Custom Glass Creations Combining Innovative Architectural Design & Distinctive Glass Techniques
Safety & Substance of Glass Flooring
Posted on Feb 27, 2010 by Wayne Czechowski
I am often asked how we can make glass floors and stairs safe enough to walk across. Architectural Glass Flooring & Cast Glass manufactures glass floors and stairs that are composed of three separate layers of glass that are laminated together to form one panel of glass at least 1.25” thick. Each layer of glass is 3/8” thick clear or starphire glass that has been fully tempered. Tempering the glass makes it four to five times as strong as non-tempered glass of the same thickness. Our tempered glass is manufactured in accordance with ASTM C1048 and ASTM C1036, Type 1.
The top layer of glass has a crystal clear non-slip material that is fired onto the 3/8” thick glass in one of our large kilns creating the non-slip surface. This glass is then tempered and laminated to the middle 3/8” Clear Tempered panel that is then laminated to the 3/8” Clear Tempered bottom panel. The three layers of glass combined with two layers of .060 resin lamination make a very strong panel of flooring glass.
Non-slip flooring panels are specifically engineered for each project by a structural engineer insuring that the size and make-up of the panels as well as the support system is structurally sound. In fact, our flooring glass is designed so that if the top layer of glass were to become broken for some reason, the other two layers of glass would be strong enough to hold the required weight without breaking.
Our flooring glass surface is approved by Underwriters Laboratories under their UL-410 Standard. This is the UL standard for slip resistance on walking surfaces. It is really interesting how UL tests this glass for slip resistance. A leather “shoe” is loaded with ½ the approximate weight of a human and the “shoe” is then pulled by a measuring device across the non-slip flooring to measure it’s co-efficient of friction. If the “shoe” does not move or “slip” when a certain level of sideways pressure is applied it then meets the UL 410 Standard for slip resistance.
You can be confident that your glass flooring will be safe when you use Architectural Glass Flooring and Cast Glass products.
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