Installation of curved balustrading and glass

The implementation, installation and manipulation of curved balustrades and curved glass requires a higher level of experience and expertise and may require an experienced professional to correctly install the job, wherever possible we recommend that an experienced installer be employed to install curved balustrades.

It is important to note and be prepared for the following when dealing with curved balustrades:

  1. On some radii the removal of the glazing bead from the handrail is not possible and the balustrade will need to be installed with the top glazing bead in place. This may require an adaption to the standard installation procedure to accommodate for this; this procedure can be obtained from us upon request.
  2. On the handrail the glazing gap may become smaller than on straight runs and a smaller glazing rubber may need to be supplied, it may also become necessary as part of the changed procedure to remove the external fixed rubber and replace it with a different kind that can be inserted line the internal rubber.
  3. It is important to realize that the tolerance on curved toughened glass is great and the curved glass panels will have “straight” ends of approximately 100mm on each side. This will be more noticeable on small radii. Curved glass may therefore require more manipulation, experience and patience in installation.
  4. It is important to note that all bending of profile sections is performed after any anodizing or painting process, therefore surface cracking, whether visible or not, will always be present on curved sections, stretch marks may also be present and will depend on tightness of the radius. These cracking and stretch marks in addition to any other results from the bending are not considered defects.
  5. Manufacturing limitations with respect to curved glass and balustrades exist and on occasion new limitations are realized that were previously unbeknownst.