Cost of new glass legislation 'alarming'

Moves to add toughened glass windows to stop them falling from Brisbane's CBD buildings would add almost half a million dollars to the cost of a 20-storey building, the Property Council in Queensland said this afternoon.

The Queensland Government this morning announced tougher glass will have to be included in city high rise buildings from May after new standards were adopted on a national scale.

Property Council CEO Steve Greenwood said they estimated the extra cost of $30 to $60 per square metre would add about $20,000 a floor to the price of a high rise building in Brisbane, based on a typical CBD building.

"At around $50 extra per metre that is between $15,000 and $20,000 per floor," he said.

On a 20 to 25 storey building, the figure tops $500,000.

"That’s alarming, quite alarming," Mr Greenwood said.

"That is a very considerable when you come to figure like that."

But Mr Greenwood said developers understood the need to make buildings were as safe as possible.

While new toughened glass will have to be used in new buildings, older buildings would not have to replace their existing glass windows.

Infrastructure and Planning Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said all glass used in high-rise developments would have to be "heat soaked" to 280 degrees, to iron out chemical faults in toughened glass.

Nickel sulphide used in the glass manufacturing process could develop tiny invisible flaws, which could cause panes of glass to spontaneously shatter.

In recent years, panes of glass have fallen from buildings in Brisbane's CBD, including at Waterfront Place and Riparian Plaza.

A glass table fell from Aurora Towers in July 2009.

Mr Hinchliffe said he hoped the new tests would stop panes of glass falling from Brisbane's high-rise buildings.

"Obviously the spate of incidents that we have seen around the CBD of Brisbane over the last couple of years spooked people in the community," Mr Hinchliffe said.

"No-one wants large panes of glass to fall on their heads."

Mr Hinchliffe said the new testing process would make the glass in buildings more expensive.

"The advice that I have had is that it is a figure of around $30 and $60 per square metre extra," he said.

"So it is significant, but when you take into account the costs of managing the circumstances of a failure as we have seen around Brisbane and when you take into account the liability, it is pretty important to building owners that they have the best-performing glass in their buildings."

Brisbane City Council asked Waterfront Place's owners in 2007 to erect awnings over Felix Street - which remain in place - after several panes of glass fell threatening people in the street.

The new strengthening for glass panels will start from May 1 and phased in nationally over 12 months.

The move has been championed by Queensland and accepted by Australian Building Codes Australia, the major industry representative body for building standards.