By Danny Williams, managing director, Pioneer Trading.

I am talking about glass. And perhaps the fact it has miraculously been used to fill holes in windows whilst still allowing light to enter a building, for such an incredible length of time, is why flat glass, especially, when it is used to produce insulated glass units, is taken for granted.

Recently I was looking at some online forums where I found complaints, mostly from installers, about the quality of IGUs and the glass itself. These various rants play into my comments about the price of IGUs being far too cheap, especially for what they represent as a product, but also because I have considerable experience of the generally poor way they are handled during the installation process.

Let’s get down to brass tacks….

Glass, and especially when it is incorporated into IGUs, is probably the most undervalued product used in the building and construction industry today. Especially in home improvements it is, quite literally, the difference between every window installed, being compliant with the current Building Regulations.

The glass from which we produce these super-efficient IGUs, with their ability to reflect heat both into and away from the building, to isolate homes against noise pollution and even to clean themselves – and any combination of these – is the result of millions of pounds, Euros, yen and dollars, pumped into development, over many years. Describing what a piece of coated glass does, wouldn’t be out of place if described in a Harry Potter book.

The capital cost of getting glass and in turn, insulated glass units to the front line, is incredible. The construction of a float line costs hundreds of millions, uses huge amounts of energy, in a process that is incredible to behold, and which operates continuously, 24/7/365, or the plant falls apart.

The production of insulated glass units requires an initial investment of at least £1 million to create a fairly basic line, with equipment essential to the production of every glass unit, having huge price tags: £100k minimum for a half decent cutting table; half a million for a toughening furnace, plus infrastructure such as gantry cranes and even the provision of high levels of power, to make all the magic work.

All this for a product that is optically clear, and which will keep a room warm, or cool, or quiet, and which can even clean itself, is bespoke manufactured for every job, and which costs peanuts!

We should pay more for such wizardry! Glass and IGUs are incredibly undervalued. But to collectively answer the bitching on Facebook and other channels, my experience over 35 years, as a manufacturer of windows and doors and glass units and as an installer of many thousands of windows, is that most of the damage and ‘flaws’ occur after insulated glass units have been delivered to the installer.

And much of this is because fitters are not trained to understand how units should be handled. ‘Well it’s just glass, innit…’

Whilst glass is, in essence, fundamentally the same as the material Glazius Octavius might have installed a couple of thousand years ago (see, something else the Romans have done for us!), it’s like comparing a Formula 1 engine to a Model T Ford. The glass we install now has magical capabilities that the best scientific minds have developed in a material that remains so simple in appearance and yet remains so inexpensive, despite the howls of some of those online. And perhaps that is the problem.

Far too many installers place no value on the IGU they are handling, beyond the inconvenience of a delay in completing a fit if one is broken. Units are manhandled in the back of vans or racked on the sides, treated without care on site and during installation, and inevitably, damage occurs.

And whilst of course, problems can and do occur during the manufacture of the glass and sealed units, it is rare.

Fitters often claim the scratch is on the inside of the unit, low hanging fruit for an installation company getting someone else to pay for their fitter’s cock-up. The fitter does not want a charge back from his employer the installation company, which does not want to pay for a new piece of glass when it was clearly the fault of the fitter.

When claiming a ‘manufacturing fault’ such as an internal scratch, whilst glass manufacturers will inevitably accept and replace the glass FOC in most cases, we are told it was thrown in the skip, which means the IGU or frame supplier has to cough for it.

As an industry – and especially the float producers and larger IGU manufacturers – we do little to promote the sheer brilliance of this material, which offers incredible performance and especially for the money that is currently being charged for it. If the glass and IGU producers don’t demonstrate their belief in and value of their products, how can anyone else be expected to?