You have put a piece of structural glass into your floor, and the glass itself will look after itself. The surface is the part that wants a little thought. This page covers how to live with a walk-on glass floor, a hinged cellar door or a well cover so it still looks right in ten years.
Our walk-on glass floors and well covers are built to be walked on, to carry real loads and to meet the relevant safety standards. None of that is in question. What is in question is scratching, and the thing that scratches glass is not weight, it is grit.
The rule in one sentence: treat it like a white carpet
Nobody walks muddy boots across a new white carpet. Apply the same instinct to internal floor glass and you will not go far wrong.
Glass is very hard but it is not scratch proof. A small stone or a bit of sharp grit caught in a shoe tread is effectively sandpaper, and it only takes one pass to leave a mark you will see every time the light catches it.
Internal glass: cellar doors, hatches and walkways
Inside the house you have far more control, so the clear look is easy to keep.
- No outdoor shoes on the glass. The single most effective thing you can do. Step around it in shoes, or take them off at the door.
- Socks or bare feet are best. No grit, no risk.
- Watch indoor footwear too. Slippers and flip-flops that have been outside for two minutes pick up grit like anything else.
- Keep the surrounding floor clean. Grit on the adjacent timber or tile will find its way onto the glass eventually.
External glass: well covers and outdoor panels
Outside, the white carpet rule is not realistic and we are not going to pretend otherwise. You cannot ask visitors to take their shoes off in the garden, and the weather brings grit whether you like it or not.
- Expect some wear. External walk-on glass will pick up light surface scuffing over time. That is normal wear on an outdoor feature, not a defect, and it is assessed the same way as any other glass, as set out on our glass quality standards page.
- Be a bit mindful. Avoid walking heavily across it in muddy boots, or in soles with aggressive treads that trap stones.
- Placement helps. If the glass sits right where people come off a muddy path, a mat before it earns its keep.
Furniture, and anything else with feet
Whether a glass floor should carry furniture at all is a structural question, and the answer, which is that we do not recommend it, is set out in our walk-on glass floor buying guide. What matters on this page is what furniture does to the surface. That is a separate problem, and it is the one you will notice first.
A hard foot on glass is the same story as a stone in a shoe tread. Bare metal, a hard plastic glide or a felt pad that has worn through bears on a very small area, and any grit trapped underneath turns that foot into an abrasive. A chair that has stood in one spot for a year has often left a dull ring you only see when the light is low.
- Dragging is far worse than standing. Standing still is a static load on a surface you can keep clean. Dragging grinds whatever is caught under the foot across the glass in a line, and one pass is enough. Lift furniture rather than sliding it, and sweep before you move anything.
- Castors are the worst of both. A wheel concentrates the load the way a leg does and then abrades as it rolls, so anything on castors marks a glass floor faster than anything else on this page.
- Pad the feet, and keep the pads clean. A soft pad between the foot and the glass is most of the fix, but a pad that has picked up grit is worse than no pad at all. Check them rather than fitting them and forgetting.
Marks from furniture are wear rather than a fault, and glass sits outside our ten year warranty, so this is one to prevent rather than to put right afterwards.
Cleaning it
Straightforward, and no special equipment needed.
- Get the grit off first. Sweep or vacuum before you wipe. Wiping a gritty surface with a cloth is how glass gets scratched, and it is the most common cause we see.
- Warm water with a little detergent, or a good household glass cleaner. Either is fine.
- Soft microfibre cloth or a squeegee. Never a scouring pad, a scraper or anything abrasive.
- Dry it off to avoid water spotting, particularly in a hard water area.
What not to use
Avoid anything containing hydrofluoric or phosphoric acid. These turn up in some limescale removers and heavy duty cleaners, they permanently etch glass, and they will strip a non-slip treatment off the surface. Also avoid solvents near the sealant line and the steelwork around the panel.
Looking after the non-slip treatment
If your panel has the invisible chemical non-slip treatment, it is a surface treatment rather than part of the glass, so it does not last forever. Expect to have it reapplied after around five years. That is a straightforward job on the existing panel, not a replacement, and it is priced on our anti-slip glass treatment page. Harsh cleaners shorten its life considerably, which is the main reason to stick to soapy water.
A sandblasted or ceramic frit pattern is fired into the glass instead, so it does not wear out and needs nothing beyond normal cleaning. The trade-off there is that you see the pattern. There is more on choosing between the two in our toughened and laminated glass guide.
If the glass gets chipped
It happens, usually from something dropped rather than from anything walking across it. These are the two questions we get asked, and the answers are more reassuring than people expect.
I have chipped my glass floor. Is it still safe?
Almost certainly yes, and it is worth understanding why.
Walk-on floor glass is laminated, which means two or three sheets of toughened glass bonded together with an interlayer. The design assumes one of those layers can be damaged or even break, and the remaining layers still carry the load. A chip in the top surface is therefore a cosmetic problem rather than a structural one.
It is still worth dealing with. A chip can spread, and a spreading crack in the top layer will eventually look bad enough that you want the panel replaced. Any windscreen repair company can fill a chip in glass of this kind, and that stops it progressing. It costs a fraction of a new panel.
Can I just turn the panel over?
If the glass is not handed, yes. An unhanded panel can be lifted and reversed so the chipped face sits underneath. Handed panels cannot: anything with a cut-out, a lock position, a hinge detail or a directional non-slip treatment only works one way up.
If you are not sure which you have, send us a photograph and the order details and we will tell you.
The frame, the seals and the moving parts
Powdercoated and galvanised steel frames want the same wash down as the rest of your outside metalwork, and stainless wants a bit more attention near the coast. On a hinged cellar door, check the hinges and gas struts occasionally for wear and get in touch if a strut has lost its lift. Our product maintenance page covers every finish we supply.
If something is not right
Send us a photograph taken in daylight from a normal viewing distance, plus a close-up for reference. We would far rather look at a photograph early than argue about it later. Call 0114 243 9009 or email sales@diomet.co.uk. The steelwork we manufacture carries a ten year warranty. Glass itself is not covered by it, which is worth knowing on a glass floor: it is a fragile material we buy in rather than make, and once a panel is delivered and accepted it sits outside the warranty. Transit damage is separate and must be reported within 48 hours. The full wording is in our terms and conditions.