frosted glass

[Daniel]

I wonder if anyone could help. My wife has dreamed up this idea for our bathroom and I just wondered if it was practical.

In our kitchen, we used a piece of toughened glass as a splashback. Bought it from a glazier, who painted the back white and foil backed it. Looks fantastic - would recomend it highly. Cheap (£80 or so) and looks very cool - that kind of milky green look.

Now in the bathroom, her idea is to use a long thin strip (c. 40cm high by 3m long) of the same stuff to break up a wall of plain white tiles. Effectively therefore you get a plain white tiled wall with this long strip of frosted glass at the right height so that it is just above the sink.

Very clever.

But: 2 questions.

Firstly, can you just insert this glass as if it were one big long tile? Would you simply attach it with tile adhesive or would there be issues?

Also, we wanted to try painting it with a colour other than white, purple in fact. However I am concerned that rather than looking purple, the green tint of the glass will simply make it rather brown. Anyone any experience?

Cheers in advance

Daniel

[Andy Dingley]

Nope - drill it and screw it. Drilling glass isn't all _that_ hard, but for a big piece you're better getting the glazier to do it.

Drill it slightly oversize, then sleeve the screw with a slip of silicone tubing. Mirror screws with the chrome dome heads are an easy stock item, but they're still a little ugly IMHO (in a '70s style). Personally I prefer stainless (or black) snap-head Allens

Yes, you. Get a foot square of the same glass and prototype it. You'll never know unless you see it in situ.

[Brian Sharrock]

CAUTION ! If the glass has been _tempered_ (which I beleive the original poster was referring to) DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AT HOME - or even at work! Tempered glass is basically held in film of surface. Pierce the surface and the things shatters into safe particles.

The glazier will drill the required holes and bevel / round-off/ polish the edges _prior_ to tempering the glass.

Concur with above.

I installed a glass 'splash-back' behind the hob in my kitchen. The splash-back mates up to the glass canopy on the extractor hood. The body of the extractor fan projects below the canopy; so I needed a glass of xxx mm x yyy mm with a 'notch' out of the top (plus four fixing holes)'. A drawing was supplied to the glazier - and when the item was delivered - they'd 'notched' it portrait instead of landscape! As they was freely admitted it was their mistake and not-to-drawing they produced another item (correctly notched)! The glaziers asked me if I could use the original piece (gratis) as it was of no use to anybody - they said 'if we even scratch it- it'll implode- that's the trouble with tempered glass'

[Daniel]

Our glass splashback is held up with some sort of silicone adhesive as sold by the glazier - so no drilling holes or screws. Is there a problem with this approach?

Will do! Was going to do that anyway, but wondered if anyone knew whether it was a waste of time! Will posyt back the results

[Andy Dingley]

Couple of things with it -- first of all, "typical" silicones produce acetic acid when they cure and they'll damage silvering. There are mirror-safe mastics around (Screwfix) that avoid this.

Secondly, and this depends on the circumstances, then I'd want some mounting with a bit of compliance against movement.

It's also a damn nuisance to hang heavy glass by this means !