How safe is Eichler glass for children?

Consider getting safety film put on large glass panes if its the original single-pane non-tempered glass. The original glass is supposedly quite dangerous when broken.

On sliding glass doors, you can do this also, or for about the same money get the glass replaced with modern tempered glass.

Here's a couple earlier threads on related topics:

http://www.eichlernetwork.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=315
http://www.eichlernetwork.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1820

When we moved into our Eichler our youngest was 18 months and a very active little boy. I knew the previous owner had raised three boys in this house with no broken windows so I figured that we were probably safe. As it turns out our son wasn't the problem. A friend brought over her very big dog who went right through one of our windows (original windows). I have never seen anything so scary looking! Thankfully the dog was fine, but we had large shards of glass just hanging off looking like a guillotine. I then went and replaced the front windows in the multipurpose room (we have a courtyard style Eichler) with single pane tempered glass. On the back windows since we have afternoon western exposure I had the clear film put on those till I could afford to replace them and get a new slider put in. The film looks fine, but to tell you the truth if I were to do it again (which I will in a couple of more years since the film only last about 10 years) I would replace those back windows with single pane tempered glass and invest in window coverings for the late afternoon sun.

hi there,
we replaced all of the sliding glass doors and the family room/den with double paneled. For the floor to ceiling windows in the main room, we had the Great Eichler Window installed (a very thin clear plexiglass insert placed over the single pane window) which makes us feel a lot better with a 5 year old boy in the house. Feel free to mail me for more info if you like.

When my oldest was about 5 years old, she broke one of the large panes that run from floor to ceiling. Bad day that day. Sweetie and my sisters had a booth at the Burlingame street fair, took my little girl to the park and started reading a book while whe was playing with a bunch of other kids.

No more than 5 minutes later, heard my little gal saying: "NO!!!! don't do that!!!", looked up and no daughter in sight. Got up and ran towards her voice and found a 10-12 year old boy trying to pull her pants down.

He knew what he was doing was bad and ran as soon as he saw me.

Had enough of that place and took her home to make lunch.

Sat her down and she started rocking the dinning room chair, so told her to stop that and don't do it anymore.

Went over to the kitchen to make lunch and then heard a CRASH!!!!?

Ran out and horrified to see her laying still in the chiar, but on her back looking up at a sheet of glass, still shaking. Guillotine about to drop about 100 lbs of glass and cut my little girl in half. Was able to grab her and get her out of harms way in a flash.

That piece of glass never did drop, but if it had....

The glass company came out and said it would cost $1,100.00 bucks (including labor and removal of old) to replace that piece/section. As code says any glass that is below certian height (think 4 feet), ***MUST*** be tempered and why this was so much. This is a 1980 era cost, so it's most likely much more.

None standard size and then they have to have the whole thing tempered. Took over 4 weeks to receive and told hope they don't break it in transite, as another +4 weeks.

So, on my list of things for the house is to replace all of the floor to ceiling panes of glass. Don't know if the code has changed, but most likely not, as it's a good code.

Tempered glass breaks into tiny pieces, so tiny cuts. Regular glass breaks into shards, so knife/sword like and the cuts are life threatening.

I wise this was available when my kids were small. Think it's a great idea, both keeping kids out of harms way and the energy savings.

Question on cost and cleaning. Cost because it might not be easily cleaned and needs replacement. Then how easy was it to install for a DIYer?

Source contact info?

Thanks!

We moved in a immediately used the "Great Eichler Window" inserts after hearing about broken glass in our neighbors house. This Plexi insert is Awesome and keeps the original window and frame intact without the massive frames the window people want to use nowadays. We also had them replace the 3 sliders with their Thin-Line doors again to match the originals and we Love Them.
Safety First - You need to do something about your windows!!!
The Film will work too but don't wait with an 11 month old cruising around.
Take Care

Pardon my ignorance. What is the 'Great Eichler Window'? I have a 5 month old and would like to work on a solution to the glass before he starts walking. We have the film on our sliders but nothing on the large panes. We had to replace a 9' pane with something called P516. I was interested in Mistlite but its not tempered to that size.
Thanks.

For anyone that hasn't replaced the original windows in their Eichler home, or put up safety film, I would highly recommend doing so. I just moved into an Eichler 6 months ago. My niece was here a few weeks ago and ran into one of the sliders breaking it. She had to get over a hundred stitches in her legs. Fortunately the glass didn't slice an artery or hit her face. The description above of the shards looking like the blades of a guillotine is exactly right. I am having the slider and the floor to cieling glass surrounding it replaced in 2 weeks with child safety glass. Over the next 6 months we are going to replace all the other sliders and windows. For now I have put stickers on the remaining windows. New windows are not cheap, but now after my experience, I think it's worth the cost. I feel horrible about my niece!