How to Remove Glass Block
This glass block was broken as a result of a fire at the house next door. One block was blown out through both panes, and other blocks were cracked. The glass block got extremely hot from the fire and breakage occurred from the temperature fluctuation when sprayed with cold water.
Due to the potential for exploding glass while removing the windows, the tile fireplace was completely protected with fiberboard insulation. Then duct tape was attached across the glass block.
In order to protect the room from the possibility of exploding shards of glass, we built a plastic Zip room to completely encase the work area.
We pried off the wood trim.
We cut out the bead of silicon surrounding the entire glass block opening. Then to release the glass blocks as a complete unit we had to cut through the heavy-duty metal panel anchors. The 8×8″ block had anchors every other course, which are L-shaped brackets tying the glass blocks to the window frame. Surprisingly, due to the thickness and strength of the eight panel anchors we wore through six reciprocating saw blades.
The original glass block was installed with mortar joints at the top and bottom of the opening. We used a slow-speed grinder with a diamond blade attached and combined that with a vacuum to minimize dust, while we cut out the mortar joints.
Fortunately we were able to push out the twelve-block-window in one entire piece. One person pushed gently on the top of the window from the inside while the other person was outside ready to grab the 96 pound window. We then lifted the window together over a trash can and cut the center joint with the grinder. We flipped the window over, gave it a swift blow in the center and it fell into two complete pieces into the trash can. No shattered glass anywhere!
The old panel anchors had to be removed to make room for the anchors that came with the new glass block.
After clearing away silicon around the perimeter, the opening was coated with a waterproofing membrane.