No safety glass in old house
Q. Our home was built in 1960 and has three large patio windows. The middle one is a sliding-glass door, with a stationary window on each side of it. Last week, the glass pane in the sliding door developed a crack, so we called a contractor. He said all three panes are not tempered safety glass because the house is so old. His bid to replace all three windows is more than $1,600. We've heard that an alternate solution is to apply safety film to the windows, at substantially less cost. Is this a good idea or not?
A. Windows in hazardous locations, such as doorways, were not required to be tempered safety glass when your home was built in the 1960s. Requirements for safety glass were enacted later because of serious injury accidents that occurred when people walked into glass doors or floor-level windows. These requirements apply to new installations, but not the replacement of existing windows, However, safety upgrades of this kind are definitely advisable.
The difference between safety glass and glass that is not tempered is in the way the glass breaks. Common plate glass can break into heavy, razor-sharp pieces, causing severe bodily injury. Tempered safety glass breaks into thousands of small chips with square edges that are largely harmless.
The safety film you have heard about is clear Mylar plastic, the same material used to tint windows. Safety film can hold the large pieces of a broken window together, preventing major injuries from occurring. However, someone walking into a plate-glass window with safety film can still incur surface cuts, and there is no guarantee that the Mylar film will hold a large window together when it is broken.
Safety film may be a more economical solution than tempered glass, but for maximum protection, safety glass is preferable. In this case, you get what you pay for.
Q. Dark stains have appeared on the floor around my toilet. A friend says this is caused by moisture under the linoleum. Does this sound like a serious problem?
A. Stains around the base of a toilet often occur with vinyl flooring, not linoleum. Otherwise, your friend's evaluation sounds correct. When floor vinyl becomes stained, it is nearly certain that there is water under the surface. Around a toilet, this usually means that the wax seal is leaking.
Whether this is serious often depends on whether the subfloor is wood-frame or concrete slab. When a toilet seal leaks on a slab floor, damage other than staining is unlikely. When leakage happens on a wooden subfloor, fungus damage, commonly known as dry rot, may result, requiring replacement of plywood, framing, or both.
If your floor is a concrete slab, replacing the wax seal is probably all that is necessary. If the floor is constructed of wood, evaluation by a licensed pest control operator is advised to ensure against possible infection by wood-destroying organisms.
• To write to Barry Stone, visit him on the web at www.housedetective.com, or write AMG, 1776 Jami Lee Court, Suite 218, San Luis Obispo, CA 94301.
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