What Causes Cracks to Form in Window Glass?

Cracks can form on your glass from literally anything. This goes for stuff like small bits of debris hitting it, or more mysterious things, like heat. The glass could of also had some defects, so it can break from that. Get a trusted window company to install your windows too because improper installation can make it so these things break easy. There’s many more reasons that these things can break, so lets get into them

Impact

The most obvious one, so I’ll keep this short. A surprising fact some people may not know is that glass actually bends before it breaks. As you can imagine though, it doesn’t bend much before it bursts into pieces. This can mean that even a small little rock could completely shatter a glass window. A small chip can turn into something much bigger if left unchecked or unnoticed. These cracks can spread due to many reasons like pressure, or water getting into them. If water freezes in a crack, it expands more than the crack can hold and it’ll spread it out. (NIST)

Thermal Stress

Any type of temperature stress can cause small cracks in the window glass. As you may know, heat makes things expand, while the cold can make things get smaller. If there’s a great enough temperature difference on the same pane of glass where one area is hot and the other is cold, this can cause the glass to stretch in ways it shouldn’t have stretched, causing it to break. Smaller, impact related cracks spread because of this reason, so make sure to take care of your glass because we know getting windows replaced isn’t cheap… (Glass.org)

Existing Scratches or Edge Damage

Glass is brittle, as most of you know, small imperfections in glass can turn into real issues. Small scratches or breaks in the edge during installation can make its effectiveness worse by making it more brittle, this is called a stress concentrator. These are weak spots in the glass, reducing its effectiveness by many times. If glass is incredibly strong at one point, but you hit a stress concentrator, it’ll likely break a lot faster than if it were perfect and had no breaks anywhere. And again, thermal related reasons can make these stress concentrators expand and stretch in ways it wasn’t supposed to, making it easily burst in small pieces. (Glass.org)

Installation and Fit

Your glass needs to be properly fitted into the frame that was bought for it. If it doesn’t fit, like it has improper dimensions or some excessive pressure on certain parts of said glass, it can slowly degrade. Poor fitment creates unnecessary stress on the parts of the glass that are… well, fitted poorly. Make sure to always hire a professional, like Window World, to get the job done because it’s better to know the window is done correctly rather than worry that you may have done the job badly. (DOE)

Outside Forces

Forces outside can really affect your glass as well. Your window is always under load from wind and weather events. So things like hailstorms, heavy rainstorms, or in Nevada, large dust storms, all of which can put your window under a lot of stress. Now, all of this doesn’t necessarily mean your window will break, but it can be a big factor if your window was installed incorrectly, has existing scratches or breaks, or is already under a lot of thermal stress. The one factor I would worry about on that list is existing scratches and breaks. While windows are built to withstand all this pressure, they aren’t made to also withstand all of this with small cracks, scratches, or edge breaks too. This excess stress can cause your window to fail, so make sure to take care of your windows and inspect them in a timely manner. (NLM)

Window cracks can happen for many different reasons. Things like thermal stress, edge damage, improper installation, and outside forces all play a role in something as brittle as glass breaking on you. For most Las Vegas homeowners, understanding how your window glass can break is critical because it helps you also understand the signs of your glass degrading. If you have any inquiries about your windows, you can always rely on Window World to get them answered fast and efficiently.