Do the neighborhood kids send baseball after baseball into your home's windows? If you have concerns about damage from baseballs or other similar flying sports gear, take a look at what you need to know.
What Should You Do After a Ball Breaks Your Window?
Did you hear a crash or come home to shards of glass and a stray baseball inside of your home? What should you do now?
Some homeowners insurance policies will pay for this type of damage. Before you start the cleanup and replacement process, contact your insurance agent to learn more about your options and financial obligations. You may need to document the damage with photos before you remove anything from the scene.
Will the Glass Type Change the Next Steps?
After you photograph the broken glass, you can move on to the cleanup. The extent of the cleanup and the safety or injury hazards involved depend on what your home's windows are made from.
Tempered and annealed glass are the two primary options for windows. To temper glass, manufacturers quickly cool the pane. This creates a strong, durable material that shatters into pellets. Annealed, or regular, glass is weaker and cracks or breaks into sharp shards.
While many windows are from these two types of glass, some are laminated. Laminated glass is a multi-layer product that includes a polyvinyl butryl (PVB) plastic sheeting. The PVB layer can hold the glass together, reducing the likelihood it will shatter from a baseball impact.
If your windows are tempered glass, carefully remove the pellets from the floor and surrounding area. Even though these pellets typically aren't as sharp as annealed glass shards, they may still pose some risk.
Homeowners who have annealed glass windows will need to take extreme caution during the cleanup process. You may also need to remove excess glass from the window frame. If the glass cracked but didn't shatter, leave the window alone until a professional can inspect it.
Do You Need to Replace a Cracked Window?
Again, annealed glass won't shatter in the same way a tempered glass window would. This means it may crack without breaking. Even though the glass may not fall out of the frame, you still need to repair the window.
Cracked glass can eventually shatter. Beyond the potential for future damage, cracked glass creates air leaks. These leaks can decrease home comfort and your HVAC system's energy efficiency. Cracks in the pane's solid surface allow heated and cooled interior air out and the chilly and hot outdoor air in.
To reduce the risks of a cracked window, replace the pane as soon as possible. Not only will a replacement increase your home's safety and security, but it can also keep your home's energy usage stable.
What Happens If You Can't Repair the Window Right Away?
Can you not schedule a replacement immediately or is the window pane you want not available right now? What should you do now? Serious cracks, missing glass, and shards in the frame aren't issues you should ignore. Beyond the aesthetic and energy-related issues, without a full, undamaged pane of glass, your home is at risk for a break-in. Call a window contractor as soon as you can for an emergency board-up service.
What Should You Replace the Window With?
Should you replace the window with the same type of glass? If your window is in the direct line of the neighborhood's regular baseball games, you may need something stronger than annealed glass. Consider a laminated or specialty impact resistance option to prevent or reduce the risk of future damage.
Do you need a glass replacement or emergency window board-up service? Contact
All American Glass
for more information.
