Glass spec...

[leenowell]

Hi All,

Does anyone know where I can find out the size/ type of glass required to meet building regs in the following circumstances?

1. A standard balcony + juliette balcony
2. A double glazed window that runs all the way up the stairwell so the half landings essentially have glass floor to ceiling.

I have looked everywhere I can think of and can't seem to find it anywhere.

thanks

Lee.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No idea what those are...

Double glazed, and toughened. I am not sure than without a banister etc you will be allowed this.

Oh. from 2000 regs, you can have this but the thickness depends on the height and width of the pane.

up to 1.1 meters either way, 8mm is allowable up to 2.25 meters either way, 10mm up to 3 m high and 4.45 me wide, 12mm otherwise 15mm.

Now there is another requirement with I suspect a BCO would enforce, and that is that up to 800mm from the floor - the half landings I guess - you need to prevent people touching the glass easily..essentially a 75mm sphere should not be able to be put in contact with the windows. I suspect this means that you need close fitting posts and a banister in front of the window. This should not be 'easy to climb'

You get the feeling that glass to the floor is really not liked.

The basic intention of teh glazing regs is tyhat

- it should be obvious that there is glazing there..i.e. transparent floor to ceiling on a continuous flat floor is asking for trouble and needs to me marked.

- if the glass is where people can fall, be pushed or thrown against it, it should be tough enough not tpo break badly, and if it does, not to splinter and cause grievous wounds.

- if its near the ground or floor, it needs to be protected against children, so they cant get to it.

-

[leenowell]

thanks very much for the info.

To explain number 1 above, we have 2 balconies

- a Juliette balcony in our bedroom with French Doors

- a 3 sided "square" railing around a flat roof balcony.

I wondered what the glass requirements were for them

thanks Lee.

[Ziggur]

Have you tried:

"British Standard "BS 6262: Part 4: Code of Practice for Glazing for Buildings"

Some Public Libraries offer free online access to full details.

[Lobster]

I would imagine the info you need will be within the relevant Building Regulation which can be found at:

[Hugo Nebula]

On Fri, 1 May 2009 06:15:25 -0700 (PDT), a certain chimpanzee, [e-mail] randomly hit a keyboard and produced:

There are essentially three requirements that glass must comply with:

1. When used to provide guarding between different levels it must be sufficiently robust enough to resist the forces on it;
2. If it is in a situation where people can come into contact with it, it should be of a type that will either a) be sufficiently robust so as not to break easily, or b) break safely so as to avoid injury; and
3. Be obvious.

Where glazing is being used as guarding with no other protection, then it has to be 2a) above.

The forces it has to resist depend on the type of building and the numbers of people. A the guarding to a balcony in a night club would need to be stronger than that in a house or flat, for instance. The thickness of glass panes depends on their size, maximum dimensions, fixings (are they held around two sides or four), etc.

Approved Documents K and N are a starting point. Pilkington also has a lot of information on their website.