What your stair can be
What your stair can be
Recently more and more railings are beeing made with glass under the handrail. This solutions is very nice from the aesthetic point of view and gives you the possibility to create extremely transparent railings while using natural or opaque glass.
But we must consider that a railing is above all an element of protection and as that it should be designed. Thus the thickness of the glass as well as the fastening systems must guarantee the security conditions expected.
It's very common to see projects with rectangular pieces of glass, usually of 1.20mts width by 0.80mts height, fastened by four bolts, and on the technical specifications they indicate laminated glass.
Well, the laminated glass is composed of two equal glass parts fitted with a central resistant film, that means that in the case the glass breaks it remains joined by this fillm (such as cars glass), the problem is you can't make a hole in a laminated glass, thus you can't fit the support system for the railing. For that kind of use we need tempered glass, this glass goes through a process of tempering heat, acquiring great strength. But, at the same time, it is not advisable to use tempered glass plates hanging on a balcony in height, in the case of rupture of one of those, the glass would fall in the form of grains of salt, creating a risk to bystanders.
As a result, to achieve the great look of a glass railing and at the same time the necesary amount of security we would have to think in some of the following alternatives:
1) In irder to be able to dig holes in to glass pieces a secure solution would be to use tempered glass, they would be used by joining to parts and then making a laminate process on them, in that way, we produce a Tempered Laminated Glass, this kind of glass is secure and can be manipulated to fit different support systems.
2) Another alternative is to use laminated glass but hold it in another way, through "U" shaped profiles placed on top and bottom, so the glass can rest it's weight throughout the base.
3) There is an option to take a laminated glass from the point withouth the hassle of drilling, this method is called "UV stuck". It adheres to the glass disks around metal fasteners through this type of adhesive that is very powerful.
4) Finally, there are sophisticated stainless steel fasteners that take the glass like a clip.
The recommended thickness of the glass depends on the glass measures.
* To spaces up to 0.50 meters, 3+3 can be used.
* To support higher spaces, between 0.50 to 0.90 and up, 4+4 can be used.
* To support spaces from above 0.90 to 1.30, 5+5 can be used.
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