Glass balustrades

A balustrade is the one piece of glass in a house doing structural work. It is there to stop somebody falling, and it has to do that while staying as close to invisible as the drawing promised.

The work here runs from a cantilevered staircase to an exterior roof terrace, and the fixing method changes with every one of them.

Toughened laminated panels, and the fixings that carry them: stainless steel standoffs bolted through the glass on the staircases, clamp fixings on a curved flight, and posts carrying a round handrail on the exterior runs.

On the roof terrace the same panel is obscured rather than clear glass, which lets light through without a clear view.

Barrier glazing is toughened laminated rather than plain toughened: laminated so that if a pane is broken it stays in place until it can be changed.

Thickness follows the fixing method and the load the barrier has to hold, so it is worked out per run rather than picked off a list, heavier for a frameless panel, lighter where the glass is infill inside a post-and-rail frame. Holes for standoffs are drilled and the edges polished before the glass is toughened.

Glass

Toughened laminated safety glass

Makeup

Set by the fixing method and the imposed load, per run

Fixings

Stainless standoffs, base channel, or posts with a handrail

Edges

Polished all round

Options

Clear, or obscured where there is a privacy problem