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It begs the question of why it happens so frequently in Toronto and not in other cities (barring Montreal). It's not enough of an excuse to say that much more condos are being built in Toronto; there should be absolutely no glass falling at all.
 
It was probably due to the heat/humidity spike I am sure the glass expanded and cracked.
 
jje1000 said:
It begs the question of why it happens so frequently in Toronto and not in other cities (barring Montreal).
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Perhaps it does, but we just don't hear about it, just as I doubt many people in other cities will hear about this. It might be a "breaking-in," rather than a QC issue for all we know, so lets not jump to conclusions. A thorough investigation definitely needs to be done though.
 
DtTO said:
Perhaps it does, but we just don't hear about it, just as I doubt many people in other cities will hear about this. It might be a "breaking-in," rather than a QC issue for all we know, so lets not jump to conclusions. A thorough investigation definitely needs to be done though.
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Glass on a building isn't something to be "broken-in" - it should be intact, and stay intact. Failure to do so is a life-safety issue and definitely have a QC (which is the predominant mode of failure) or application bent to it.

Actually, while falling glass might not be "the news", I have yet to recall cases where the glazing for a significant portion of the building had to be removed in either Montreal or Vancouver.

AoD
 
DtTO said:
It might be a "breaking-in," rather than a QC issue for all we know, so lets not jump to conclusions.
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Nobody is jumping to conclusions. Glazing is NOT intended to ever fall from a building, and is a major safety hazard.

Glazing does not need "breaking in". In fact, quite the opposite; if it's already falling so soon after a building's completion, how does that bode for building envelope failure and possible falling glass a few years down the road...?

I understand people here are just trying to be positive, but a lot of UTers need to learn to stop excusing away major issues. Criticism is merely seeking improvements to the way we do things-- looking to make things better. Making excuses for crappy cladding systems (I'm not saying this is one, but using this as an example as a lot of UTers make endless excuses for window wall systems and their short lifespans), and poor quality control is being passive and accepting poor execution of buildings and construction in this city.
 
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It's interesting how many of the buildings having problems with their glass have sourced it from China. Granted, not every imported building has had problems, but it seems like the vast majority (I want to say all, but I'm not sure about a couple) of the ones with issues have been imports.
 
However, Absolute World's architect specifically wanted a particular brand of window-wall from China ($$$ business deal) and that building hasn't had issues with its glazing has it?

Location of manufacture doesn't explain these problems as straightforwardly as people tend to think. It's similar to clothing labels... there is crap made in Italy and good quality stuff from China. There are many variables at work that affect quality.
 
Yes, granted, there are many variables in the glass problem, but almost all of those variables are being held constant. It's the same climate, it's the same building codes, it's the same installers, the only thing that's varying is the fabrication.
 
1) Codes are too lax (Germany and other European countries set the standard to beat for building science), and that is not an issue of production.
2) There are variable types of glazing products available from various manufacturers/suppliers
3) There is a lot more to fabrication than the country a product comes from. Let's not just blame "Made in China" when low standards are the problem.
 
hawc said:
None of the 15 to 20 CityPlace buildings have had any glass fall and that's the single biggest Condo development in Toronto and it's Chinese. They covered up a few buildings at one point as a precaution but no glass fell.
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Wasn't there an incident with falling balcony glass in cityplace a while back?
 
SP!RE said:
3) There is a lot more to fabrication than the country a product comes from. Let's not just blame "Made in China" when low standards are the problem.
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No, I'm not just blaming "Made in China." I'm speaking from experience as someone who's installed both the Chinese made product that's been imported into Toronto and the domestically produced stuff. The stuff that's been getting imported is vastly inferior to the stuff that we make locally. I'm sure China does have the ability to produce material that's as good as what we do here, but that hasn't been the material that the local developers have been importing.
 
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