What is the cost to repair scratched glass?
Depending on the type of glass and the extent of the scratch damage, repair costs can vary. If you have a high end home with lots of tempered (or heat treated) glass and lots of visual scratches, we have seen claims vary from $10,000 – $75,000 (approx.) in damage for glass replacement. In commercial buildings, there can be 10, 50, or 100(etc.) times that cost to replace the glass.
What about scratched glass repair?
After finding out about a scratched glass headache, many builders and their cleaners tend to jump to conclusions and work to attempt to repair the scratched windows using glass buffing tools. Costs to buff glass and remove scratches with that method can be just as daunting as the costs can range from 60% – 90% of the cost to replace the glass.
Effectiveness of Repair by Buffing?
Although, normal annealed glass (non-heat treated) can be repaired for minor scratches and graffiti using a glass buffing system, heat treated glass is different. Heat treated glass is 4 – 5 times stronger than regular annealed glass. Heat treated glass is also 4 – 5 times more difficult to repair using a glass buffing machine.
The Downside of Buffing
Despite the difficulty of buffing heat treated glass, it can be possible to repair the scratches using this method. The downside is that using buffing machines on heat treated glass may also result in glass distortion issues in which the glass may appear wavy when looking through it. It is possible that after buffing the glass, the building owner could become just as dissatisfied with the distortion as they are with the original scratches.