Window Washing Scaffolding Sends Broken Glass Raining Down

An unoccupied window washing scaffolding began swinging uncontrollably atop an East Village condominium high-rise Monday, smashing through a window before crews were able to secure it.

Window Washing System Swings Off High-Rise Roof: Firefighters worked quickly Monday to remove scaffolding hanging ominously from a downtown high-rise building. A window washing system arm came crashing down at about 3:45 p.m. atop the Mark Condos in the 800 block of Market Street, according to San Diego Fire officials. The equipment shattered a window below, leaving the arm dangling above the main downtown thoroughfare. Police closed down the street in front of the condos in case the scaffolding tumbled onto people or cars below. Firefighters removed the system before it could fall. No one was injured or trapped in the incident.

Broken scaffolding dangles from high-rise (San Diego) – Scaffolding used to wash windows on an East Village high-rise swung uncontrollably before crashing into the building Monday afternoon, leaving the scaffolding dangling above the street, authorities said. San Diego Fire Rescue Department crews were investigating what caused the scaffolding to crash into several apartment windows at the Mark Condos on Market Street and 8th Avenue in East Village at 3:45 p.m.

No one was on the scaffolding at the time of accident, and the operators of the platform told authorities gusty winds apparently had caused the accident, SDFRD Capt. Joe Amador said. Glass from the window crashed onto the street below causing authorities to block Market Street between 8th and 9th Avenues until 6 p.m.  Some residents were evacuated from the apartment complex while fire crews attempted to remove the damaged scaffolding, Amador said. Police closed a block of the street in front of the building for about two hours while workers removed the scaffolding and cleaned up the broken glass.

Glass Shower Doors Can Shatter Without Warning

Classic meandering pattern of heat-related stress crack, accompanied by evidence of edge damage. In this case, the building had both: edge damage and underspecified glass. Reflective blinds and a South exposure combined to create a high frequency of this type of breakage.

Glass Shower Doors Can Shatter Without Warning (Chicago): If your shower door is made of glass, you may endure injuries, a big clean up and thousands of dollars down the drain. CBS 2′s Dave Savini first exposed tempered-glass patio tables suddenly exploding. Now he found the same happening with shower doors. Dorothy Malinski’s shower door suddenly exploded while her mother was bathing. “I heard this big bang, this big boom,” said Malinski.  “I couldn’t enter all the way because there’s glass all over the counter, in the sink, on the floor.” Her mother was cut on her hands and face.

Even though tempered-glass shower doors are supposed to break into small pieces — to prevent injuries from larger, sharper pieces of glass — they can break in bigger shards. That is what happened to Larry Kucharik, who was injured while cleaning up the shattered glass from his shower door. “I just tapped the top of it and a chunk of it came down and hit my ankle,” said Kucharik, whose ankle is still scarred. “It started bleeding, and there was a lot of blood all over the floor.”

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports more than 60 complaints of shower doors shattering for no reason — just suddenly exploding, causing lacerations and bleeding. People reported needing stitches and even surgery. Mark Meshulam, a glass and window consultant, reviewed the reports. “These are the types of injuries and situations that I would expect to see when something goes wrong with shower doors,” he says. He says a microscopic imperfection during the manufacturing process can grow and migrate, weakening the glass until it suddenly shatters. It can even shatter without it being touched. “I would say treat the doors gingerly,” Meshulam warns. “Do not bang them. Don’t allow children to hang on the towel bars.”

He also says look for chips near brackets, the towel bar and along the edges. Also, make sure the door only moves the way it is supposed to and is not loose on the track or hinges. In Larry Kucharik’s case, the manufacturer replaced his shower door at no cost. This has also been a problem at hotels. Meshulam says one reportedly had 50 doors shatter. He would like to see protective film on shower doors to catch breaking glass. This is a tempered glass problem, so it involves various door manufacturers and the ages of glass. If this happens to you, call the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the door manufacturer.

Also see here & here. 

Chicago Window Expert - Mark Meshulam (pictured) is a consultant for glass breakage and expert witness for personal injury due to glass breakage. When tempered glass breaks, the energy retained in the glass due to internal tension/compression releases explosively and produces a breakage pattern sometimes called “cubes’.

Seeing a cubist breakage pattern does not tell you why the glass broke, it only tells you that the glass was tempered. Generally, there are three reasons tempered glass will break: impact, edge damage or inclusions. Inclusions are tiny impurities in the glass. The most well known are nickel sulfide, however there are also silica and gaseous inclusions which look like tiny bubbles.

Normally, when tempered glass breaks, it falls down into a pile of little cubes. Only the most patient window consultants with the most generous client would ever consider piecing the cubes together to determine the cause of breakage. That being said, I have personally spent many hours picking through the rubble looking for an important clue: a pair of adjacent hexagons, known as a butterfly pattern, that borders a nickel sulfide inclusion.

If you look closely, you can see the point of impact on this tempered glass. A laminated interlayer holds the cubes in place.

However, occasionally the pieces of broken tempered glass will stay in the opening, locked to each other like blocks in a masonry arch. And just like in a masonry arch, if you remove the keystone, the arch – or glass in this case – comes tumbling down. This picture above shows broken glass which was a part of a laminated unit. The PVB (polyvinyl butyrate) interlayer held the pieces in place, giving us an opportunity to observe that impact damage is visible, even in tempered glass.

Spontaneous Breakage in Tempered Glass: Glass, and especially tempered glass, sometimes breaks all by itself. This can be quite disconcerting when, as has happened in a public place which will go unnamed here in our great city, large, thick panes of tempered glass basically blew up fairly frequently. The unusual cause in this rare instance: the glazing contractor attempted to grind the edges of the glass after it was tempered, creating a series of time bombs. It is a very bad idea to modify glass after it is tempered!

A more well-known, but also quite rare cause of spontaneous breakage is nickel sulfide inclusions. If you read the previous post, you will already be down with the fact that glass is made from melted powders. A nickel sulfide inclusion is a tiny rock of unmelted material that remains in the glass. Below see an artists graphic representation of a nickel sulfide inclusion.

Artists representation of nickel sulfide inclusion.

You can well imagine that a little rock embedded in a slab of glass which is under high tension/compression forces, could weaken the glass and eventually cause breakage. But the story gets worse. Nickel sulfide grows an additional 4% of its size over time, especially in the presence of heat. If it is located in the strata in the glass between tension and compression, and it grows, kaboom!


Exploding Glass Shower Doors: One of the scariest, yet somewhat common type of tempered glass spontaneous breakage is in glass shower doors. They are exposed to banging against bumpers, heat from the shower, wrenching action of through-mounted towel bars and of course, nickel sulfide inclusions. In hotels, multiply the risk factors by the number of rooms and the lack of care typically taken by a hotel patron. There can be a delay between impact and crack propagation in tempered glass, just like any other glass, and sometimes the time the glass finally explodes seems ironic and and Machiavellian. Quite often the perverted glass will explode while the unsuspecting victim is in the shower.
Let’s count the problems: 1. The victim is naked. 2. There are sharp cubes of glass projectiles flying around. 3. The victim is bare footed. 4. The victim must walk barefooted over a field of freshly shattered glass shards. So here’s a tip for readers who actually do take showers: If your shower door shatters, stand still for a moment and take stock of the situation. Hopefully you are not cut too badly. Without moving your feet too much, look for a towel. Try to grab it and lay it down on the glass so you can walk out. Then get the hell out and never shower again.

Stress Cracks (see head picture): A “stress crack” will usually only happen in annealed or heat strengthened glass. Stress cracks emanate from the edge of the glass and meander about apparently without purpose. But there is a purpose: to relieve stress. However, the term “stress crack” can be misleading. If annealed glass is subjected to thermal fluctuations beyond its capabilities, it will break in a way that will relieve the stresses induced by thermal changes. This type of failure is a design issue. Heat strengthened glass should have been specified for the application. However, there can be a near-identical breakage pattern which emanates from damage in the glass edge that fails as stresses, such as thermal, are applied.
To tell the difference between a true stress crack and a crack due to edge damage, look at the edge of the glass for a chip, which we window linguists call an “oyster”. You might have to look hard because the oyster could be buried in the primary seal on the #2 or #3 surface. Another clue would be the distribution of glass breakage in the building. It would be normal to find stress-like cracks on elevations with greater temperature swings. But does the breakage also coincide with the use of reflective interior blinds, especially in a partially opened position? That would be indicative of a true stress crack, rather than a crack induced by edge damage.

Window Cleaning News

Apple is finally acknowledging that it has more money than it needs. But don't expect it to cut prices on iPhones and iPads. Instead, the company said on Monday that it will reward its shareholders with a dividend and a stock buyback program. Apple, the world's most valuable publicly traded company, sits on $97.6 billion in cash and securities. The company has stockpiled the cash through a combination of great ideas and prudence. A window washer works atop the cube-like structure of glass that houses the Apple Store showroom in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Apple Inc. said it will announce the outcome of its internal discussion concerning its enormous cash balance on Monday morning.

Rain barrels are catching on: Spring is just about here and with spring comes spring rains. Now is the time to be thinking about catching some of that rain before it ends up down our storm drains. Lawn and garden watering make up nearly 40% of total household water use during the summer. A rain barrel collects water and stores it for when you need it to water plants or wash your car. It provides an ample supply of free "soft water" to homeowners, containing no chlorine, lime or calcium making it ideal for gardens, flower pots, and car and window washing. Saving water not only helps the environment, it saves you money and energy. Diverting water from storm drains also decreases the impact of runoff to streams and lakes. A rain barrel is an easy way for you to have a consistent supply of clean, fresh water for outdoor use. The Cherokee Soil and Water Conservation District has rain barrels for sale.

Maysville: Eugene "Chick" Morton, 87, died in Lexington on Saturday, March 10, 2012, after a long illness. Mr. Morton was born on July 7, 1924, to the late Fannie Morton Washington. He was the owner and operator of Stober Window Cleaning and the Twentieth Century Club for many years.  Mr. Morton is also survived by 15 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Jordi Munoz had no training. Scant schooling. Little money. He also had a video-game console and nothing else to do. So he built his own drone. A Mexican native, Mr. Munoz married an American citizen and moved to Riverside, Calif., in 2007. While waiting for his green card, the 21-year-old was marooned in his apartment, unable to work, attend school or obtain a driver’s license. On the other hand, he had an Internet connection. A Nintendo Wii. A radio-controlled toy helicopter his mother had given him to help kill time. Tinkering with the Wii’s control wand and a $60 gyroscope he had purchased on eBay, he modified the helicopter to fly itself, just like the $5 million Predator unmanned aerial vehicles deployed by the U.S. military.

Five years later, Mr. Munoz is co-founder and CEO of 3D Robotics, a San Diego-based company that has 18 employees and earned more than $300,000 in revenue in December producing components for hobbyist drones. “I think we’re going to see many commercial applications and much more civilian development than in the military,” said Missy Cummings, director of the Humans and Automation Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “In 15 years, you could look up in the sky and see UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] doing window washing and building inspections.

Small businessman buys big Limbaugh ad; Following two weeks of news reports about a Rush Limbaugh advertiser exodus, a small businessman in Lenor City, Tennessee, has come out with an advertisement in Limbaugh's defense. Steven Eimers, who runs a local window cleaning service and recorded the advertisement at WOKI Knoxville yesterday, says he bought the ad not just to earn business but because he wanted to support free speech. "I've already got a ton of positive repsonses," Eimers told me. "I'm just a small little window cleaning company, but for a small business guy the ads on Rush right now are not that expensive. To be able to stand up for what you believe in is just incredible."

In the 60-second spot, his first advertisement in over ten years, Eimers says Limbaugh made "morally wrong statements," but criticized a number of "dangerous, radical organizations" for seizing upon those statements and to attack free speech. "They are harassing advertisers with questionably legal secondary boycotts and threats," he says. "We support free speech... For those who will choose to use this ad as an excuse to attack our constiutional right to free speech, I have one thing to say: We will not be intimidated. Bring it on." Eimers told me that his add has already earned him at least one customer, and that over the next five to ten years that customer's service will pay ten-times what it cost him to make the ad. (He would not disclose the cost of the ad buy). "I've alread made back the money I paid, so I'm pumped," he told me. See video here.

Allison Doyle and Joshua Hickman: Phillip and Rhonda Doyle of Reynoldsburg announce the engagement of their daughter, Allison, to Joshua Hickman, son of Luther Hickman Jr. and Kim Rowe of Columbus. The bride-to-be graduated from Reynoldsburg High School in 2007 and received a bachelor's degree in nursing from Kent State University in 2011. She is a registered nurse at Fairfield Medical Center. Her fiance graduated from Hilliard Darby High School in 2006. He is employed with Al's Window Cleaning.

Nine homes were burgled in one area of Wolverhampton during a 24-hour crime spree, police revealed today. The burglaries all happened in the Penn area at properties in Goldthorn Crescent, Goldthorn Avenue, Westbourne Road, Alexandra Road and Belmont Road. In all the cases the thieves broke in through porches or windows. At one property in Belmont Road a camera, iPod and laptop were stolen while at another address in the same street credit cards were taken. Thieves struck at four addresses in Alexandra Road taking a purse and bag and more credit cards. Sergeant Ron Price from West Midlands Police said: “Penn is obviously a target. “I would be keen to hear if anyone has had any callers lately offering services such as window cleaning or driveway repairs.” Patrols have been increased.

Police have issued a warning about a gang of burglars who may be operating in the Nuneaton and Bedworth area. There has been a series of break-ins and attempted entry into houses in the past week, which may be connected, and officers are urging people to be on the lookout. Some information has been provided following the theft of jewellery and cash from an address in Edward Tyler Road, Exhall, on Wednesday. Det Sgt Todd Lomax said “Early witness reports indicate there may have been three males in a VW Golf seen nearby. One of them got out of the car and asked a member of the public in the road if he wanted his windows cleaning. “Men have also been seen acting suspiciously claiming to be window cleaners in the Rugby area recently where burglaries have then been reported shortly after. “We are asking the public to be alert to this and to report anyone acting suspiciously, making a note of car registration numbers and any other details.”

Kev’s on cue for the Crucible: A snooker coach from Worcestershire is set to take the next step in his career by putting players through their paces at the World Championships. Kev Ellis will be the resident coach on the opening weekend of the 17-day event, which starts next month at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. The 36-year-old will be working in the tournament’s CueZone, situated next to the venue, on Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22. Ellis will run competitions for prospective players and be on hand to teach them the basics. His involvement comes on the first anniversary of the Bromsgrove window cleaner qualifying as a World Snooker coach. Pictured; World Snooker coach Chris Lovell, Kev Ellis and six-times world champion Steve Davis.

Brian Kennedy: The man who once owned Everest is now preparing to climb it. Kennedy made his fortune from a string of successful double glazing, home improvements and communications companies.Kennedy, a Jehovah’s Witness and father of five, has come a long way since his first wage packet, a pound a week for helping his dad, a window cleaner. He remains fiercely driven and has outlined his philosophy on business and life – the need to work. He said: “I did semi-retire, I lived in Majorca. It drove my kids nuts and it drove me nuts. I would travel, I would see seriously monied people in executive lounges and exclusive hotels and they all had one thing in common: They looked absolutely bloody miserable. “They look for the next big high, the next big stimulus. But what they are trying to replace is what all of us want and need: A job. I need a job, I need this. Otherwise I’d be bored stiff.”

Deputy PM Nick Clegg leads tributes to SLDC leader Brendan Jameson: Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has led tributes to South Lakeland District Council leader Brendan Jameson who died suddenly aged 66. Coun Jameson, who was also a Cumbria County and Kendal Town councillor, is believed to have died in the early hours of this morning (Monday) after a heart attack. Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland & Lonsdale, said: "A leader and a window cleaner - everyone here knew that Brendan Jameson wasn't a politician, he was one of us. Brendan was born and bred in Kendal and besotted with Kendal. Conservative Coun Tom Harvey said: "It really is very sad news - we were obviously of differing political parties but he worked tirelessly for all of South Lakeland. "It takes your breath away that this has happened and I think all councillors and staff feel a bit hollow - it is such a shock."

Americans spend $9.7 billion a year on household cleaning supplies. That’s a lot of money. But do you need to clean out your wallet to clean your house? We decided to shop at a discount store and buy several generic cleaning supplies: glass cleaner, paper towels, dish soap and sponges. The total cost was $4. Then, we went to a major supermarket chain and bought brand named cleaning supplies: Windex, Bounty, Dawn and Ocelo. The total cost for those products was $12. Would the brand named products that cost three times as much be better than the generics?

We went to the home of Andria Alexander, a mom of two, who specializes in living frugal. In fact, she runs the website, simplyfrugalliving. Without her looking, we put the products in containers labeled A and B. She started with Glass Cleaner A to clean her stovetop. She liked the results. She also liked the results of Dish Soap A on her dirty dishes. “Very sudsy. I do like suds,” said Alexander. She was not a huge fan of Dish Soap B, but it did get the dishes clean. But it lacked suds, so she ended up using more of it to get the job done.

But when it came to Glass Cleaner B, she was impressed. She picked it over A when it came to cleaning her mirror and her dirty garage window. In the end after cleaning her stove, mirrors, windows and dishes, she had an overall favorite. Andria picked A. She picked the brand named products. And switching from A to B glass cleaner would have saved her a bundle. It’s was $1 for the generic compared to $3.50 for the Windex.

FREE CLASS: HOMEMADE LAUNDRY DETERGENTS AND GREEN CLEANING: A free class on homemade laundry detergents and green cleaning with a coupon, swap and share will be on April 5 at 6 p.m. in the Upper Level Meeting Room of the Wayne County Coopera-tive Extension Office. Learn how to save money and safely make green cleaning solutions. Each participant will learn how to make window cleaners, all-purpose cleaners, homemade laundry detergents and fabric softeners, and will get samples to take home and try.

Eco-Depot to collect hazardous waste in Smithfield: Eco-Depot will conduct a household hazardous waste collection effort on Saturday, March 24, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Smithfield Department of Public Works garage, 3 Spragueville Road. Eco-Depot is a free service for Rhode Island residents who wish to dispose of their household hazardous waste safely and properly. Acceptable items include oven cleaner, window cleaner, flea collars, pool chemicals, nail polish remover and oil-based paint in rusty old paint cans. This free service is available by appointment only.

Health ’n’ safety? It doesn’t matter how much we complain about the idiocy of elf’n’safety, it just keeps on coming. Ladders are the latest target of those who wish to protect us from ourselves. I’ve already drawn attention to the rules aimed at window cleaners, which require them to buy and erect expensive scaffolding before working above ground level. Organisers of a Diamond Jubilee street party at Petersfield, Hants, have been told by council officers that they must go on a ‘ladder safety’ course — at a cost of £320 — before they can put up bunting. They will also need to buy public liability insurance and pay for a full risk assessment.

If you think this is an isolated piece of stupidity, consider the case of a couple who have been decorating Weymouth railway station with flowers for the past ten years. Brian and Janna Coomber have spent thousands of pounds of their own money on floral displays.  But now they’ve been told by the new station manager that it is too dangerous for them to climb ladders to weed and restock their planters, which are six feet off the ground — even though they have never had an accident.

A spokesman for South West Trains said: ‘In delivering a safe and on-time railway service, we carefully manage our arrangements with staff and volunteers working on our property to prevent accidents from happening and to ensure passenger services run without disruption.’ Pictured; Green-fingered Brian and Janna Coomber have been told they are not allowed to use a ladder to tend to the award-winning floral decorations at Weymouth railway station in Dorset

Majority of people believe cash set to become extinct: Nearly a third (30%) of the UK public have been inconvenienced in the last year by a retailer not taking cards, according a new YouGov survey conducted for small business payments specialists CardSave. In fact, 16% of people have walked out of a shop in the past year without making their intended purchase because the retailer didn’t accept cards, while 22% have been forced to leave to seek out a cash point. 7% have purchased less than they intended to due to retailers’ only accepting cash. The survey shows that the days of carrying large amounts of cash are over. 62% of people carry £20 or less in cash on them on average. 48% carry £15 or less and 35% carry up to £10. Yet almost everyone (93%) carries a credit or debit card. Clive Kahn, Chief Executive of CardSave, which enables small businesses to accept payments more easily comments: “The days when consumers wanted to pay by cash are over. They increasingly expect to pay by card for everything – from small shops to tradespeople such as painters and window-cleaners. “Small businesses benefit significantly from accepting cards, winning more business, making larger sales and maintaining their competitiveness against major retailers.”

Discount scheme for loyalty: The Bay of Plenty Times will launch a new loyalty scheme for newspaper subscribers. The We Love The Bay discount card means subscribers can receive more than $700 worth of discounts on popular trades and services throughout the Bay of Plenty. The We Love The Bay discount card can be used at a variety of businesses and savings can be made on car tyres, house window cleaning, physiotherapy or chiropractic appointments, hairdressing, manicures and more.

Glass tumbled from the 11th floor of a downtown high-rise Monday night, scattering shards all over the street. The Calgary Fire Department said customers at a restaurant below, at the corner of 10 Ave. and 1 St. S.W., got a fright as the glass fell outside about 9 p.m. Police said one woman, who had glass hit just steps in front of her, called them. “The people whose apartment it came from weren’t the ones who called us — it was a woman on the street,” said Insp. Paul Stacey. “It smashed all over the road, obviously, and damaged a vehicle that was on the road. “We shut down the street for about an hour ... we shut it down to pedestrians and traffic there.” There were no injuries.

While police cordoned off the area, firefighters searched the building to find where the glass came from and ensure there wouldn’t be any more to fall. Stacey said the residents of the 11th floor apartment the glass came from were home, but the incident is not considered criminal. “They talked to the people,” he said. “It’s possible that somebody was either cleaning the window or touching or something ... but certainly nothing criminal.”

Two New Window Decal Designs By Duncraft Help Prevent Bird Window Strikes: Despite years of efforts by noted ornithologists, universities and others to bring awareness to the public, bird mortality resulting from birds crashing into windows continues to be an ongoing and escalating problem. Duncraft’s Bird Safe® Window Decals are applied to windows to help make glass visible to birds and save birds’ lives. Now Duncraft offers two new designs, a dragonfly and a cardinal, so customers have even more choice in the window decor they prefer. All of Duncraft's window decal designs are made in the USA. Duncraft addresses the problem of window strikes for the homeowner and wild bird lover with informational articles on their website as well as with their Bird Safe® Window Decals. How do the decals work? To answer that question, it’s important to know the two main reasons that birds strike windows. The first is that a window, being transparent, is simply not seen by the bird as a solid object at all and the second is that the window is reflecting images of nearby trees, clouds and other objects that the bird perceives as flyable air space.

Spring migration brings birds through Chicago: Millions of birds will be migrating through the Chicago area this spring, and Lincoln Park Zoo has a few suggestions for making their transit safe and friendly. Skyscrapers, windows and pets can create potentially deadly obstacles for feathered visitors, but city dwellers can do to a few simple things to help protect migratory birds, the zoo said today. The Lincoln Park Zoo suggests:

--Turn off lights in empty rooms and offices because artificial lights can disorient migrating birds.

--Remove plants from window sills as birds might try to fly through the window to get to the plants.

--Close window blinds, at least three-quarters, to help birds see the window.

--Soap large panes of glass that do not have blinds.

--Keep dogs leashed in urban parks, forest preserves and nature areas.

--Keep cats indoors.

Glass & Imperfections - Report Those Unsafe Windows

Woman's leg is cut off by falling sheet of glass: A 19-year-old woman's lower leg was cut off by a shard of falling glass from a commercial building yesterday in Hangzhou City, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. The woman, Zhu Yiyi, was reported in stable condition but faced the likely permanent loss of part of her left leg. The blood vessels and nerves were seriously damaged and "almost impossible" to be reattached, said Wang Jialing, deputy of the Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital. Zhu remained in a coma in the intensive care unit after four hours of surgery. A 1-meter-long sheet of glass hit Zhu from behind on her knee as she and a co-worker walked near the 23-story Qingchun Development Building about 8:30am, her co-worker surnamed Wang said. Wang escaped with only minor injuries. Wang said the two were on their way to work at a nearby steel company.
Zhu, a native of east China's Jiangxi Province, has worked for one year in the company and was often praised as being diligent. A witness surnamed Tian said, "I heard a boom and saw her lying in blood, fainted. I could see her white bones." The piece of falling glass may have been one pane of a double-paned window on the 21st floor of the building, said the building's Binjiang Property Management Co. Some witnesses said the window had recently been changed. A company spokesman surnamed Shao said workers checked and maintained the windows, which were installed nearly five years ago, every month. He denied the company was responsible for the accident, saying the floor was a private area belonging to a new tenant, a paper-making company, reported Zjol.com.cn, a local news website portal. Shao said the company will corporate with the police investigation and has covered medical bills for Zhu so far. A spokesman for the paper-making company said the firm had just moved into the building and did not know why the accident occurred.

Window Pane Falls From Top Of Canary Wharf Tower: A pane of glass plummeted from one of the UK’s tallest buildings yesterday. Part of the logo from the Norman Foster-designed HSBC Tower fell over 150 metres onto the building’s western entrance, closing North Colonnade while inspection took place. There are no reports of any injuries. In a slightly odd statement, an HSBC spokesperson told reporters “We don’t know why it fell out, but we are confident there won’t be any more coming out. 

A crack is seen on the rear window of a car that was hit by glass that fell from the 46th floor of a high-rise in Pudong's Lujiazui area. Dozens of cars were damaged yesterday after pieces of glass from a broken window fell from the 46th floor of the One Lujiazui office tower in Pudong New Area. The falling glass shattered front and rear windows as well as sunroofs and dented cars about 1pm, according to a parking lot security guard. No one was hurt. But witnesses said it's happened before and they were worried that next time someone would be seriously injured. Employees of Union Trust Ltd, which is on the 46th floor, said a janitor found a broken window in an idle office room yesterday morning. The firm reported the case to the property management center, which sent people to repair it. However, the window, which was about 3 meters by 1.5 meters, fell because of the strong wind and the glass fell onto the cars below, workers said. Several office workers said this was not the first time glass had fallen from the building. Li Haoqing, an office worker in the building, was stunned to find his car was damaged for the second time. "My car was smashed in a similar accident last year," Li said. China Pacific Insurance Co Ltd employees were on the scene speaking to the owners of the damaged vehicles and collecting evidence. A CPIC worker surnamed Zong told Shanghai Daily that there was at least 30 damaged vehicles.

Tank fixed, aquarium back in swim: Sea creatures and their fans are content again, as the New England Aquarium has reopened after a crack in its main tank was temporarily repaired, said Tony LaCasse, spokesman for the facility. Early Thursday morning, staff discovered the spiderweb-like fracture on the inner pane of a 2-inch-thick laminate window, comprising three separate sheets of glass. The cylindrical tank contains a coral reef and more than 750 sea animals, including Myrtle, the 560-pound sea turtle. The aquarium said Thursday it was draining more than 6 feet of water out of the 23-foot-deep tank to make the repairs. “The neighborhood was a little bit more crowded last night,’’ LaCasse said. “But during the repairs they did well.’’ A custom piece will be ordered to permanently replace the cracked section, he said. But for now, it is back to business as usual in the 200,000-gallon tank. “Everyone is back to their normal spots and happy,’’ LaCasse said.

Proper window seals are important: Poor planning and not condensation can be the enemy when it comes to effective building envelopes. That was the one of the messages at the seminar,"Water and Buildings is a Recipe for Disaster, or Not," at Buildex Edmonton. The discussion covered several aspects of building envelope planning and implementation, and how a lack of them can lead to drastic consequences down the road. Tang Lee, a professor with the Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary, showed how condensation can translate into major repairs over time. “Condensation by itself is not a problem, if it’s on a material that doesn’t deteriorate, such as glass,” Lee told delegates. “You see condensation on a window. No problem. But if that condensation streaks down onto the window sill, that’s when you have a problem because the window sill, if you are using wood, is going to leak through the window sill, rotting the wood, (from) that wood, into the wall. And, you don’t know what’s going to happen until it blisters through.”

Lee said he recommends not using wooden windows unless the humidity can be controlled inside the building. Instead, the professor advocates vinyl or metal-clad windows, something he recommended to Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation more than 20 years ago. “They started doing that and they saved a lot of problems,” he said. But, regardless of the type of window used, Lee explained that builders need to be aware of the imperfections in windows and that the manufacturer’s claim that 95 per cent of the products coming out of the factory are perfect. “If you got 95 per cent in my class, you’ve got an A plus, but 95 per cent from a window manufacturer – that’s not good enough,” he said. “You’re going to get five per cent that’s leaking. If you’ve got a hundred windows in a condo or high rise building, five of them are leaking. You can’t tolerate five. You can’t tolerate one.”

However, the professor estimates that the true percentage is more likely to be 10 to 15 per cent due to shipping and handling of the windows from factory to job site as well as the handling of the windows during installation. “You cannot rely on that window to keep the weather out,” he said, adding that contractors need to wrap the sill to prevent moisture from getting in. “You need to wrap the sill with a waterproofing membrane, so when the windows leak some day in the future, it’s not going to damage your wall. It’s a backup, a second line of defence,” he said. Lee explained wrapping the sill with a building paper, tie back or any other material used as sheathing does no good because the material is not long lasting.

Cracks in the city of glass: Chris Vollan loves his box made of glass in the sky. From his eighth-storey apartment on the north shore of False Creek in Vancouver, the floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides make him feel as though he is living on a viewing platform above the city. “It's a huge panorama and it makes my whole place feel bigger,” says Mr. Vollan, an engineer who lived in 19 different homes before arriving at Concord Pacific's Cooper's Point tower. His glass-box lifestyle is shared by many Canadians in urban centres. It was born in Vancouver – or as Douglas Coupland renamed it, “The City of Glass” – in the post-Expo '86 boom years and then popped up in Toronto about a decade ago.

But the ascension of the clear glass tower, first seen in Chicago in the 1950s, is slowing. Architects and buyers have complained of how boring glass towers have become. Planners and sustainability experts wring their hands about the lack of energy efficiency – glass, after all, is the poorest insulating building material around. And soon, new codes with heightened environmental standards will force builders to limit the amount of clear glass on the exterior.

“Absolutely there's a shift,” says engineer Peter Halsall, whose Toronto company, Halsall Associates Ltd., has built glass buildings, fixed glass buildings and lobbied for modifications to the glass-only building. Office builders are leading the way, he said, as tenants demand more energy efficiency. Residential builders are following as they are pushed and pulled by a chorus of planners, engineers and the public. At the city of Toronto's design review panel, there's a conscious effort to encourage architects to move beyond glass. “Successful cities are made up of many different materials,” says panel chair Gordon Stratford, an architect and vice-president at HOK. “If you don't get those different materials, you don't get the richness we love about cities.”

In Vancouver, concern about the energy and design problems of glass towers is even stronger. “They are very inefficient,” says David Ramslie, the city's sustainable development program manager. Not only does glass transfer heat and cold much more than other materials – making buildings more expensive to cool in the summer and heat in the winter – but builders have typically built glass towers with the same materials on all four sides, even though the impact of the sun is far more severe on the south and west. Scot Hein, head of the city's urban design studio, has these concerns and more. Glass towers have tended to have a monotonous style because of the limited range of construction methods in the early days. In newer neighbourhoods they quickly became repetitive and boring.

Architects have also been stuck on one particular glass tint – seafoam green – because it is cheaper than clear glass or other tints. In Vancouver, where the view of the mountains, sea and city is highly valued, maximizing that view was job one for architects and marketers. Glass didn't just allow them to sell standard units for more money – it also allowed them to builder smaller units that didn't feel quite as small. As well, glass technology continued to advance and developers discovered it was actually the cheapest way to build. For one, glass is cheaper than other materials. Second, it's cheaper and faster to install.

David Pontarini, the Toronto architect working on the new, glassy Shangri-La tower in the city, notes that all-glass means the developer doesn't require two or three trades – the brick people, the steel people, the window people –to co-ordinate. With the new concrete towers, glass can just be clipped on after each floor is poured, allowing the builder to enclose the space almost instantly. But pressure from buyers, architects, planners, engineers and the public for more variety and less energy consumption is having an impact. In Vancouver, architects have turned to bold splashes of colour. James Cheng's Spectrum building for Concord, with its large metal bars and frames in primary colours, was one of the first. Others nearby have incorporated big blocks of burnt orange or terracotta, blocks of red, or even bands of metal or stone.

Ultimately, though, the biggest driver of change is likely to be the building code. Concord Pacific's Toronto buildings now are different from those built in the earliest phase, said senior vice-president Peter Webb. They used to be 65 per cent clear glass, 35 per cent spandrels (exterior sections usually of painted glass with insulation behind). Now it's 50-50, to meet new requirements in the national and provincial building codes. As well, the company has provided small architectural “eyebrows” over windows. “We know we need to reduce the heat gain so the cooling system isn't burning as much energy,” said Mr. Webb.

Vancouver is considering even stricter standards, requiring all buildings in rezonings to meet a strict LEED Gold standard. Still, no one thinks the glass tower is going away completely. Builders will use more spandrels, look for better types of glass, introduce touches of other materials for variety. But they're not going back in history, says Mr. Pontarini. “The day of the old stone or brick building is gone.”

Why is it easier to crack glass if you make a scratch in it first? Why is it so much easier to crack a piece of glass or tile if you make a scratch in it first? This is an interesting bit of physics. Indeed, it is quite amazing how even a rather small, superficial crack will dramatically change the strength of a brittle material. Let’s think about a glass rod, for example. The same idea applies to tiles, or similar objects, like glass tubing. In the glass rod, the atoms attract one another via chemical bonds — that’s what holds the rod together. If you pull both ends, you have to break a lot of bonds to snap the rod cleanly in two. If there’s already a crack, the results are different, depending on its size.

Workers armed with suction cups have removed more than 600 of the 1,000 glass panels on balconies at the W Austin Hotel and Residences as engineers continue to look into what caused eight of the panels to shatter and fall 20-plus stories in three separate June incidents. Wood paneling is being used to temporarily enclose the balconies until a cause is found, clearing the way for new glass to be installed. In the interim, the downtown hotel at 200 Lavaca St. remains closed. "A comprehensive investigation continues, and we will provide updates on our progress in the coming days," Beau Armstrong, CEO of developer Stratus Properties, said Thursday.

Theories abound, some pointing to intense heat, wind, imperfections in the glass or even falling debris. A report by Curtainwall Design Consulting, which investigated the initial incident on June 10 at the request of general contractor Austin Commercial, indicates the glass failures could have been caused by grout and concrete that came loose. The engineering firm said it found evidence that high-strength grout fell from an overhanging slab on the 27th floor and onto the top of a glass railing two floors below. The report continues to say that falling debris "could likely damage the top edge of glass causing catastrophic failure."

Because of the heat strengthening process tempered glass undergoes, industry experts say, the edges are the weakest part of each pane. And unlike the edges of the glass railings at the W, which were uncovered and exposed, they are often protected by metal framing or some other material. Mark Meshulam, a consultant contacted this week by the American-Statesman, said the tempered panels could potentially have manufacturing flaws, causing the glass to "pop" when it's exposed to heat.

U.S. Railings, which Stratus said designed, fabricated and installed the building's railings, directed media inquiries to the developer, as did the glass manufacturer, XYG, or Xinyi Glass. A spokeswoman for BOKA Powell, one of the architectural firms that worked on the building, declined comment Thursday. While work continues, sidewalks surrounding the W and portions of several adjacent streets remain closed, creating significant traffic tie-ups.

A guest died at an Atlanta W in late May after falling out of a 10th-floor window. A friend was seriously injured. A lawsuit alleges the glass that shattered, allowing the women to fall onto a sundeck below, had been installed improperly. Another window at the W Atlanta-Midtown reportedly broke last year after what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls "almost incidental contact." The incidents in Atlanta, Austin and Washington do not appear to be related.

Falling Glass Causes Death of Florida Construction Worker: A construction worker in Key Biscayne, Fla., died yesterday after hurricane-resistant glass and other materials fell on him while inside a container truck. According to news reports rescuers had to cut a hole into the side of the container to try and reach the trapped worker; however, he is reported to have died at the scene. According to the report, “the man was delivering windows to a vacant home and was in the back of the 18-wheeler when the two glass windows weighing 3,000 pounds fell and crushed him, officials said.” Another worker, also reported to have been in the truck when the scaffolding and glass shifted, is said to have suffered an arm injury.

Window Cleaning News, Fish, Squirrels & Dragons

First impressions always count for window washer Jason Smith: Clean windows are often part of a customers' first impression. That's why many businesses have their windows cleaned professionally by Jason Smith of Fish Window Cleaning. "Some businesses are on a weekly rotation, and others are once a month," said Smith. Smith takes calls and gives free estimates. He charges by the pane to do residential and commercial windows. When he's looking for new business, he will make cold calls by stopping at a strip mall, offering to wash windows and setting them up for future appointments.
Smith starts with a bucket of clean water and dish soap. He uses a window mop that looks like a sponge on a squeegee and washes the window until the mop glides. He changes to a squeegee with a sharp rubber blade and uses the swirl or fanning technique to glide the dirty water down and off the window. The squeegee leaves the window streak free. He finishes the job with a clean, lint-free cloth on the window edges, the sills and the frame. "I don't just wash windows; I clean them," he said.
Smith also works on windows up to three stories with either a pole or a ladder. He does windows inside and out. What's needed: A window washer must like to work and be self-driven for business cold calls. Working in the elements year-round and some ladder work is required. Attention to detail is important. Smith likes to see a positive attitude and punctuality. Employees must be clean cut and in proper uniform.
Smith worked in appliance delivery for 10 years. He's also worked in construction, car detailing and carpet cleaning. Now he's the operation manager. "This is the first time I've been in management, and I really like it," Smith said. In addition to washing windows he handles the phone calls, estimates, paperwork and billing and makes sure the employees get paid.

• Highlights: The best part of the job for Smith is the drive time and seeing all different types of businesses.
• Lowlights: The worst part of the job is filling up the gas tank.
• Advice: There's no such thing as a stupid question.
• Future: Smith would like to someday own part of the company.
• Facts: No special formulas are used in professional window cleaning — plain old dish soap and water and elbow grease.
  

Local business owner witnesses OSHA and IWCA alliance: Local business owner, Victor Munson, traveled to Washington, D.C. this past month to be part of a long awaited event. The International Window Cleaning Association (IWCA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced their alliance to promote safe and healthful working conditions for professionals who work within the window cleaning industry. “We pursued the alliance with OSHA to promote the importance of on-going safety education in our industry,” said Victor Munson, IWCA President and owner of Erlanger Window Cleaning in NKY. “With representatives of both organizations working together, we should be able to achieve our goal of increasing safe and healthful working conditions.”
The new alliance will concentrate on educating members by providing them with information and guidance to help them protect their employees. It is IWCA’s intention to focus on (i) improving fall protection education (ii.) reducing other job site hazards and (iii) addressing the challenges of small business owners and low literacy and limited English of employees in the window cleaning industry. In addition to member education, IWCA and OSHA will work together to promote workplace safety and health on a national level. “We want our members, and everyone in our industry, to know we take workplace safety very seriously,” said Debra Nemec, Executive Director for IWCA. “Together, SWRI and OSHA will be able to utilize their combined resources to maximize job site safety and awareness.” Both groups formalized their alliance during a meeting at 3 p.m., June 10 at OSHA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. For more information about the alliance, please contact Vic Munson at 859.371.4210

Michael Portillo (smug picture) has been staring out of a lot of windows lately, exploring Britain's rail journeys for the BBC. So he knows a good shine when he sees one, and has taken to evangelising about his window cleaner back home. Residents of Chelsea have received hand-signed letters from the former Tory MP recommending the services of one David Doyle. "When someone works inside and outside the house, I must have complete trust in that person," it reads, "I do place my trust in Mr Doyle." In case you don't believe him the letter provides Portillo's home address, email and even his mobile phone number. He's clearly forgotten what it's like to have constituents.

Answers From a Window Cleaner, Part 3 - have been added to the original questions & answers featured here. Andrew Horton, who has been a window cleaner for more than two decades responds to readers. Andrew Horton knows the secrets of the trade and safety practices.

Friends and family of murdered teenager Ben Lund have marked the first anniversary of his death and collected more than 1,200 signatures in support of a memorial garden. Nineteen-year-old Ben Lund, a popular window cleaner, was murdered in the Funktion Rooms Nightclub on July 11 last year. Nicholas Sitko, 25, repeatedly punched the teenager causing a fatal brain haemorrhage and was sentenced to at least 14 years in prison for his murder. Last Sunday, on the anniversary of Ben's death, sunflowers were placed outside the Funktion Rooms from Ben's family and other flowers, letters and cards were left by his friends.

First case of it's kind: Man told to pay £1,500 after being found guilty of drowning a squirrel - When grey squirrels invaded Raymond Elliott’s garden and targeted his bird feeders, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He bought a cage to trap the pests and, when he did catch one, dropped it into a water butt, killing it ‘almost instantaneously’. But after a neighbour tipped off the RSPCA, he was hauled into court, charged with causing unnecessary suffering to an animal and - in a legal first - forced to pay £1,500.
The 58-year-old window cleaner, who said he believed he had killed the animal in a humane way, will now be lumbered with a criminal record. The case sets an important precedent for killing grey squirrels, which are classified as a non-native invasive species, and could pave the way for hundreds of other prosecutions across the country. The RSPCA, which brought the prosecution, warned that many common methods of killing grey squirrels and other pests could now fall foul of the law. It added that the only humane - and therefore legal - way to kill them would be to have them put down by a qualified vet, which can cost up to £40 a time.
Mr Elliott, from Branston, Staffordshire, was prosecuted under Section Four of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal. He pleaded guilty and was given a six-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £1,547 to cover investigation and legal costs incurred by the RSPCA at Burton Magistrates last Friday. Yesterday, he described the fine as an ‘injustice’ and claimed he had been singled out by the charity.
He insisted that the way he killed the grey squirrel was not cruel or inhumane and said he was simply trying to do what homeowners across the country do when the pests invade their homes and gardens. 'This is an injustice. People do it across the country all the time - they are just making an example of me,’ he said. ‘I do not feel what I did was inhumane or cruel and I was shocked by how big the fine was. ‘All along it was going to be guilty because it was a test case and they needed a guilty verdict.’

Dragon helped me spread my wings: Tony Earnshaw was just 18 when he started his first business, buying a rundown burger van for £50. After securing a pitch in his home town of Glebe in Washington, Tyne and Wear, he made £3,000 in two months before selling the van for £6,000. Tony, 25, used the profits to buy a window cleaning round for £300 that he rapidly builtup before selling it for £16,000 six months later. Next he bought two transit vans and a small depot and launched UK Commercial Cleaning Services, offering everything from shampooing office carpets to a specialist operation cleaning up crime scenes.
Last year Tony appeared on the Dragons' Den television show, which began its latest series last week, and secured £100,000 from Dragon judge Duncan Bannatyne in return for 35% of the business. At the time of appearing the company's turnover was £370,000 and it operated only in the North East, but Tony had plans to take the business nationwide, having bought a second depot in Leeds in 2008. Now, nearly a year on, a London depot will open in two weeks' time and a depot in Stirling will open in six months. The firm now employs 40 people, up from 16, and turnover for the year ending April rose to £1.2m, with predicted turnover of £4m for this year.
Tony is also setting up a franchise that he hopes to sell to franchisees in the south of England. Though Tony had to hand over 35% of the business - up from the 20% stake he initially offered - he has no regrets about securing funding through Dragons' Den. 'Appearing on Dragons' Den gave the business a real publicity boost and has helped us to grow rapidly,' he says. 'I have the support and advice I need from Duncan, we speak monthly, but he gives me the freedom to run the business as I know best. As far as I am concerned there were no downsides.'

London's Strata tower: It is the world's first skyscraper with built-in wind turbines. But is London's Strata a green gimmick – or the future?At 147 metres, the newly opened Strata is London's tallest residential building. The plan was first made public six years ago and work is unlikely to be completed before 2020. It's a colossal challenge, as well as an opportunity, and the £113.5m Strata, the first of three skyscrapers planned for here, is a symbol of the dynamism and energy the project demands. And that energy must, of course, be seen to be green. It's early days, but if the turbines work as planned, and aren't too noisy for residents in the pricey penthouses beneath them, they should generate 8% of this 43-storey building's energy needs. This is roughly enough to run its electrical and mechanical services (including three express lifts and automated window-cleaning rigs) as well as the lighting, heating and ventilation of its public spaces, which include an underground car and cycle park. Strata is the first building in the world to incorporate wind turbines into its structure.

Harrisburg, Pa. - A glass panel from a 9th floor tower fell from a downtown Harrisburg building Monday evening. The panel was from a Verizon Tower and fell from the building, landing on the bridge to Capital Park from Strawberry Square. Hassinger said a visual inspection from the ground was conducted by Hershocks and HDC employees following the incident. City and Capitol police were notified and the bridge to Capitol Park remains closed until further notice. Also, the sidewalk corridor along the South side of Walnut Street along Strawberry Square has been closed to pedestrian traffic. Glass from the incident is being swept from the area by a contractor hired by HDC. An inspection of the glass panels on both the Verizon Tower and SO1 (State office tower occupied by Revenue and Attorney General's office) is being scheduled within the next 24-48 hours.

Dr Pepper Snapple Group: "Snapple was founded in 1972 by Arnold Greenberg, Leonard Marsh, and Hyman Golden. Greenberg operated a health food store on the lower east side of Manhattan. His boyhood friend Marsh ran a window-washing service with his brother-in-law, Golden. In the early 1970s, the three founded Unadulterated Food Products, Inc., to sell pure fruit juices in unusual blends to health food stores. Products were bottled at a small plant in the New York metropolitan area. The partners ran the business in their spare time while all three kept their regular jobs, and the enterprise plodded along until the late 1970s. In 1978, Unadulterated Foods began to market carbonated apple juice. The company called the product "Snapple," after purchasing the name for $500."