Scratches on window pane - am I being unreasonable?

[dogfonos]

Had a few 30 year old double glazed windows replaced on Friday with new equivalents and today, whilst cleaning them, I've noticed small scratches on the inner panes of some of the new windows. Difficult for me to explain the severity of the scratches in words but one is deep-ish and 1cm long and the others are finer but several cm long. Even the finer scratches are visible from inside (against a mid-to-dark background outside) when standing 3 or 4 metres back from the window. I can feel the scratches when running a fingernail across them too.

I've never seen any scratches on the old windows even when carrying out really thorough cleans over the years. I should also say that I wasn't even looking for scratches on the new window glass, I was just removing traces of silicon sealant (or whatever it was) and the scratches were obvious enough to catch my eye.

Am I being unreasonable to expect blemish-free glass in my new windows or is some scratching generally excepted now-days? I would have expected the frames to be more easily scratched than the glass but they're in perfect order.

Would appreciate opinions, thanks.

 

[terryplumb]

I would raise the matter ,in the politest way, with the supplier ,if their own fitters did the installation. however if you bought from one company and then used another for fitting , I fear you would be "piggy in the middle " and less likely to get a satisfactory result. you are perfectly entitled to have glass that is NOT. scratched.

 

[crank39]

There are GGF guidelines on this very thing, pasted from their site.....

Stand in the room no less than 2 metres
away from the sealed unit and look directly
through it.
• For toughened, laminated or coated
glasses, stand no less than 3 metres away.
• Where it is not possible to stand at the
right distance then stand as far away as
you can from the sealed unit.
• Do so in natural daylight, but not directly
towards the sun and with no visible
moisture on the surface of the glass.
• Exclude 50mm wide band around edge
of the glass from the check.
• Glass must be viewed at an angle of 90º.
Viewing sealed units for scratches
on the outer faces of the panes must
be carried out before any rendering,
plastering or other works adjacent
to the glazing takes place, and as
early as reasonably practicable
following installation.
Special
Glasses
What to Expect
when Carrying Out
an Inspection
Flat transparent glass, including laminated,
toughened or coated glass is acceptable
if the following are neither obtrusive
nor bunched:
• Bubbles or blisters
• Fine scratches not more than 25mm long
• Minute particles
The obtrusiveness of blemishes is judged
by looking through the glass, not at it,
under natural light. It must be understood
that the glass used in sealed units is a
processed glass, and as a consequence,
blemishes are to be expected.

 

[crank39]

A general rule of thumb from an installers pov is if you can still see it from 2 or 3 metres away then it's bad enough to replace, ideally there should be no scratches or marks at all but some times you do get them, personally if it was my install I'd replace them as a gesture making sure the jobs right, unfortunately though too many companies use the ggf guidelines as a get out

 

[dogfonos]

I would raise the matter ,in the politest way, with the supplier ,if their own fitters did the installation. however if you bought from one company and then used another for fitting , I fear you would be "piggy in the middle " and less likely to get a satisfactory result. you are perfectly entitled to have glass that is NOT. scratched.

Fortunately, only one company involved. Yes, I'll raise the issue with them.

Thanks for the info from the GGF website, crank39 - most helpful as I have more units due to be fitted soon.

Currently, on one pane, there's a 6mm long scratch which I wouldn't class as fine, more moderately deep. On another pane, there's a 45mm long fine scratch with another 30mm close by plus a variety of shorter scuffs (5 to 25mm) in the same region, however, on very close inspection, it could be argued that the longer fine scratches are marginally 'broken' in places.

Trouble is, whilst the scratches are unlikely to be immediately noticeable to most people, I know where they are and my eye is drawn to them even when I'm sitting over 3 metres away. I'll raise the issue with the company involved.

Also, in the middle section of one of two large panes (the pane with all the fine scratches), there's a weird distortion effect (similar to that seen in the film Predator). I'd describe it as looking through water - a sort of 'swimmy' effect. It's only a mild phenomenon that's present over about 5 - 10% of the glass area - at a guess - and it's more obvious viewed from outside than inside and yet it's not present on the identically sized second pane. Worth raising with the window company, I think.

Thanks for both responses.