Glass has emerged as a stunning, cutting-edge, and contemporary flooring material in both commercial and residential structures. But it's important to know whether glass flooring is safe and practical.
Whether looking down into the home from a transparent glass floor or out to the street below from a deck with built-in glass panels, you'll want to make safety and practical considerations before any decision. So, this article highlights the factors to consider while evaluating the safety and practical use of glass floors.
Having sufficient failure redundancy integrated into the construction of the glass is one of the most important safety considerations when concerning structures with glass floors. Having three-ply glass floors is an illustration of a failure redundancy.
Design-wise, three pieces of glass are "sandwiched" together to create three-ply glass panels. This precaution ensures that if your glass floor breaks, the individuals standing on it will have extra glass underneath their feet to catch and support them.
Having failure redundancy in place is essential not only from a general safety and practicality viewpoint but also to simply give you peace of mind as you enjoy your glass floors. While a clear glass floor that is correctly designed should never break, this is not to say that it will never fail.
Glass without treatment can be slick. If it's wet, this poses an even greater risk. Ensure the manufacturer intends to employ an anti-slip solution to ensure the glass flooring is secure for use in both inside and outside situations.
Anti-slip glass can be made using various techniques, each with advantages and disadvantages.
They include applying tiny bits of glass aggregate permanently to the walkable glass surface in a kiln; silk-screening an anti-slip substance onto the glass surface by baking it on; and using the acid sketching technique, in which parts of the glass surface are removed to create different depths of glass.
Ask if the treatment will produce a transparent or frosted glass appearance if it is rated for internal and/or exterior use, and the anticipated life span to make sure you receive the best anti-slip solution for your project.
The engineering of the particular project determines the thickness of the glass flooring panels. Always seek advice from your project engineer and glass maker. However, a panel for a typical project comprises three pieces of glass.
Each piece of glass is 3/8" thick, giving you a total thickness of roughly 1 14". At least three pieces of glass must be used to construct every stair step and glass flooring panel. This guarantees that the building will be structurally sound even if one of the glass panels breaks.
When it comes to glass flooring from AIS Glasxperts, our top focus is everyone's safety.
Please feel free to contact us with any inquiries, worries, or bookings concerning transparent glass flooring in your home, a walking skylight, or any other glass-floored structure, regardless of its current state.
We have years of experience in the glass industry and would happily share our knowledge to make any glass floor project as safe and attractive as possible.
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