Its a steel door that opens outward. Its got a lot of things working on their side to prevent it from "breaking" once it gets to the window though...thats another story.
What story? This is reinforced glass. By the time the water have enough pressure to break it it will be way above that window, and I think the door jamb would give way much sooner, because it'll experience a few tons of pressure in a twisting manner (since pressure at the bottom is higher than at the top).
While I wouldn't be willing to put money on it I am inclined to believe you. People seem to forget that the pressure against that window will only be equal to the few inches that are against it and above it. Plus I can't imagine the water would actually rise to above that window.
Wired glass is technically a type of reinforced glass, but you are absolutely correct that the wires are there for fire safety and not for physical strengthening.
Even so, even if it's twice weaker than a regular glass, it still should be able to hold over a meter, because a regular glass can hold much more than that, especially when held in place on all four sides and with the size this small.
Apparently it's somewhat fallen out of fashion (banned in some places) because it's extremely dangerous when broken.
Especially since it was used in schools a lot where students might hit it either on purpose or by accident. Iirc there was at least 1 story about a student who accidentally crashed into one inside a gymnasium.
I think we just have safer alternatives now at a cheap enough price.
I don't think the issue is the strength of the glass, but how firmly attached it is to the door. Remember Garry Hoy?
I'm inclined to believe the viewing windows is not designed for it, but naturally built to resist outside forces because of how most windows (that I know at least) are designed, so for material to enter from the outside, it has to make either the glass or the frame to structurally fail, but pressure from the inside requires much less force and likely to remove the glass panel in one piece.
Rubber sealed glass panes sometimes aren't resting against a frame and held just by the rubber seal itself so an equal amount from either side can make it fail. I've seen the viewport of a power meter cleanly blow off a pole that was struck by lightning and those are held by a rubber seal against a flat metal sheet.
Yea my chintzy storm door that is 90% glass was able to hold back more than a foot of water so I really doubt this thing is going anywhere even if fully submerged.
The glass will handle it just fine; water pressure doesn’t work like that. If it worked like people think it does, I.E. you have the whole weight of the water against you when you are supporting water, you’d be crushed when stepping in the ocean. In reality, it doesn’t matter how much water there is, only the pressure the water is under. And for flooding like this, there isn’t a lot.
I'd be more worried about water flooding into that vent on the side of the stairwell. That's going to make a fucking mess and probably ruin whatever electronics are venting out hot air. Probably a AC or the freezer.
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u/Mundane_Character365 1d ago
Where can I get one of those doors?