How is one able to tell when a glass is tempered or not safe for a scraper or steel wool scrub? I appreciate any feedback thank you!
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There is no way to know. My approach has been to listen to the blade on the first few strokes of the blade for the distinct tinkling/hissing sound that is made when the blade scratches. If I jear that I don’t razor that window. Make the first stroke in an inconspicuous area of the glass.
Some guys may feel that’s risky but it has worked for me and it’s the approach I have used for 20 years with no issues.
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There’s a few easy ways to check for toughened glass when there’s no stamp present, polarised glasses allows you to sometimes see where the cooling jets have touched the glass, you can look st the reflections in the toughened glass and they will be slightly deformed and for myself I can sometimes tell by knocking on the glass, after working with glass every day for over 25 yrs I get a good feel for the difference between toughened and float, hard to explain but works for me
First question is what type of structure are you cleaning?
a home, a storefront a commercial building, high rise.
for example most large storefront glass will be tempered, all high rise glass will be tempered on newer constructions, anything that’s all glass will be tempered. sliding doors on homes, showers, larger panes, balustrades.
Like @Ozwindowcleaner says if you have polarized glasses you can tell most of the time, if you know where to look. That being said I have newer homes that have tempered glass in aver panel even the louvers, that is Tuesdays’ job 3 story house full of low E exposed coated glass, pita to clean… #thedragisreal
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Test a lower corner of the glass. If it feels like sand is rolling under and being dragged by your blade and making your skin crawl, it is the defective side that can’t be razored. The other side will probably feel like butter under you blade.
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This would imply that there is something wrong with the glass, that it either structurally or visually defective which its not.
Here is a differnt scenario a janitor has been cleaning toilets for 30 years all of a sudden the manufactures of toilets starts to make them differntly and sends out the new cleaning instructions. Old mate janitor knows what he’s doing no one can tell him how to do his job, so he messes up a whole bunch of toilets. Claims its not his fault he has been doing this for blah blah. toilets are defective. from his perpective the toilets can not be cleaned the same way so they are defective. but they look perfectly fine and they fuction perfectly fine. At the end of the day he has 1 job in this instance is to know how to clean the surface you are presented without damaging it.
We as window cleaners cannot change what is, the glass industry has trumped us with their new care instructions, as we saw in another post insurance companies are already aware of this and will not pay for using tools that have been deemed by the manufactures not to be used.
I would foresee by the end of 2020 all tempered new glass will have FD, why would they change obviously its cheaper to manufacture.
Oh, there’s something wrong with it all right.
Imagine if you woke up tomorrow and every time you washed the right side of your body with a wash cloth you started bleeding and all your skin fell off, but just the right side. Never had the issue in your entire life. Would you just say, welp, it’s water only from now on “ain’t nothing wrong with my body though, no sir, I’m structurally and visually perfect.”
I’d go see a doctor.
We needed to send GANA to the doctor about 25 years ago, but they claimed all was good, it’s them damn washcloths. Just use unicorn tears, no soap needed. Yep, when you use unicorn tears look no bleeding.
In the meantime, I’ll keep razoring where I can because it’s 30x faster.
Fines on glass IS defective, or at the very least improperly manufactured. They’re supposed to wash that junk off at the glass factory. I have a customer that installed all new Marvin windows on his sun porch. Before I even got started, I noticed fine scratches on the glass and suggested he contact Marvin. They sent out a rep and admitted the glass was defective and replaced several windows.
But anyway, I just test an inconspicuous corner with my razor first. It’ll make a SSSS sound, pretty easy to hear. I’ve also run across glass that pops and crackles as it has fewer, but larger fines.
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It’s only defective from the perspective of a window cleaner using a razor blade. There is nothing In the book of creation that glass must be able to be scraped. Manufactures do not have to cater to the person cleaning the glass.
Manufacturing company make a chocolate bar, state do not leave in sun. You do and call it defective. Not much difference between the two imo.
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I agree, if the manufacturer says don’t use a blade then when you go ahead and use one then your taking responsibility for it, you need to at least let the customer know that manufacturers don’t recvomend it, I think it’s deceptive to get a scratch waiver signed to absolve yourself of any blame, the customer ends up thinking it’s the only way to go, I know I’d be pissed if I found out I was never given the choice
What does this noise sound like? More specifically? Thank you for your input!
What’s the difference between toughened and float lol… thank you
They take float glass which is your normal glass that can be cut to size and they heat it up then cool it down rapidly and this strengthens the glass approx 5 times stronger than float, when it breaks it does so into tiny little squares
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It sounds like hissing, SSSSSSS. Sometimes more like a crackling, popping sound. It’ll be obvious.
Sorry I just saw this. I have been pretty busy this month.
It makes a hissing/tinkling or faint popping sound. It sounds like what you would exoect microscopic grit under yoir razor to sound like.
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I would like to ask the guy that makes chocolate bars why half of them melt and the other half don’t. Could you make them all not to melt?
