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I'm trying to find a glass installer who can help us repair this but everyone is busy. I'm wondering if it's safe if our handyman installs a metal plate on the outside with silicone while we wait for a more permanent fix? It's a rental unit and I just want to be sure it's safe while we wait.

It's the window on the left that's below the window AC unit.

Here are videos https://imgur.com/a/I3DESk6 https://imgur.com/a/OVMdksF

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  • Has that glass experienced any substantial wind in its current state? Substantial for the area, that is.
    – popham
    Commented Oct 30, 2023 at 22:00
  • I don't think so. There's tons of wind on Maui but the unit is in the back and I don't remember there being wind at the door when we lived here. It's possible during the Maui fires in August, the winds picked up. But we live on Oahu now and so I don't know what happened.
    – Todd
    Commented Oct 30, 2023 at 22:16
  • If this is a rental, it should be on the landlord to get this fixed, no?
    – FreeMan
    Commented Oct 31, 2023 at 0:27
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    Was there some kind of rubber weatherstripping previously holding the pane in place, that has disappeared?
    – Huesmann
    Commented Oct 31, 2023 at 14:06
  • Yeah I think you're right @Huesmann. This is what our handyman said and that he's installing new trim that will be a good temp fix. We're thinking about installing split AC and so this can hold until we do that project.
    – Todd
    Commented Nov 1, 2023 at 6:17

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Unfortunately the ASTM qualifications for silicone caulk (specifically, ASTM C719) focus on its ability to adhere under a displacement controlled experiment. This means that you can't presume a bond strength. If the silicone is sufficient after it initially cures, then it will still be sufficient after a year.

Do an experiment. Worrying about too much strength instead of too little, I would do the experiment before implementing the temporary fix, but you could implement the experiment at the same time as your fix for peace of mind. Take a little piece of the metal plate, drill a hole in it, put a nail through the hole as a handle, and adhere the thing to the bonding surface. Wait a day for it to cure and pull it off of there, estimating the force that it takes. Do the proportions to figure out how much bonding area you need with the silicone.

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  • I really like the idea of running a test! I also wonder if this kind of temp fix could be removed? So we could try and test to see how much silicone to use so that we could easily remove it?
    – Todd
    Commented Oct 31, 2023 at 0:45
  • @Todd, yeah, that's what I meant by too much strength.
    – popham
    Commented Oct 31, 2023 at 1:05
  • Thank you @popham!
    – Todd
    Commented Oct 31, 2023 at 4:10

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