Getting more privacy from glass

Curtains, blinds and shades can take you only so far. Yes, they can disguise the view, but in doing so, they also take away the light. Unless you’re ok with that, you need a better solution for those times when you need or want daylight.

Frosted glass allows most visible light to pass, but eliminates the view either into or out of the room. Frosted glass is a great option for the bathroom or bedroom. It can also work for windows that have an unattractive view of the building next door. Here’s the rub. Frosted glass is expensive. Traditional frosted glass uses a chemical or mechanical process to abrade the surface of the glass. It’s a permanent solution, so once it’s installed, it’s yours.

You can create your own frosted glass using Glassprimer™ glass paint. Glassprimer™ glass paint makes a permanent bond with the glass surface, so just like frosted glass, it’s forever. You can apply Glassprimer™ glass paint directly to the glass, using a brush, roller or a high-volume, low pressure paint sprayer. Minimal surface preparation is required, and you can order Glassprimer™ glass paint in any color with a frosted effect.

The benefit of using Glassprimer™ glass paint is that unlike true frosted glass, you can get it in virtually any color. Frosted glass is – of course – “glass colored.” It’s made by modifying the surface of the glass, rather than applied as a coating. If you use Glassprimer™ glass paint, you can incorporate color into your decorating scheme. You can create a translucent effect on glass in a color scheme that matches your room décor for about $1 per square foot of coverage. White always works for the frosted effect, but if you’re going for something more, Glassprimer™ glass paint is your go-to option.

You can also use Glassprimer™ glass paint to dress up interior glass walls and partitions. Use it in conference rooms or offices to minimize distractions, control light and heat gain, and to perk up an otherwise plain space. The glass partition can still transmit visible light into the space, and you can control how much of the glass partition is coated.

Shatterproof glass worked in NYC

Following the 9/11 attacks, New York City required many buildings to retrofit with shatterproof glass. The benefits of the retrofit were evident last week when homemade bombs exploded in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. While the blasts did cause some limited damage, one thing that did not happen is that street-level glass didn’t shatter or break as the result of the explosions.

Surveillance video of the area during the blast showed just what the city hoped – windows remained intact, instead of showering broken glass onto pedestrians in the street. Shatterproof glass contains a layer of plastic between two panes of glass. When the shatterproof glass panes break, they don’t shatter randomly, like ordinary glass. Instead, the broken glass remains bonded together – exactly what’s needed in situations like the one in Chelsea.

Shatterproof glass isn’t new; in fact, it’s more than 100 years old. The first patent for breakage-resistant glass was issued in 1909, although the glass itself was invented in 1902. The need for shatterproof glass became evident when manufacturers first started incorporate glass into automobiles. By the mid-1930’s, shatterproof glass was standard in automobiles.

Shatterproof glass may have been a required component of automobiles for more than 80 years, but it typically isn’t required in ordinary buildings. While the Uniform Building Code has required shatterproof glass in buildings since 1991, the requirements focused primarily on doors, glass panels in and near doors, and glass in safety situations. Very large windows, windows in close proximity to a walking surface, and glass in wet areas like bathrooms, may also be made of shatterproof glass. The NYC requirements focused on windows, regardless of their proximity to doors, walking paths or even size.

Tempered glass is a form of safety glass, but it’s far from shatterproof. In fact, tempered glass is known to shatter in a rather explosive way. The benefit of tempered glass in a breakage situation is that like shatterproof glass, it doesn’t break randomly. Tempered glass, which is heat-treated and specially cooled at the time of manufacture, breaks into uniform pieces that won’t create significant injuries, even if the pieces become airborne.

Shatterproof glass looks like ordinary glass, and it can be decorated, painted or printed like ordinary glass. Glassprimer™ glass paint will create a permanent bond with tempered glass, thanks to its specially engineered nature. In addition to resisting chipping, peeling and fading, it also offers superior UV resistance.

Iconic glass structures – La Estancia Chapel

Cuernavaca is about an hour south of Mexico city, and is in a tropical climate. The owner of the Wedding Garden was initially interested in building a masonry chapel on the grounds of the garden, and was intrigued by the idea of having the architect who was getting married design the chapel in which he would be wed.

The architects designed a space that would take advantage of the natural beauty of the gardens. That meant forgoing the masonry chapel originally conceived by the owner.

Instead, the architects chose to work with glass, and created a chapel space that is open, airy and does not require air conditioning. The chapel is shaded by large jacaranda trees. The goal was to build the chapel while making a minimal impact on the environment, and no trees or other natural vegetation were removed to construct the building.

The design of the glass chapel was inspired by Tadao Ando’s Chapel of Light and Steven Holl’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The four sides of the chapel feature open glass plates. On the altar end of the chapel, the glass forms an open, cross-shaped window that provides a view of the garden behind the chapel.

The chapel was designed and built in about four months. It includes electricity, but uses natural ventilation and permits the use of natural light for daytime ceremonies. The space is largely open, allowing personalized arrangements for seating and the ceremony itself. Flowers and other natural decorations are often used to customize the look of the space.

Glass insulation and new technologies

Glass has been used in building windows for hundreds of years. Single pane windows were the standard for most of this time, but in the quest for better energy efficiency, double-pane and triple-pane windows have been brought to the market.

Double pane windows have two sheets of glass with a single gap between them. The gap is often filled with an inert gas like argon, and tightly sealed. The gas increases the insulating value of the glass and helps reduce both energy costs and energy losses. Double-pane windows are readily available for both new construction and as replacement windows.

Under the assumption that two panes of glass are better than one, triple pane windows feature three panes of glass and two air gaps. As with double-pane windows, the gaps are filled with inert gas and tightly sealed to prevent leakage. Are triple-pane windows really better?

Triple-pane windows are heavier than their double-pane counterparts, but they’re about 20%-30% better insulators than their double-pane cousins. The weight of the window may not be of great concern, because once the window is installed, it’s weight isn’t really relevant. The added weight does increase the cost of transportation, however. The increased insulating value does have significant benefits. With regard to noise insulation, triple-pane glass doesn’t provide significantly better noise insulation that double pane glass does.

There is some industry research being conducted in Europe on the value of quadruple-pane glass windows. Quad-paned windows have four sheets of glass and three insulating spaces. Typically, the four sheets of glass have a single-sided anti-reflective coating, and the inner and outer panes are made of low-emissivity glass. These windows aren’t in production, but they’re being evaluated on a cost-benefit basis.

In addition to quadruple-pane glass windows, some research is being done on multi-pane thin glass that is vacuum sealed. The thin glass reduces the weight of the finished window, and the vacuum sealing helps improve the insulating value of the window. Building a thin-glass, vacuum sealed window is tricky, because the seals need to be robust enough to last over time. Experimental windows using vacuum-sealing haven’t proven to last very long, which makes them unlikely candidates for production.

Currently, triple-pane windows offer the best insulation properties of any window product on the market for residential applications. Glass with low-emissivity and anti-reflective coatings offers significant advantages in commercial applications.

One inexpensive option to reduce heat gain is glass paint. Glassprimer™ glass paint is designed to bond permanently with glass, and can help reduce solar heat gain, while still permitting light transmission. Glassprimer™ glass paint also offers superior UV resistance, so it won’t chip, fade or peel, even in direct sunlight.

Mercury glass makes a comeback

If you’ve never heard of mercury glass (also called silvered glass), it just means that you weren’t born in the 19th century! Genuine mercury glass is a decorative, double-walled, hand-blown glass that has a layer of mercury or silver sandwiched between the layers. The term “mercury” is a bit misleading; elemental mercury is not used in the creation of this kind of glass, although early versions may have contained it. “Silvered” glass is made with a silver nitrate solution, and is not genuine silver, either.

Mercury glass was made as a tarnish-free alternative to silver, and was also used as a “cheap” substitute for genuine silver. Household objects like doorknobs, glasses, vases and candlesticks were prime candidates for mercury glass. As it began to fade from popular favor, mercury glass could be found in purely decorative objects like Christmas ornaments.

Original mercury glass is now a popular antique find. Because the glass was usually not perfectly sealed, antique mercury glass can tarnish or deteriorate. Delamination is also a common issue among antique mercury glass pieces.

Some crafters like making their own faux mercury glass using mirror spray paint. This paint will adhere to glass, but doesn’t bond permanently, so the mirror effect will be vulnerable to impact damage and delamination over time.

True glass paint, like Glassprimer™ glass paint, makes a permanent bond with glass surfaces. This exceptional paint allows you to apply paint in any color to any glass surface. In addition, special frosting finishes allow painted glass to take on the appearance of frosted glass.

Glassprimer™ glass paint will not peel, chip or fade. It also provides exceptional UV resistance. This allows the paint to retain its color, even when exposed to direct sunlight. It can also help control solar heat gain, which reduces energy consumption.

Used in a decorative capacity, Glassprimer™ glass paint performs well in high-humidity areas like kitchens and bathrooms. It will enable you to create beautifully decorated, cost-effective glass surfaces for walls, cabinet fronts and countertops.