Shower Door Enigma......

[bluesypicky]

The strangest thing just happened to one of the sliding shower doors at BP's crib, and I as I still look at it amazed and puzzled by this phenomenon, I decided to come pick the brains of the LTG community (the most performing ones :wink: ) in case someone would be able to enlighten me on what kind of physics are involved here.. or have I just stepped into the twilight zone?..... :shock: :shock: <shock music here>

My wife and I had just arrived home, coming back from the airport where I picked her up after a day at work (for me), and as I was just getting comfortably settled with a 335 on my lap and headphones on my ears, she shows up at the door beckoning at me with a hint of panic in her eyes.
So I delicately lay the Gibby on my stool and meet her back in our bathroom where she was staying, staring at something, with the intensity of a cat looking at a bird within reaching distance...
She says: "I heard a "boom" and then I keep hearing this crackling noise".
I listen, and I hear the crackling noise.
After nosing around for about 4.5 seconds, I see one of the shower doors completely cracked, and still in the process of cracking as attested by the ongoing sound. Here's a couple of pics, from outside and inside the shower:

I just started shaking the door a little bit, to get all the plastic do come down, and I guess will be touring the local home depot shortly looking for shower doors.... :roll:
I'd be really curious to know if anyone either has had the same thing ever happening to them, or any idea as to an explanation? :idea: :shock: :? :!:
You'd expect this kind of thing to happen after slamming the door, or as a result of a thermal chock, as we are all too well aware of the effect it has on guitar tops, but what gives here? Neither applies, the house was empty all day, I took a shower this morning behind a structurally sound door, and after a whole day, all of a sudden, POP!

Pick the one you like:
No entiendo.
Je ne comprends pas.
I don't understand.

 

[Christopher Cozad]

Man, they're really out to get those Gibsons, aren't they! Have that wood tested at once, mon ami!

Christopher

 

[bluesypicky]

Man, they're really out to get those Gibsons, aren't they! Have that wood tested at once, mon ami! Christopher

Ohhhh...... so that's what this fed's car circling the house is about. I was wondering about that too.
Can we take a guitar with us in jail? :lol:

 

[Christopher Cozad]

(Couldn't resist the Gibson opportunity, sorry )

I have seen this only once, with a circa-1970's shower door at a friend's house. One door slam too many, evidently, and it shattered all over the bathroom. It was not an easy repair, as the frame was set into tile. Hopefully you can just replace the door but, in our disposable society, I am guessing it will be frame and door. At least the guitar is OK. The wife will recover.

Christopher

 

[Ravon]

Thats freaky. Always something :roll: !

 

[Bikerdoc]

So, it's the plexiglass framed in at the top of the shower door? You still have a workable door, right?


Peace

 

[Nigel Wickwire]

That's not Plexi-glass, that shower door is Tempered Glass. As evident by thousands of itty, bitty pieces, Plexi-glass doesn't break like that. Besides a shower door is a poor application for Plexi.:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempered_glass

Tempering creates balanced internal stresses which cause the glass, when broken, to crumble into small granular chunks instead of splintering into jagged shards. The granular chunks are less likely to cause injury.

~nw

 

[bluesypicky]

So, it's the plexiglass framed in at the top of the shower door? You still have a workable door, right? Peace

Yep, I still have a working door frame, not sure what the material actually is, but here's a pic of a piece:

It feels like plastic, it sounds like plastic, but it might be Canada Dry, although I think it's tempered glass as it fits Nigel's description pretty accurately.
I think I should be able to replace the doors only, as the frames have to be somewhat standard in size no? As far as height at least...

 

[Jeff]

So, it's the plexiglass framed in at the top of the shower door? You still have a workable door, right? Peace

Yep, or tempered glass as Nigel says, I'm not sure what it actually is but here's a pic of a piece:

It feels like plastic, it sounds like plastic, but it might be Canada Dry. :shock:
I think I should be able to replace the doors only, as the frames have to be somewhat standard in size no? As far as height at least...

Looks like broken tempered glass to me. I once tried to cut a piece of tempered glass, ended up with a pile of broken chunks looking amazingly similar.

If you can't easily locate replacement doors, check with a local glass shop, they might be able to replace the glass using the existing hardware.

My guess the door failed because the glass was stressed, (tracks out of alignment or tweaked somehow).

 

[bluesypicky]

Thanks Jeff, I'll check all the options as far as replacement...
But no out of alignment or tweak here, the doors were / are straight on all angles, and moving nice and loose on the tracks, which adds to my :?:
I wonder if tempered glass can dry out like plastic and just give up for no other reason?

 

[Christopher Cozad]

...I wonder if tempered glass can dry out like plastic...?

Glass drying out in a wet, damp, extremely humidified shower?
That would be my first guess, too.

 

[AlohaJoe]

Maybe it just lost it's temper.

 

[Default]

Good thing you weren't playing a Super 400.



That might have caused that side of the house to collapse. :-/

 

[killdeer43]

Did you have the volume turned up to 11? :shock:

Joe

 

[coastie99]

Ohhhh...... so that's what this fed's car circling the house is about. I was wondering about that too.
Can we take a guitar with us in jail? :lol:

Those aren't the Blues Brothers in that car man !!

 

[killdeer43]

How about a nice shower curtain instead of a door?

Joe

 

[davismanLV]

And you want us to believe that THIS is how you broke the shower door?

Seriously?

Sure, Pascal.... :roll:

 

[tjmangum]

How old is the door (or your home)? Ive seen newer glass do this due to stress from having been framed wrong, but never older ones without some type of force of some kind. I've seen some tempered glass go with only a mild tap.
Terry
Former general contractor- 28 years

 

[bluesypicky]

How old is the door (or your home)? Ive seen newer glass do this due to stress from having been framed wrong, but never older ones without some type of force of some kind. I've seen some tempered glass go with only a mild tap.
Terry Former general contractor- 28 years

Hi Terry,
That's the freaky part... I can see glass pop as a result of stress (either framed wrong or tweaked on tracks) but this is a 20 years old house, and even thought that bathroom has been renovated, it is at least 6 to 8 years old.
So it took 6 to 8 years of "stress" for the glass to finally pop?!!! I don't see it..... :evil:

All the others: Thanks for almost getting me to spill my coffee this morning, after showering..... in the other bathroom! :roll:

 

[capnjuan]

Hi Pascal; that's safety glass ... when it goes ... however it goes, it's supposed to fracture into lots of small pieces ... not those dangerous big angular shards.

I'm guessing there's an AC vent aimed right at / towards the door. When the shower's in use, due to the heat and humidity, the interior surface is expanding while the exterior surface wants to shrink because it's exposed to cooler, drier air . Over time, the cool-on-one-side v. warm-on-the-other fatigues the glass and it fails.

It's the same reason sliding glass doors self-destruct. We had a slider - with AC vent pointed at it - that let go one night into thousands of itty bitty little pieces. There's a guy in Riviera Beach who used to do business as the Window Doctor ... he fixed ours and that was the explanation we got.

But while he was at our house, I asked him whether it could have been another shooter on the grassy knoll or maybe UFOs ... he said he didn't think so.