Removing a broken window pane

December 19, 2018 10:51 AM

Night before last someone shot my living room window with an airsoft pellet gun. It's a dual-pane window, and only the outer pane was broken -- the inner pane is in tact and undamaged. If my landlord doesn't get to it by tomorrow, I want to remove the remaining broken glass myself. How do I do this in the way that's safest for me, and won't damage the window further?

The company that's going to replace the window is closed until after the beginning of January. My landlord is supposed to come out and remove the broken outer pane (which I'm insistent about, because it looks like a big ol' BURGLE ME bullseye), but I'm afraid that it's not as important to him as it is to me. I'm leaving town for a few days on Saturday and would like to take care of it myself if the landlord won't do it. If I have to do it myself, what's the best way to remove the rest of this broken pane of glass? The window panel itself is probably about 5 feet wide, and the hole is probably about 3 feet wide.

Bonus question: If you have experience with window replacement, do you know what they'll do to fix it? Is it possible for them to just replace the outer pane of glass on the largest center panel of the window, or are they going to have to rip the whole frame out of the wall and replace it? (Which would be a huge mess. The window is something like 8' wide.)

posted by mudpuppie to Home & Garden (14 answers total)

Usually the double pane windows I have seen the two panes are sealed together as one unit. You may not be able to remove the broken outside glass easily. To replace I would expect a new double pane to be installed. It should be done by removing the molding on the outside of the window and pulling out the old panes and install the new one. I would cover the center section with a sheet of plywood until it can be replaced.
posted by tman99 at 11:10 AM on December 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

That's not safety glass, which would have broken into little chunks. Those giant shards can fall as you remove them, slicing you open. Do not attempt, sit on your landlord.
posted by sageleaf at 11:54 AM on December 19, 2018 [5 favorites]

You could put some dark window film over it, which would basically hide the broken window.

Be careful!
posted by H21 at 11:59 AM on December 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think they will replace just that one section. If I were to remove the broken glass, I would use leather work gloves or some heavy duty gloves. You can just pull out the big pieces. I would put them in a paper grocery bag. Make sure you let the person who picks up your trash know there is broken glass in the bin (if they do it by hand).

I too would sit on the landlord.
posted by AugustWest at 12:13 PM on December 19, 2018

I would be nervous that taking the glass out at the edge would break/loosen the inner pane of glass. Also, note that the window lost nearly all of it's insulation value, so if your landlord won't replace it quickly, maybe ask them for heating money.

If you're set on removing the glass, put a tarp that you're planning on throwing away down on the ground to catch all the glass that falls. Put on some good leather gloves, thick shoes, long sleeves, pants, and safety goggles. Then gently put some kind of tape all over each of the large pieces of glass, so that when you do remove them they'll come out as one piece even if they break. I would start from the top of the window near the center and pull a piece out, then work downwards from there. If a piece doesn't come out easily, you might need to pick up a tool to help cut the glass like a carbide scribe. It's not going to be fun and you might get cut.
posted by gregr at 12:26 PM on December 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

Is it possible for them to just replace the outer pane of glass on the largest center panel of the window, or are they going to have to rip the whole frame out of the wall and replace it?

It depends on the window. Many double-pane windows are sealed and have argon gas between the panes for added insulation benefits. If your window was gas-filled, they will have to replace the entire window, and not just the pane.

Based on the picture, your window looks to be pretty old, so it might just be two panes of glass set in the frame, and relatively easy to replace just the broken pane.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:41 PM on December 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

FWIW/DIY/IANAL Pet food bags are awesome for broken glass disposal, if it comes to that.
posted by Glomar response at 12:56 PM on December 19, 2018

In nicer double-pane windows, the two panes are both glued to a separator (and may be filled with an inert gas). In a cheaper window, they're set separately into the frame.

When one of my kids did this to a bedroom window (a circa-1985 Pella, nice for its time), I carrrrrefully lifted the broken bits out and put them into a grocery bag that went into the trash. Then I taped plastic and a blanket across the open frame to keep out the winter winds, and took the window to a local shop who replaced the one broken pane of glass.

It was tough to find someone who would repair it instead of replace it entirely -- to the tune of like $many_hundreds -- but a local place charged me...$75, maybe?
posted by wenestvedt at 1:33 PM on December 19, 2018

Put a child's drawing on the window where the whole is, and the drawing should be complex enough to make it hard to see the hole when you see the drawing through the pane. It's pretty good camouflage instead of messing with the pane, since you're not going to replace the pane yourself.

Adding additional child's drawings to nearby windows to complete the camouflage is a good idea. Since it's the holidays, go with some secular Christmas drawings. If you don't have a child of a drawing age, you A) have been one so you can probably fake it for the cost of crayons, or B) may know someone who has one. Child labor for drawings costs about the same as crayons.

Also, home improvement tasks can be researched on youtube, in addition to sites like ThisOldHouse.com. Sometimes it takes time to find the video or the page that fits your situation most exactly.

Finally, when the landlord comes to fix the pane, tell him or her to look for the snowman drawing, or whatever; that's the window light that needs attention.
posted by Sunburnt at 3:13 PM on December 19, 2018

The break pattern looks like regular annealed glass, which means you could buy a glass cutter at the hardware store and score around the frame, bit by bit as needed, to break the rest of it. Wear heavy duty gloves. Annealed glass should score easily, making a white line. (If the glass scores irregularly and makes tiny mini chips as you score it's tempered, and you cant score/break it safely!!) After scoring, flip the glass cutter over to use the ball end and tap gently just under the score line. Ease the glass out to snap it. Make very sure you have good eye/hand protection. I'd remove any pieces that you can by hand before tackling the big pieces still attached to the frame, starting from the top down. Do you have a ladder you can safely work on, or borrow one from a neighbor? Did I mention having proper PPE? Here's a simple video under ideal conditions.
posted by missmary6 at 4:53 PM on December 19, 2018 [4 favorites]

If this is a modern window, it's not designed for a pane of glass to ever be removed or replaced. You could remove it with a glass cutter, of course; I would score it around the edges, cut a circle out of the middle and then, wearing appropriate gloves, break out the edges by hand.

However, the right thing to do is to replace the entire sash. You order a new one from a building supply place (or your landlord does) and then you remove the stops (the strips on the insides of the jambs that stop the sash from just falling into your room), remove the broken sash, install the new sash, and replace the stops. You could probably teach yourself how to do it if you watch a few Youtube videos and are reasonably handy. It's really a landlord job, though.

You know what I would really do though? Nothing. I would not worry about it aside from occasionally bugging the landlord to repair the window. A cracked pane does not actually compromise the security of your home, nor does a single cracked pane that's only been broken for a few days turn an otherwise well-kept home into an abandoned-looking theft magnet. I would just find something else to think about and hope that the landlord has the window repaired within a few weeks—it can sometimes take a while to get a replacement sash.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 6:02 PM on December 19, 2018

Response by poster: Thanks everyone. I was dreading having to deal with this. Fortunately, I got home from work this evening and it had been taken care of. Don't know what method the landlord employed, but the remnants of the outer pane have been successfully removed.

It's a Festivus miracle!
posted by mudpuppie at 6:08 PM on December 19, 2018 [4 favorites]

Sorry, single broken pane, not cracked pane. Should have looked at the photo. Score the edges of those shards and then snap them off, if that's what you want to do, per missmary6's instructions.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 6:09 PM on December 19, 2018

For future reference, unless someone else knows a lot more than me about cutting glass, you can’t score it and snap it outward—you have to bend the glass so that the score is in tension instead of compression, and there is no room to bend it inwards In that photo. They do make special pliers that have curved faces that you could use to break a piece like that, but doing it by hand I’d expect you’d hit the good pane, possibly breaking it.

Glad they fixed it promptly.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 7:10 AM on December 20, 2018 [1 favorite]