Tips For Cleaning Up Broken Glass

If you accidentally drop a glass or your child puts a baseball through your window, chances are good that you're going to have to deal with shards of sharp glass. This can be extremely problematic, especially if you have young children. Here are some tips for cleaning up broken glass as quickly as possible and making sure that you are able to return that area to its previous level of safety.

1. Block Off the Area

First, block off the area using other pieces of furniture. This will keep any young children or pets from getting too near the broken glass. It also buys you a little bit of time to get the materials together that you are going to need for the next few steps. If you are not sure how far the glass flew, err on the side of caution and block off an entire room until you know for sure.

2. Remove the Larger Pieces of Glass

Next, you are going to need to remove the larger pieces of glass with your hands. First, grab a pair of dish washing gloves that are made out of rubber or heavy gardening gloves. You need to make sure that the gloves are heavy enough in to protect your hands from the shards. A pair of dollar store winter gloves is not going to cut it for this first step. Once you have the pair of gloves, take all of the larger pieces of glass and put them in a paper bag. Then, wrap that paper bag in two layers of plastic bags. Write "warning! glass!" on a piece of duct tape and stick it to the bag in order to let any people going through your trash at a dump to stay safe.

3. Sweep Up the Remaining Shards or Use a Vacuum

If the glass is on a hard surface, use a broom to sweep up the remaining glass shards. If the glass is on carpeting, use a vacuum cleaner to get rid of the glass.

4. Go Over the Area Again With Duct Tape

Finally, take duct tape and wrap it around your gloved hands so that the sticky part is facing outwards. Then, start in one corner of the area that had glass in it. Start patting down the floor. The stickiness of the duct tape will help you remove any tiny shards of glass that could harm someone with especially sensitive skin, such as a baby. If you are working with carpeting, make sure that you get the tape down as far into the pile as possible. Replace the tape every time it loses its stickiness or gets full of dust.

For more information, talk to a glass repair company, like Action Glass.