The Glorious World of Glass

Glass Options For External Doors

Glass doors connect the indoors-outdoors divide, providing a view to the garden and letting the daylight flow inside. Because regulations control the types of glazing used, you can feel safe that they offer a secure option. Here is information about several possible types of glazing.

Toughened Glass

With four times the strength of standard panes, toughened safety glass is one option for doors. It undergoes a unique tempering process to create this added solidity. After a furnace heats the glass sheet to extreme temperatures, jets blow cold air against its surface. The outer part cools faster than the inner parts, which creates tension within the glass that strengthens it. In the unlikely event of breakage, this safety glazing crumbles into regular, rounded pieces rather than pointy shards, which reduces injury risks.

Laminated Glass

You've probably come across laminated glass when dealing with your car windscreen. If hit with great force, while this glass may crack in a spiderweb pattern, it typically remains in place. The advantage of this is that you maintain the protective glass barrier until help arrives. For a door in the home, this ensures important temporary security.  

Laminated glass consists of two glass sheets on either side of a resin interlayer (which holds everything together when cracked). Heat and pressure bond the three together into a single pane. Changing the number of glass sheets and interlayers in the sandwich alters the strength and qualities of laminated glass. Even bulletproof and cyclone-proof glass are both made in this way. 

A benefit of laminated glass is that the interlayer can make use of specific technologies to block UV light and also noise—cushioning your home from outside weather and loud neighbours.

Opaque glass

While glass doors brighten up your home, you might prefer something that offers more privacy. Available in a range of decorative patterns or a satin sheen, frosted glass obscures the view while letting diffused light through. This provides the best of both worlds: lightness and privacy. Choose the level of transparency to create the degree of block you want. You can go very opaque or quite transparent—the choice is yours. One panel can feature both opaque and transparent sections: a horizontal frosted band for privacy along the middle part and clear glass along the top and bottom. You can also frost the glass in a range of decorative designs, either intricate patterns or simple organic forms, such as a running water motif. 

For more information, reach out to a company such as Superior Glass.


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