new double glazing window -- not certified?

[Jiwen]

Hello,

We bought a house 9 months ago, which has a sliding glass patio door towards the garden newly fitted by the previous owner. After we moved in we replaced all the old windows to PVC double glazing window with Alaskan Windows, and kept the sliding door. We were told that the windows are Fensa approved, and had filled in relevant forms.

Last week a surveyor came to my house to do valuation for mortgage, who said that the double glazing glass on all the new windows didn't have an engraved mark at the corner, thus are not certified products which could potentially be classified as dangerous. He then pointed out a mark at the corner of the glass patio door saying this is the certificate he was looking for. The mark he mentioned is a round shaped loop with wording "TECHNIGLASS" around the edge, and a ice cream cone shaped pattern with letter S in the middle.

I spent some time googling Techniglass but couldn't find the same mark anywhere. Therefore I'd like to ask for help if anyone heard about the mark. Is it compulsory?

Thanks

Jiwen

 

[endecotp]

I think you're referring to the B.S. "kitemark" indicating that the glass is toughened.
This is required for glass below a certain height above floor level.

 

[ronniecabers]

endecotp has it the nail on the head... the mark the surveyor is referring to is the Toughened Mark , showing it is safety glass, it should also have BSEN12150 stamped within it ( or a kitemark which it appears yours has ), showing the type of glass it is for the technical regulations. Unless all of the glass in your windows is below 800mm from the finished floor level ( including flooring and carpets ) , or in a location deemed as a critical one ( within 12 inches of a door , by a trip/slip hazard ( eg top of stairs of , next to a bath that has a shower in it etc ) then you will not require toughened glass.

I suspect you need another surveyor to come round.......

 

[crank39]

Must be the surveyors first job out of school me thinks, if none of your windows have a kite mark then none were deemed to be in 'critical areas' for glazing regs, the regs are quite simple to follow...

1. Glazing in doors – any glass in doors that does not start over 1500mm from the floor must be safety glass.

2. Glazing adjacent to doors – Windows/side panels within 300mm of the edge of a door must be safety glass.

3. Low Level Glazing – This means that where the bottom of the glazing is within 800mm of the floor level must be safety glass

Other things to consider are bathrooms, if you have a window next to the bath then the 800mm measurement needs to be taken from inside the bath not the floor as the bath can be upto 150mm higher than the floor.

One of the other things the surveyor would of done is the test the inner surface of each pane of glass with a Low E tester, this just senses the metallic coating which reflects heat back into the rooms, just to be clear the kite mark or lack of doesn't indicate Low E glass or lack of, the kite mark just confirms the glass is safety glass which would mean it's within a critical area, maybe the surveyor needs to read up on critical areas

 

[Jiwen]

Thanks all for your kind reply! It is indeed BS kitemark. So probably all the windows are fine as none of them are in critical areas as crank39 described.

Seriously thinking about asking for a reevaluation now...