Cracked double glazed window

[MadaCup]

I woke this morning to a cracked UPVC window. They are double glazed and the internal piece of glass has an enourmous crack from the top left hand corner to the top right hand corner in a U shape.

I recently moved in to this property and realised that I had seen a guarantee but unfortunately it only covers the original person who had the windows installed. Is this common? There appears to be 2 years left on the warranty still (10 years old).

So it seems unlikely I can go down the insurance route. The window isn't huge, maybe 600mm x 1200mm if I were to guess. How much would I be looking at paying to have the window replaced?

 

[Richard C]

I woke this morning to a cracked UPVC window. They are double glazed and the internal piece of glass has an enourmous crack from the top left hand corner to the top right hand corner in a U shape.

Unless someone has hit it with something, it’s probably down to thermal shock; the difference in temperature between the inside & outside glass panes causes stress failure. It can happen any time regardless of the age of the windows, when the temperature difference between the inside & outside glass panes increases or decreases dramatically (hot sun or freezing outside temperature) the conditions just need to be right.

I recently moved in to this property and realised that I had seen a guarantee but unfortunately it only covers the original person who had the windows installed. Is this common? There appears to be 2 years left on the warranty still (10 years old). So it seems unlikely I can go down the insurance route.

That particular warranty won’t cover glass breakage in any case but your home insurance should; the only problem will be the amount of excess you have + it will probably put up your premium next year.

The window isn't huge, maybe 600mm x 1200mm if I were to guess. How much would I be looking at paying to have the window replaced?

You need to get some quotes & it depends if it need to be safety glass. Even if the original wasn’t it might be necessary now, depending on the window location. Should be less than £100 I would think, glass units aren’t that expensive.

 

[crank39]

As Richard says, its thermal shock. You should be abale to claim on your buildings insurance as accidental damage but weigh up the cost first as most policies carry a £50 XS but i guess if it is leaded and has colours it'll be more than £50, it won't be toughened going by your description of the crack, just float

 

[big-all]

not sure that your household insurance will cover fair wear and tear
in general it has to be an accident as in a football/child/other object making hard contact with the glass just before breaking leaving a muddy mark

 

[Richard C]

not sure that your household insurance will cover fair wear and tear
in general it has to be an accident as in a football/child/other object making hard contact with the glass just before breaking leaving a muddy mark

Well of course they won’t pay out if you’re naive enough to tell them “it broke overnight for no apparent reason”! Not sure what thermal shock would be classed as, certainly not wear & tear. I doubt the Indian call centre or claims assessor would understand what your on about anyway so probably best not to go there so one of the kids must have thrown something at it! TBH most policies start you off with an excess of £100 - £200 (it’s how they keep the premiums lower but not many don't realise until they have to claim) so unless you reduce it by paying a higher premium, it probably wont be worth claiming anyway.

18 months ago, I stupidly smashed an outside pane on a toughened glass French door through careless use of a strimmer so a claim was legitimate in my case. Phone calls resulted in an “insurance claim” cost of £220 (fitted) but a delivered glass unit (from the same company) was just £80; I had a £100 excess! Luckily, I’ve no problem fitting the DG unit myself, it’s an easy 30 minutes work so I didn’t put it through insurance anyway; but I appreciate not everyone can or even want to go down that route.

 

[hillw]

Hi guarantees are not always transferable, and generally UPVC windows are covered for 10 years but the glass is only covered for 5, so you might not have been covered anyway.
Don't think the insurance will cough up on this one, but it shouldn't be more than £100 for supply only
It is a decent sized unit, and depending on location you might need to have it toughened, but the place where you get it from shoudl be able to advise you on that.

 

[steveb1964]

our frosted bathroom window was £70 fitted when it cracked with the hot/cold temps. Slightly smaller than your window but not much