Safety glass is a product that is designed to cause minimal injury when it breaks, compared to regular annealed glass. The two most commonly used safety glass products are laminated glass and toughened/tempered glass. Both products have very different and distinct features that provide various levels of safety and security.

Yes, however the entire panel of glass will usually need to be replaced. We recommend replacing these panels with toughened glass as the hole required for the pet door makes the glass weak. Toughened glass alleviates this issue.

Laminated glass is two pieces of glass laminated together with an interlayer. When it breaks, it cracks but holds together, like a windscreen. Toughened glass is just one panel, but has undergone a process to make it 4-5 times stronger than normal glass. When it breaks, it shatters into thousands of small pieces the size of a fingernail.

• Sometimes toughened glass will shatter instantaneously, without an apparent reason. This is often due to a small flaw within the glass itself from manufacture. If the flaw is present, the glass failure could happen at any time.
• Another reason is that the toughened glass pane, when it was first installed, may be touching a metallic object such as a nail, screw or window frame. Changing weather conditions causes metal/wooden materials to expand and contract, putting pressure on the glass and causing it to explode.

In the case of glass emergencies, we will inspect the type of glass that has been damaged. In most cases, regular glass can be replaced within 24 hours, however, toughened glass products may take 7-10 days, in which case a temporary timber covering will be installed in place of the glass (if required) to protect occupants from potential break-ins and exposure to the elements.