Glass as a building material
Cleaning and maintenance
Seen under the microscope, the surface of a
glass pane is rough. Dirt and moisture that
become trapped must be removed at regular
intervals. Sloping panes require more frequent
cleaning than vertical ones. The panes must be
cleaned with liberal amounts of water to ensure
that dust and dirt are not scraped dry across
the glass and so damage it. Panes must be
well wetted to loosen the particles of dirt. A
broad, sharp blade should only be used very
sparingly to remove stubborn patches of dirt
from the surface. Scraping large areas is to be
avoided at all costs as this can lead to project-
ing glass particles being torn out from the
(microscopically) rough surface and carried
along with the blade. As the blade is pulled
back, these sharp, hard particles are rubbed
across the surface leaving thin, parallel, shal-
low hairline scratches which are visible in direct
light. In severe cases they can even impair the
view through the glass. During cleaning, care
must be taken to ensure that the wet cloth used
does not push dry particles of dust and sand
ahead of it and thus cause scratches. Wetting
the glass well beforehand is therefore vital.
The first cleaning on the building site must be
carried out especially carefully to ensure that
hardened splashes of plaster or concrete do
not produce scratches.
If damage occurs, the effect of the scratches
should be assessed from a distance of 1–2 m,
always looking from the inside to the outside
under diffuse lighting conditions. Direct lighting
and spotlights could reveal further optical
defects and impairments which prevent the
actual assessment of the scratches. The same
applies to internal glazing.
Aggressive cleaning agents are often used for
cleaning the frames. If these run onto the pane
and are allowed to dry there, subsequent rain-
fall can reactivate the constituents, which then
attack the glass. Horizontal glass is more read-
ily soiled than sloping or vertical glazing. In
such cases standing water can cause leaching
(fig 2.1.63). This chemical-physical effect must
be taken into account when planning horizontal
arrangements. The cleaning agents used must
not attack seals and joints.
Self-cleaning effects
When considering the self-cleaning effect for
glass, we distinguish between the hydrophobic
property, which causes the water to form indi-
vidual droplets, and the hydrophilic property,
which causes the water to run off as a film and
take any dust and dirt with it. The Lotus effect,
i.e. the low wettability of a surface, is based on
a microscopically small but suitable surface
structure that makes the material super-hydro-
phobic. The coatings applied to glasses these
days to improve the self-cleaning effect exploit
the hydrophilic characteristic. Photocatalytic
coatings are generally applied by heat during
the manufacture of the glass. Titanium dioxide
(TiO2) is applied with the octahedrite crystalline
structure and has the property of being able to
decompose organic substances under the
action of violet radiation.
Water draining as a film from a glass surface
exploits the hydrophilic property to take with it
any dirt and dust. This corresponds to the nor-
mal way of cleaning glass in which copious
amounts of water are used to remove any dust
and dirt from the glass.
Surfaces treated with hydrophobic coatings
reduce the adherence of dust and dirt. Rain-
water falling onto the surface does not run off
as a film, but forms individual droplets or
streams. However, concentrations of dust and
dirt remain at various places on the glass sur-
face. The thickness of the applied coating is
critical in this respect. When processing and
installing glasses with an enhanced self-
cleaning effect, it is essential to follow the manu-
facturer’s instructions carefully and to make
especially sure that the sealants used are
approved by the glass manufacturer for use
with these coatings. If necessary, consult the
manufacturer.
In practice the cleaning of glass surfaces with
chemical agents – without any water at all – is
becoming more and more widespread. Such
agents can indeed dissolve grease and other
residues, but do not remove all traces of them
from the surface. Instead, they tend to distrib-
ute them over the surface in their dissolved
state, which leads to the formation of a very thin
film which under certain lighting conditions
manifests itself as a bluish haze.
Microfibre cloths are advertised as being able
to remove small particles of sand, dust etc. and
thus clean surfaces without the use of water.
However, this cleaning process involves rub-
bing the dry cloth over the surface of the glass,
which can produce scratches. The only way to
overcome this problem is to rinse off any dust
and dirt on the surface with copious amounts
of water. Suitable cloths are also available. For
large areas of glazing the cleaning should be
considered as part of the construction time-
table, as with the cleaning of carpeting or
wood-block flooring. Glass is a high-quality
building material and this is the only way to
handle it properly. If necessary, intermediate
cleaning during construction can be employed
to remove most of the dust and dirt at a time
when it is still possible to use large amounts of
water without risking damage to the building.
If glass surfaces are not cleaned until later,
when the use of water is no longer possible,
scratches and damage are unavoidable.
Influence on functional data
All functional data are determined according to
the dimensions stipulated in the standards and
subject to the defined boundary conditions,
corresponding to the specified constructions.
These values are used as the basis for product
descriptions and so can be compared with the
data of other building materials during the
design procedure.
In practice the boundary conditions and dimen-
sions differ from those in the standards. This
leads to minor changes compared to the theo-
retical values. For example, the “pumping”
action of the cavity of an insulating unit has an
influence on the functional data, albeit tempo-
rary. These general observations apply to many
building materials, not just glass. But these
influences are, under certain circumstances,
more readily noticeable in glass than they are
in other, less complex, less versatile materials.
“Super-accurate calculations” must be warned
against. Many parameters help to consider the
different influencing variables as a whole and
to carry out case studies. Nevertheless, practi-
cal situations can deviate from these results –
a fact which often only reveals itself much later.
The details of frameless joints and corners
shown on pp. 172–73 are good examples of
this. The different geometrical arrangements of
frameless joints and corners in glass construc-
tion result in considerable differences with
respect to the ideal boundary conditions (e.g.
circulation of air), which exert an influence on
the interior temperature. Glass, even in the form
of insulating units, has changed nothing in this
respect.
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