Defective Glass Units Spark A Lawsuit In A Seattle Condominium

Fifteen Twenty-One Avenue Condominium Association is filing a lawsuit against the Insulating Glass Certification Council along with several other glass-related businesses over defective glass units. The association’s attorneys allege that the defendants provided misleading certifications of quality.

Defective Glass Units

The Fifteen Twenty-One condominium is a luxury condominium with 38 stories in Seattle. It is encased in Viracon’s curtain wall featuring double-lite windows with structural silicone.

However, the officials of the condominium association found a significant defect in the building’s insulating glass units (IGU) on December 6, 2021. According to court documents, the gray sealant between lites of glass was creating a film. This indicated the dual-seal structural silicone was failing.

As a result, an investigation revealed that the airspace between the IGUs was leaking noble gas. They were also not hermetically sealed. These reduced the insulating values of the IGUs, increasing breakage pressure on the glass lites and negatively impacting the environment.

The association’s attorneys stated that Viracon’s windows used gray silicone instead of the traditional black dual-seal structural silicon. They used Quanex’s JS780 Gray as the primary sealant, which lacked Carbon Black. As a result, the windows lack protection from ultraviolet rays. Moreover, the gray sealant had long-term sun exposure, contributing to the degradation of the IGU’s dual-seal structural silicon.

The Lawsuit

According to court documents, the IGUs installed at the condominium will not last their expected useful life. They also encroach into the windows’ vision spaces, leak gas, increase breakage pressure on glass lites, and negatively impact the environment. Thus, they must replace all of them.

The estimated total amount needed to remove and replace the windows of these defective glass units will approximately exceed $1 million. This would be a big financial burden for the association and may lead to higher HOA assessments. Fifteen Twenty-One has a total of 7,850 IGUs that need replacing.

As a result, the Seattle-based condominium filed a lawsuit against Viracon (a subsidiary of Apogee Enterprises Inc.), Quanex, and the IGCC in late December. Its attorneys state that these entities conspired to violate the Washington Consumer Protection Act. They allege that the defendants were aware of the false protection certifications and agreed not to notify consumers of the false certification.

Moreover, they add that the IGCC is not objective nor independent as a third party. This is because Viracon’s design engineer was the IGCC’s president when they gave the certification. Furthermore, they allege that Apogee, Quanex, and Viracon officials met and agreed, in writing, to conceal the false certification and the seal failure in the defective glass units.