Despite being a popular choice for architects and interior designers, many people shy away from installing glass balustrades because of safety concerns. Glass has a reputation for being fragile and easy to break, so instead many people opt for wood or metal balustrades.
Whether you’re a year-round swimmer or a warm-weather dipper-inner, keeping your outside pool or hot-tub at its best and safest is an ongoing commitment. Investing in quality pool fencing gives you peace of mind but can detract from the beauty of your pool and garden. Install pool glass fencing however, and you’ll avoid many of the problems associated with other pool enclosures.
When your new glass balcony is positioned to make the most of the sun, it pays to heed the advice of a trusted balustrading supplier like Balconette.
Far-reaching countryside vistas don’t come much better than this. That’s why Steve Procter installed glass balconies and frameless balustrading from Balconette to keep the views from his elevated Yorkshire home.
With slick designer looks and an enviable view of the world beyond, have you thought about adding glass fencing to your home? From traditional handrail glass fence panels to barely-there frameless designs, glass fencing complements a broad range of architectural style.
Here at Balconette we have too often had to replace balustrading products supplied by others which were not fit for purpose or compliant with building regulations. Regardless of whether you choose to purchase from us or not, we want to give you some important tips and pointers to use as a checklist when sourcing and purchasing a balustrading system for your home or development project.
Balcony systems is a term that is used a lot but can mean many things.
First of all, let’s define a balcony. This is “a platform enclosed by a wall or balustrade on the outside of a building, with access from an upper-floor window or door”. So, in simple words, it is the floor and the low wall sitting on that floor, sticking out from a building for people to walk out onto.
The height of any finished external balustrade or railing needs to be a minimum of 1100mm above the finished floor level, or above where one can stand. This is according to BS6180:2011 – Barriers in and about buildings code of practice.
Not always is fixing balustrades a simple matter. This is because usually the finished floor level does not have a structural member to fit to. Structural members are often imbedded below the floor level, under insulation, screed, waterproofing etc.
Let’s have a look at what happened at the Grenfell Tower that made it such a disaster.
Well, people or I should say company’s installed cladding and insulation and other components such as fire doors, all of which had pieces of paper to say that they were compliant and met all building regulations etc., etc.
But in reality, when it actually came to the real test, we all saw what happened, it went up like a box of matches.
Balustrade installation left to the last moment is not a good idea!
We get some customers coming to us after all, or the majority, of their building work is almost finished wanting to order and install a balustrade. In these cases usually the walls are finished and the waterproofing has already been applied. The repeated request in these cases is “I want to install the balustrade but not fix through the waterproofing” or “We can’t fix to the floor…”.
