Staircase with glass sides.

Lee Nowell 15 years ago

Hi all,

We are having new staircases in our house and are thinking of having oak strings, handrails and newel posts but infilled with 10mm toughened glass. Rather than having clips on show, we have seen some where the glass appears rebated into the string/ handrail e.g

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assumed that the newel and handrails would support the glass but looking at these (particularly the second one!) it doesn't look like it would support it. In fact, they look like the glass supports the rest!

Does anyone have any idea how this all works and how I would obtain the look? We have half landings so each run is only 6 or 7 steps.

thanks

Lee.

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struggler 15 years ago

Bear in mind that you will need to be able to put new ones in without taking the entire edifice to bits when you brake them, as you inevitably will, toghened or not.

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Andrew May 15 years ago

If they are anything like mine which was custom made then there is a slot in the stringer and in each newel post slightly wider than the thickness of the glass. The glass slides in (in my case three pieces because it is a full length staircase). the handrail then sits on top and is screwed to each of the newel posts. The screws are then plugged. Not impossible to replace if it gets broken but it is 10mm thick toughened glass.

Andrew

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Lee Nowell 15 years ago

From memory when we did our last house. the newel posts and handrail together didn't form the most rigid of structure (until the spindles were in) so I was worried about it having to also support the weight of the glass (which I assume is substantial - anyone any idea how heavy per m2 it is??). Any idea how deep the slot is? Maybe if this is deep enough it will use the glass itself to make it rigid?

thanks

Lee.

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