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We have a frameless shower door in the guest suite. Out of nowhere the door shattered. Nobody was using the room, we just heard a crash and found the door shattered.
Two questions - generally what types of things could cause that? The house is 2.5 years old and the shower has gotten limited usage. Last time it was used was 3 days ago and nobody has even been in the bathroom since. The door was closed because the magnetic handle was in its proper place.
Secondly, and just as puzzling, the shattered glass is "popping" on the floor. We heard noise that at first sounded like running water but found out that the glass pieces were popping on the floor. Think of Mexican Jumping Beans. Is that a clue to something or is that natural behavior for when safety glass (or whatever shower doors are made of) shatters? Some sort of electrical charge perhaps?
Outside of paranormal activity I'm just guessing. Generally, they break because of stress or a small crack, but I would think that after a couple years, it would have happened already.
We have a frameless shower door in the guest suite. Out of nowhere the door shattered. Nobody was using the room, we just heard a crash and found the door shattered.
Two questions - generally what types of things could cause that? The house is 2.5 years old and the shower has gotten limited usage. Last time it was used was 3 days ago and nobody has even been in the bathroom since. The door was closed because the magnetic handle was in its proper place.
Secondly, and just as puzzling, the shattered glass is "popping" on the floor. We heard noise that at first sounded like running water but found out that the glass pieces were popping on the floor. Think of Mexican Jumping Beans. Is that a clue to something or is that natural behavior for when safety glass (or whatever shower doors are made of) shatters? Some sort of electrical charge perhaps?
I'm perplexed with this one.
Yes, I’ve seen it happen commercially with Herculite doors which are tempered glass entrance doors that you might see on a high end retail store, Apple Store, etc. The manufacturer claims that often times it is due to an internal flaw in the glass that’s not visible and or a result of a hole/opening it the glass where hardware/ hinges and or pulls are installed.
Personally, I’ve witnessed one glass door of an interior entrance explode in a lobby and no one was using the door when it shattered.
This is what I read. Tempered glass contains a large amount of energy in it and if it weakens over time from contraction or expansion, or there is a defect in the glass, it can explode out of the blue. Frameless doors may be more at risk of breaking.
I had a sliding glass door do this. I think in that case it was a small nick in the glass that caused it.
No, it's residual stress being released. That's how tempered glass works, by applying a residual stress to the whole sheet.. Now that it's broken into little pieces the residual (compressive, probably) stress in each fragment no longer has the remainder of the sheet around it constraining it, so it's releasing by the little fragments breaking into smaller fragments.
When I was growing up we had the stationary panel on a tempered sliding glass door explode one day. No one was near it. We guessed either temperature change or maybe a bird hit it and then flew away.
The door was at least 10 years old at the time. It was the only broken window in the 50 years my family owned the home.
Earthquake (we've actually had some and tremors around here).
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(we've actually had some and tremors around here).
