Frameless Glass Balustrades – The Solution for Balconies
Johnny King, ODC’s Showroom Manager is a big fan of frameless glass balustrades. Here he answers a few FAQs about glass balustrades and highlights recent projects which have used them to great success.
What are the benefits of frameless glass balustrades?
Where to start? I love the look of them – they’re modern with a great aesthetic – clean, simple and unobtrusive. Definitely go for glass balustrades if you like that minimalist open air look and if you want a seamless pairing with aluminium sliding doors and windows as part of a bigger glazing design.
They improve and preserve a view if you’re lucky to have one. Some of our clients have homes in the most stunning locations and enjoying the view is what their homes are all about. Frameless balustrades make sure that happens. And their slimline profile means you can maximise the usable footprint of your balcony or patio – practical and beautiful!
Where do frameless glass balustrades work best?
We’ve fitted frameless balustrading pretty much everywhere, including around the outside space of a luxury London penthouse suite used for film locations. They’re really popular for roof terraces, elevated patios and as Juliet balconies for dormers with our smaller slimline sliding doors. Clients with sloping gardens and terraced grounds love them for walkways and protecting external steps.
How safe and tough is glass balustrade?
Extremely safe and extremely robust, like all our aluminium architectural glazing. Glass balustrades are certified and tested to high safety standards. Because they’re designed to provide fall protection, they are made with toughened load-resistant safety glass. We specialise in a frameless balustrading but we do make balustrading with handrails if that suits the location and style of your home.
What’s the largest size you make?
Our glass balustrades are bespoke, and can be made to span the width of your house, balcony or terrace. Our technical team is used to liaising with architects to find the best frameless solutions.
How does a Juliet balcony differ from a glass balustrade?
Juliet balconies are shorter panel installations across an opening with a sliding door usually on a first floor. The glass panel is held securely in place by aluminium uprights attached to the house facade and the whole frame either finished in matt silver, raw aluminium or powder-coated to match your windows and doors.
How easy are they to maintain?
Incredibly easy to keep clean – no painting or sanding down. They’re ideal if you live in an exposed coastal location. Like all our glass, a quick wash and wipe down is enough.
ODC Glass Balustrades – five favourite projects
The ground floor to ceiling sliding systems create stunning walls of glass for this new build on the River Thames, but the glazing for the first floor balconies deserve a shout out too. ODC SL320 doors combined with glass balustrades make sure there are uninterrupted views to the river. It’s a great example of how minimalist balustrade design complements sliding systems with slim sight lines.
This new build project in Dorset was all about having bright light interiors and great views – our glazing design included frameless ‘invisible’ glass balustrading for the upper floor balconies so the coast could be seen from any room. The internal glass balustrading for the stairway works really well – no dark corners in this home!
Three floors up on a busy London street and we needed a crane to fit a sliding system with a slide away corner, two full-height glass box windows and glass balustrading with an aluminium top rail for light for this stunning loft extension. You can just get a glimpse of the neighbouring property on the left to see what a transformation this project achieved!
.
We fitted our smaller ODC SL220 sliding doors on the second floor dormer of this renovated family home – the glass balustrade acts as ‘invisible’ fall protection – this is also what you’d call a Juliet balcony and it makes a dramatic difference to the bedroom’s natural light and sense of outdoor green space right in the middle of London.
This is a new build on the Gower Peninsula on a stunning cliff-top site – absolutely nothing should interfere with the views through the minimal ODC300 sliding doors and windows – and so our invisible glass balustrades are perfect.
To find out more about ODC Glass Balustrades please get in touch – our technical sales team will be really happy to have an informal chat about your project in more detail, or better still, pay a visit to one of our showrooms in Poole or London – we can discuss all possible options.
