Shattered confidence in flat windows

TODAYonline

Shattered confidence in flat windows

Could ill-fitting components be behind Punggol windows prone to breakage?

Thursday • March 9, 2006

Cheow Xin Yi
xinyic@newstoday.com.sg

PUNGGOL resident Madam Sharon Lim and her neighbours didn't have to rush to change their window rivets to abide by the new safety regulations last year — their flats are only three years old.

But a nightmare on an early Sunday morning last month shattered the 31-year-old housewife's trust in the safety of her new windows.

A strong gust of wind had slammed her bedroom window shut, shattering the glass pane, sending glass splinters flying into the room and landing less than a metre away from where she was sleeping with her husband and her two young children.

"If the window grille was not there to prevent the sharp pieces from falling onto us, it might have caused serious injuries," she told Today.

While windows in her flat slamming shut due to strong winds is an inconvenience she has had to deal with regularly since she moved in three years ago, the incident shook her enough to call in the Housing Development Board (HDB) as well as four window contractors, asking for a price quote on replacing the glass, and to find out the cause of the shattering of the window.

It turns out that hers was not the first such case.

According to the HDB, there have been six similar cases in the past five years "due to strong winds" in Punggol. The window design complies with industry standards, it added.

Other residents in the area Today spoke to also complained that windows slamming shut is a common problem. Some have resorted to slotting papers, clothes pegs and even pillows between the windows' hinges or grilles to cushion the impact.

Mdm Lim, for one, had in the past asked HDB officers to check her windows regularly and tighten the rivets on the friction stay, but the problem of window slamming shut persists.

"I don't even open the windows except to air the kitchen for five minutes after cooking," said housewife Leslie Poh, 34, who lives in the same block as Mdm Lim.

Contractors Today spoke to said the likely cause was that the friction stay — the metal strip on which rivets are fitted to control the opening or closing of the window — was out of proportion to the windows.

"It could be that the windows are too big while the friction stay is too small, such that it cannot take the weight of a window or withstand the strength of the wind," said Mr Ng Thiam Teck, 46, an approved window contractor with 22 years of experience.

HDB has offered to reimburse the cost of Mrs Lim's float glass replacement for her broken window "as a goodwill gesture".

But this doesn't address the root of the problem, said Mdm Lim, who has collected the signature of 15 of her neighbours for a petition appealing to the Ministry of National Development to change their windows' friction stays.

"We have to live with the worry that such an incident will happen again," she said.