuck when it hit the bottom of the glazing channel, which would have produced a local stress point, which could also be why the glass broke in those spots.

Diagnosis? Wrong glass in the window, which could not handle the bending stress caused by tempeature differential, compounded with incorrect installation lead to localized stress which burst the window towards the localized heat source.

 
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