Window Grill & Waterproofing

How does a window grill affect the waterproofing of a building?

Since the serial blast on 12th March 1993 personal safety came on anvil. The day to day life of individual changed drastically thereafter. One significant change which took place was installation of MS Grills on window and balcony openings. Perhaps the family staying behind these grills felt that they were now safe, not knowing at what price this safety is achieved. Over night many buildings voluntarily confined themselves into jail like structure. Taking advantage of the situation people extended this grill to a cage, encroaching 2 to 2 ½ feet space in the air.

Just to get a feel of what people think of these grills I asked few questions to those who were around me and known to me. In short following were some of the answers I got from them –

I. “every one does it, so I have done”

II. “I feel safe, house breaking won’t take place now”

III. “It is necessary, I have small children in my house”

IV. “since grill is there I can keep some flower pots”

V. ”I had to make a place for my split A/c; where else I could have made it?”

Not a single person gave me the answer which I was expecting and that was, “I get an extra space to dump discarded corrugated boxes, plastic buckets and other scrap, children’s broken bicycles and all unwanted heavy items, waiting for the disposal.”

It is an irony that in a country where aesthetics and beauty is cherished for generations is fully ignorant of how they are defacing their city. The authorities are just not bothered; condition is like a free hand to every body, do what you like. If the grill was essential then they could have standardized the size, material, shape design and could have kept the drawbacks within limit. Such cages like box grills which extend out to 2ft. from the wall surface, are installed from ground floor to any floor up in air.

Grills reduce service life of a building

Aesthetics is not an only negative aspect of this practice, installing such grills create a maintenance problem for a building and reduce its service life.

When an architect conceives a design and shape of a building, he approaches Structural Consultant to design a skeleton that is R.C.C. grid for that structure. At that time various aspects are considered like how the building will be used, what will be the load that various area of the structure will carry, how the soil and environment is where the building will be standing, financial limitations, Govt. regulations, local constrains etc. In all this mental churning there is no provision for the heavy MS Grills hanging on the sides of the building.

With this new insight, once again look at your building and imagine how much that extra collective load your building is bearing on its sides. Think that you have gone to the market to buy your monthly grocery. You have done lot of purchases, so much so that two bags in your hand are weighing 20kg. each. How long you will walk with this load in your hand? You have option to keep the bags on the floor, when you are tired. What happens of a building when it stands like this with extra load mounted on its sides, in all seasons, for years together and when it experiences fatigue?

Building develops cracks. When it can no longer sustain with the load, the weaker areas give way first. There are construction joints in a structure, they start falling apart. This development is progressive and do not halt with normal measures. A portion of a building actually starts tilting and pulling away from the main structure. The cracks and voids which open cannot be permanently sealed. Water enters into the structure through these spots and travel from inside to appear from the weaker spots, located anywhere in the structure.

The grills are fixed by hammering heavy duty nails (plumber’s nails) in to the wall. The impact damages the wall. Wherever the nail is inserted, it starts corroding after some time. The corrosion damages building material around it and creates a cavity at that place. Sometimes this corrosion is even transported to the steel reinforcement of a main R.C.C. grid.

All this eventually weakens the whole structure and slowly makes it unstable.

Grills block the emergency exit

In the hue and cry for safety everybody seems to have forgotten of the emergency exit. Incase of unfortunate fire in the building windows and balconies are used as emergency exits. The fire fighters carry out their operations from the external sides and they use windows and balconies as the entry points. By installing heavy grills in these areas we block their way, no our way to the safety.

Obvious question is then what is to be done?

It is possible to attend to all the concerns of people at the design level and by consultation of people from various fields. A unique treatment to the elevation and with the help of external assistance like CCTV, security gadgets, lighting etc. the problems can be minimized and the ugly appearance can be removed.

In case of existing buildings following things may be adopted –

A. Reduce the weight of the grill by proper selection of material and design.

By this I mean instead of using solid bars use hollow seam pipes of lighter weight which will serve the purpose. Alternatively grill made out of aluminum can also be used. Select such design which is not dense so that less material will be consumed.

B. Limit the grill to the wall surface and do not extend it any further.

There should be no provision for dumping or storing any material including flower pots in to the grill.

C. Incorporate design with hinged emergency doors.

Such doors will be useful when need arises.

D. Take care to seal the nail heads.

Special materials are available which are compatible with building material and metal, so that they do not open due to the thermal variations.

E. Make use of modern safety gadgets and employ professional security guards. It is worthwhile paying little more to the trained and reliable watchman than installing heavy grill.

With such considerations it is possible to reduce the menace created by the grill. Our gesture will also do little bit to face lift our city by bringing down the ugly feature to its minimum.