6mm 6mm Glass: What are the Perceived Benefits?
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Last week on our LinkedIn initiative #TwoCentsTuesday, we asked: What are the perceived benefits of 6mm 6mm glass? This is a spec that&#;s popping up regularly at the moment with people wanting it for their entire project, and we&#;re genuinely curious to know what our readers think about this glass type and why it has become so popular. In this week&#;s blog we&#;ll take a look at the reasons, and also a different approach to achieve those benefits without the unnecessary cost overruns that occur when opting for 6mm 6mm glass for the entire home.
What is 6mm 6mm glass?
6mm 6mm is, in short, a very thick glass. Each pane of glass in a dual pane window is 6 millimetres thick making it 12mm total. Because of the thickness, 6mm 6mm glass is obviously heavier. This has knock-on effects, impacting both the hardware and the size of the openings. Not to mention it is twice as much glass as a 3mm 3mm, so it costs more and results in more greenhouse gas emissions in its production.
While 6mm 6mm certainly has its uses, there are often more effective and affordable options when it comes to noise reduction and strength. One instance where you may want a 6mm 6mm glass is if you had a really large fixed window that needed to withstand wind loads, but even this can be achieved with thinner, tempered glass.
What is the history behind 6mm glass?
6mm glass used to be a very common glass thickness used in single glazed windows and commercial glazing specs. When looking solely at glazing specs this can make sense, but when you combine the frame with the glass you have to pay closer attention. What works or used to work in an aluminum frame, may not work for a vinyl frame. Technology has moved on, but some specs have simply been copied and pasted without taking this into consideration. Using historical reasoning of a certain component may not create the outcome you are looking for.
The consultative approach
So, is there a better option? The answer is yes! When planning your project, it&#;s best to take the consultative approach.
It&#;s totally understandable to want windows that are better at reducing noise and have added strength. But without an acoustic report you don&#;t have the necessary information to come up with a proper solution. Not having an acoustic report and wanting to reduce noise is like prescribing a medicine without knowing the illness.
Using different thicknesses of glass, for example a 6mm 4mm combination, often provides better acoustic performance than 6mm 6mm because different glass thicknesses absorb soundwaves at different frequencies. This helps with your acoustic concerns without adding a ton of weight. However, without an acoustics report, you won&#;t know for sure if the pairing 6mm 4mm is the most effective for your particular project.
It&#;s worth noting that these windows are going to be more effective in some areas than they are in others. If the property is on a noisy street, then selecting the 6mm 4mm for the rooms closest to the street would be beneficial. That does not mean they&#;re necessary on the other side of the house, where you&#;re unlikely to see any improvement in noise reduction but would still have to deal with the added cost.
There could be elements of your project where 6mm 6mm glass may even be detrimental, and not just because of the added expense. If you have a particular view you love and want to make a feature of, opting for this type of glass unnecessarily is a bad idea due to the extra weight which will then limit your design options. For instance, take a window that is designed as a 6ft by 6ft 2 lite window as shown here:
If you request 6mm 6mm to accommodate for the added weight, you would have to change the design to the following:
So when it comes to your project, the most important thing to keep in mind is balance. Be sure to weigh the benefits and the costs and keep in mind that a window that may be perfect for one spot may not bring any benefits at all when used in another. If you&#;re ever in doubt, remember that the Window Geeks are here for you to make sure your project is perfect.
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We love to talk windows! The demand for glass is at its all-time highest, but we are working with our customers to ensure you get the products you need. Contact us as early in the process as possible so we can help secure your order and keep your project on schedule. We will guide you early on so that your supply requirements are met.
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Given the number of conversations we have on the subject, perhaps laminated glass isn&#;t always appreciated for its full range of benefits.
We are seeing glass used more and more as a significant component of the architectural design of exterior envelopes. The trend doesn&#;t appear to be changing any time soon.
Expectations that glass should do more (and different) things has grown. And of course, architects have been bombarded with glass performance data ranging from actual breakthrough technologies to mere overblown hyperbole.
While we work on specifications for high-tech glass on a daily basis (switch-lite glass, bullet-proof and blast-proof glass, low iron, low reflectivity, STC ratings, etc.), we want to circle around to a product that&#;s been around a while: laminated glass. Given the number of conversations we have on the subject, perhaps laminated glass isn&#;t always appreciated for its full range of benefits.
A summary of the benefits can help in more clearly translating the value and applications where lami glass makes sense as an architectural specification.
Laminated glass is more potent than a moonshine milkshake on a Monday morning. It delivers a host of upside.
Laminated glass is multi-purpose and comes in many forms. It is so heroic it wears its underwear outside its pants like Superman. You&#;ve gotta be pretty impressive to pull that look off.
Laminated glass is made by taking two or more sheets of glass and sandwiching a polyvinyl butyl (PVB) membrane between them. The PVB membranes are available in a variety of thicknesses. Typically ranging from 0.15 (thinnest) to 0.90 (the gauge used for Hurricane Impact glass).
PVB membranes are typically clear and do not affect the Visual Light Transmittance (VLT) of the glazed opening. Solid color membranes are also available to create a glazed spandrel panel.
Lami glass filters about 99% of the most damaging portion of the UV spectrum.
UV filtration helps mitigate fading of interior finishes &#; art work, book collections, carpets, wood floors, drapes, furnishings etc. Mitigate is the key word here people &#; some degree of fading will still occur as there will still be daylight coming through.
With modern windows taking up a much larger percentages of glazing in the envelope of the home, mitigating UV becomes a more prominent management issue. Laminated glass is a go-to solution.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website how much is 6mm laminated glass.
For owners who want to eliminate fading altogether you can offer to brick up all the openings or design a subterranean dwelling in northern Norway.
For more on Sound transmission Class (STC) ratings for windows, you can check out our STC Blog here.
Security and peace of mind are distinct benefits and both can be enhanced using laminated glass. With an appropriate PVB interlayer thickness, laminated glass can resist repeated hammer blows for an extended length of time without the glass actually coming out of the window. This buys time for the home security system to alert the authorities. Preventing entry rather than apprehending an intruder inside the home.
Resistance to forced entry is important to most homes and businesses. Especially those whose entrances are readily accessible from the street. But also more remote summer or winter getaway properties that may only be occupied for a few weeks in the year.
PVB interlayers come in different thicknesses as we mentioned. The thicker the interlayer, the more resilient it is under impact. Typically, a .090 thickness interlayer is the thickest interlayer that is commonly available.
Typically, PVB interlayers are clear and visually you can&#;t see they are included in the glass. So the security benefit is gained. All without any hint of the home looking like it has been fortified for a siege.
It&#;s easy to overlook a really basic fact &#; glass that shatters into shards, especially if the impact is hard enough to turn the shards into airborne projectiles, is a significant cause of injury.
Hurricanes or high winds are an obvious example but a person walking into a glass door is more common than many people think. We&#;ve all heard stories of Uncle Joe at the family barbeque on his third pint of Guinness walking slap dab into the living room glass sliding door, right?
The PVB membrane prevents glass shattering under impact &#; much like a windshield in a car. It holds all the shards together on the membrane so they cannot become lethal. By comparison, tempered glass when impacted breaks into thousands of small pieces that fall from the door or window.
Modern tempered glass is designed to disintegrate into relatively harmless granular pieces, which reduces some of the concern. Annealed (non-tempered) glass however, will break into sharp shards. This can be avoided with some forethought.
It&#;s worth looking at any windows and doors that would otherwise have annealed glass and considering laminated glass for those locations.
Just because a piece of glass is laminated doesn&#;t make it Hurricane Impact glass.
Hurricane impact glazing codes have been, and still are, primarily driven by the insurance industry as they have a vested interest in minimizing damage to persons and property. They recognized some time ago that the right glazing plays a significant role in achieving this.
Hurricane Impact glass is laminated &#; always &#; but requites specific membranes that are robust enough to stop airborne debris.
Many people have seen the tests where a 2 x 4 is placed in a cannon and fired into the center of the glass. The glass will break but not release from the frame &#; the interlayer holds the glass pieces together. With the glass staying in the frame, you avoid the sudden devastating change in air pressure which would lead to the roof being torn off.
The walls potentially collapsing and large chunks of the property turning up unexpectedly 200 miles away in rural Idaho. No wonder the insurance folks think it&#;s worth pushing for the right glass.
Hurricane impact glass &#; as a side note &#; requires a different glazing technique as well as the correct code compliant interlayer. After all, the glass has to stay in the frame. After passing third party testing and certification, the glass and frame only then are actually impact rated.
There are multiple reasons why insulated glass units (IGUs) inherently have some level of visual glass distortion &#; wind loads, elevation, temperature, the way light travels through two panes of glass and so on. An insulating glass unit is a flexible pressure chamber in effect, when you get right down to it.
Where lami glass can help is in the area of limiting the distortion inherent in the heat treatment of tempered glass.
Lami glass can help by limiting the distortion inherent in the heat treatment of tempered glass.
Glass is heat treated to increase its strength to meet the various building specification requirements. All heat-strengthened and tempered glasses processed through horizontal roller hearth furnaces contain repeating lines or &#;waves&#; of glass thickness variation. Which extend across the width of the glass sheet as it passes through the oven.
The ceramic rollers that move the glass through the furnace produce very slight indentations into the glass surface at the temperature required for tempering.
If you walk down your local high street, you&#;ve probably noticed how your reflection in the storefront windows isn&#;t exactly pristine. Sometimes it can be look more like the mirrors in the Fun House at the local fairground.
Vertical furnace technology may eventually make roller distortion a thing of the past &#; but, while acknowledging the huge strides by the glass industry in this regard, we&#;re not quite there yet and glass isn&#;t perfect.
For more on glass quality standards, see our ASTM blog.
Laminated glass can be made with annealed (non-tempered) glass and providing annealed laminated glass meets wind load deflection criteria etc., it can replace tempered glass in many code requirement applications. Exterior glass doors are one example. With each pane of tempered glass eliminated, a level of visual distortion is avoided.
Non-tempered glass is not as strong as tempered, so review the potential switch in terms of wind load deflection. Your window fabricator should be able to offer assistance with this review.
To circle back to our comment that laminated glass may not always be appreciated for its full range of benefits, the upside is that an architect may specify lami glass for one of the principle benefits mentioned in this conversation. You may choose it for one specific reason &#; but you get all the other benefits by coming along for the ride.
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Contact us to discuss your requirements of insulated glass windows. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.