Is your contractor installing quality glass?

It is no small task to clean the windows in a newly built home. Plaster, paint, sawdust, silicone, stucco, concrete, stickers, you name it. It's all over the windows. And to get the glass back to "better than new" quality, your window cleaner will break out their secret weapon: the razor blade. Razor blades are standard tool for window cleaners and are incredibly effective tools for cleaning extremely dirty windows. With some construction cleanups we have had to scrape nearly every square inch of glass.  Generally, the windows come out looking fantastic.

Extensive use of razor blades, however, does carry some risk.
Poor quality glass may scratch when cleaned with a razor blade.

Most glass fabricator keep their facilities extremely clean so that their glass will not become contaminated. Because if dust or  microscopic particles glass (called glass fines) become fused to the surface of the glass, this can make cleaning the glass extremely difficult or impossible. We call this "fabricating debris" (see below)  It's an issue, thankfully, that doesn't rear it's head too often. But it is a very serious and potentially expensive issue. Imagine a brand new house with scratches in all of the brand new windows. Yikes!

So how do you know if you have good quality glass? Unfortunately it's almost impossible to know until you've tried cleaning the glass with a razor blade. But there are some steps you can take:

Home Builders - Are you installing quality glass?

Don't let scratched glass issues ruin your brand new view. Get up to speed on the issues surrounding "fabricating debris".