Toughened laminated glass cut to your millimetres, in 10.8mm, 13.5mm, 17.5mm and 21.5mm. Toughened panes bonded with a structural interlayer, so a broken panel is held together in its fixings rather than emptying the opening. This is the glass frameless work needs, and the reason is what happens after a break rather than raw strength.
Is there a continuous handrail along the top of the glass, and is it inside or out? That, plus the span, decides everything. Thicker is not automatically better: a 21.5mm panel in an undersized channel is worse than a correctly sized 13.5mm panel fixed properly, and the extra weight makes every part of the installation harder.
Send us the panel sizes, the barrier height, what is holding the glass, whether there is a handrail and whether it is inside or out, and we will tell you which we would supply.
Worth saving your money where it is not earning anything. If the glass is a simple infill held all round by channel, clamps, posts and rails, and nobody has specified laminated, then 10mm clear toughened does the same job for less. That is the panel we cut more of than anything else.
Laminated earns its cost where the consequence of a break matters, not as a general upgrade. The exception is absolute: a frameless balustrade with no handrail has to be laminated, because the glass is the whole barrier and has to keep working after an impact. Our glass balustrade building regulations guide sets it out, and it is worth confirming with your building control officer before the glass is ordered.
The terms get mixed up, so to be clear: a floor you stand on is walk-on floor glass, built up differently, far thicker, and sized to span between supports on all four sides. The panels here are for vertical work. Do not substitute a balustrade panel for a floor.
Laminated to BS EN 14449, toughened plies to BS EN 12150, impact classified to BS EN 12600. Polished edges and a proper 5mm radius corner on all four corners as standard.
Lamination also changes what happens in the rare case of spontaneous breakage, where a toughened pane fails on its own because of a microscopic nickel sulphide inclusion. It is a known property of toughened glass rather than a fault, and glass is excluded from our 10 year warranty either way. A laminated panel is no less likely to suffer one, because its plies are toughened glass, but the interlayer holds the fragments and the panel stays in its fixings. See our guide to spontaneous breakage.
One thing to expect: the interlayer shows at the edge as a fine line. That is normal rather than a fault, and on a frameless run with the top edge on show it is simply part of how laminated glass looks. A clear interlayer is standard; obscure, white translucent and tinted interlayers can be priced in, so ask rather than guessing from a dropdown.
Both panes are toughened before they are bonded, so nothing can be cut, drilled or edged afterwards. Every hole, notch, cut-out and polished edge is set out before the furnace and the lamination line. A panel 5mm too big is scrap, not an adjustment, and there is no trimming a laminated panel on site.
Measure the aperture in three places and work to the smallest, and allow a sensible gap for the channel or fixings. If you are side fixing with side fixing adapters, each fixing point needs a hole of at least 24mm, so send the hole positions with your sizes.
Pick the width and height bands your panel falls into, then send your exact millimetres and we confirm them before anything is made. Smallest band 500 x 500mm, largest size online 2000 x 1100mm, anything beyond quoted individually. Holes, notches and cut-outs are priced individually.
Allow for the weight. Laminated is appreciably heavier than a single toughened pane of the same size, roughly 27kg per square metre at 10.8mm and 34kg at 13.5mm, so a large panel is a genuine two or three person lift rather than something to wrestle up a staircase alone. Most travel on a pallet, usually tail lift with a pump truck, though that is how it normally works rather than something we can guarantee, so tell us before you order if you need it confirmed. Check the panel over before you sign: the edges and corners are where almost every breakage starts.
Also available clear toughened, frosted and tinted.
This is made to order in our own Sheffield workshop, so it can just as easily be made to your dimensions instead. Send a photo and rough sizes and we will price it.
