An intensive campaign has been launched by the doors and windows industry to educate both public and private sector housing providers responsible for the specification of doors and windows, and ultimately ensure the protection of building occupants.
In the last year there have been two major changes to product standards affecting safety glass which could have a dangerous or even fatal impact on tenants if they are misunderstood by specifiers, developers and contractors.
Not only to local authorities have a duty of care to fulfil with regard to safety, they must also comply with Building Regulations Part N that by law demands they install safety glass in all vulnerable areas.
Dr Eli Kienwald, Director of the LHC Network, responsible for a new safety glass awareness campaign, explains that the public sector especially tends to specify by general standards. This does, he explains, meet those standards required the by the EU standards board, but adds that local government has largely failed to educate itself on what these changes actually mean and the risks the sector is taking by such a level of ignorance.
“Local authority specifications are either too general, or only specify that glass products comply with BS 7412, the general standard for PVC-U for example.
“Both manufacturers and specifiers tend to take it for granted that products comply with safety requirements - an assumption made far too often - and can, especially when cost is a factor, result in lower quality installations and a danger to tenants and building users,” Kienwald said.
“Specifiers then find out, to their own cost, that cheaper specifications vary in quality. While they meet the one year old EU guidelines, they are of poorer quality and and have a short lifetime - often needing to be replaced every five to 10 years, rather than every 30,” he adds.
The level of efficiency in safety glass has to be paramount to the specification, as windows and doors in residential areas have to protect against accidental human impact. In terms of critical locations of safety in internal and external wall areas, standard BS 6262-4 Clause 8 denotes them as areas:
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Between the finished floor level and 1500mm above that level in doors, and in side panels which are within 300mm of either edge of the door; -
Between the finished floor level and 800mm above that level in the case of windows and doors not included above; and -
Mirrored doors and panels.
In addition to these factors (as outlined in the Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF) guide The right glazing in the right place), legal requirements also remind social housing specifiers to note that for any part of a glass area affected, they must meet the requirements in its entirety and not just in the relevant section.
The problem with the introduction of two new European standards affecting toughened and laminated glass, is that they have cancelled out the existing British standard BS 6206 (EU law states that any conflicting British Standards must be dropped in order to comply with the over-riding EU ones). This standard requires safety glass to be tested for impact.
“The way safety glass breaks makes it safe for use in vulnerable areas. Normally, the weight and pressure of standard glass means, on impact, it will break into long and heavy 6mm shards, causing severe or even fatal injuries to a human being.
“Safety glass however breaks like a car windscreen - in very small and light pieces, thereby avoiding a more serious accident if say a child falls through a patio door,” explains Kienwald.
In August 2006, the European standards board upgraded the safety glass standards to BS EN 12150, the new standard for toughened glass, and BS EN 14449, the new standard for laminated glass - both commonly used for safety glass in housing.
“These are both perfectly adequate standards, but fail to ask manufacturers or distributors to test the end product for impact, therefore there is no guarantee that the glass commissioned, quite rightly, by specifiers, will actually break in small and safer pieces rather than shards,” the Director concerns.
The danger is that specifying safety glass assuming it meets the EU standards means that social housing specifiers can fall foul of legislation a few years or even months after project completion.
As glass is used more frequently to attract light and ventilation to dark and multiple occupancy dwellings, local authorities need to ensure their project managers are policing the details of the checks and guarantees that come with the product.
Most alarmingly, it is not simply the public sector that has a lack of awareness of the matter, as the LHC Network, GGF and other independent trade associations note there is a high level of ‘ignorance’ across the construction industry as a whole.
“If distributors and contractors aren’t aware of the lack of impact testing in the new standards, they can’t be relied upon by the public sector to make the right adjudications on their behalf. Specifiers need to get other assurances that the glass and glazing they choose is impact tested,” he adds.
Critical locations (such as doors, door side panels, low level glazed areas, fully-backed mirror glazing, unbacked mirror glazing accessible from one side only, bathing areas and other areas of risk - such as receptions and communal areas) need to be fitted with safety glass in the first instance, and then supported with protective barriers if necessary to further enhance the level of safety given to building occupants.
“So how do you ensure glass that is legally called safety glass has actually been tested for impact, and therefore break safely? By specifying a third European standard BS EN 12600. This is the standard that ensures impact testing on glass.
“This, in combination with the two standards for toughened and laminated safety glass, means that specifiers are fully meeting their obligations to protect residents, and are meeting the UK Building Requirements that states safety glass - which has been proven to break safely on impact - must be implemented in vulnerable areas.
“It doesn’t bear thinking about how many installations have been made by local authorities who truly believed their specifications comply with all the standards and requirements set to them, yet have opted for safety glass that hasn’t been tested for impact.
“Manufacturers can legally claim they offer safety glass, but if their products haven’t been subjected to an impact test and breaks unsafely, the local authority could be prosecuted for not meeting Building Regulations,” stresses Kienwald.
The Department of Trade and Industry, which sets the Building Regulations, has been made aware of the failure to demand impact testing on safety glass. It responded by agreeing to include it in the next revision, but this could take between five to 15 years to implement.
Kienwald however does note his concerns could be misread and put to one side by local authority housing providers who are often already technically and resource challenged. “This isn’t a commercial priority to encourage specifiers to demand impact tested safety glass, and local authorities should not wait to act until required to do so.
“It is their end responsibility to run the checks and update their housing departments on the EU testing shortfall, as national contracting partners and developers are just as unaware about this issue.
“The main way to ensure safety glass has been impact tested is to specify BSI Kite Mark tested products. This is the only assessment which demands all products to go through its testing procedure to have been impact tested before being marketed.”
