Tukes finds Tikkurila balcony glass was too weak

Preliminary findings by the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency Tukes show that the glass panels used on the balcony railing where a man died in Vantaa did not meet current requirements, Yle reports.

Tukes chief inspector Petri Kulmala said the glass used in the railing system failed the calculated point-load requirement.

“In practice, this means that it is too weak for its intended use,” Kulmala said.

The apartment building on Tikkurilantie used 4+4 millimetre laminated glass, consisting of two four-millimetre glass panels with a laminating film between them.

A man aged about 30 died on Midsummer Eve after falling through the glass balcony railing in Tikkurila. Tukes, which is responsible for market surveillance, began investigating the railing and its plans after the accident.

Point load assessed through calculations

Different parts of balcony railings are subject to different standards requiring structures to withstand specific wind, line and point loads.

The point-load requirement for the protective glass in the railing system is 0.3 kilonewtons over an area measuring 50 by 50 millimetres. The requirements are based on national regulations and Eurocodes, which are European calculation standards used to determine the strength of structures.

The requirement is intended to ensure that the railing glass can withstand ordinary situations such as someone leaning against it or colliding with it, Kulmala said.

Tukes assessed the point load through calculations because the strength cannot be reliably evaluated experimentally. Tests cannot reliably account for all conditions, including temperatures in the glass’s actual operating environment, statistical variation in the glass’s fracture strength or the residual strength of laminated glass.

Tukes is also investigating whether the plastic glass wedges used in the balconies at the building were defective. The investigation is still under way, and the agency expects to complete its final report by the end of the year.

Similar accident occurred in 2023

A separate fatal balcony accident occurred in Tikkurila in 2023, when a woman fell against the glass and fell from the seventh floor. Tukes also investigated whether that balcony complied with requirements and found that its glass failed the calculated point-load requirement.

According to Kulmala, the two accidents have many similarities. Although the railings were made by different manufacturers, both used an aluminium-framed railing with laminated glass as the protective element.

The 2023 accident prompted Tukes to launch a market-surveillance project covering all manufacturers. The Finnish Flat Glass Association also published guidance on the principles for calculating the dimensions of railing glass.

Kulmala said the point-load requirement is not new. It was already included in Finland’s first building regulations in 1978. The buildings involved in the Tikkurila accidents were completed in 2020 and 2017, and Tukes said the legal requirements for railing structures have remained broadly unchanged throughout the 2000s.