What glass to use for a bookcase?

[Deadeye]

Gosh. It's complicated isn't it?
My next project is a bookcase... and the quality department here (membership - 1; female) says glazing required.

What thickness do you advise? And laminated, toughened, plain or what?

 

[will1983]

I have no idea but now I'm intrigued and want to know!

I think it makes a difference how high up it is and therefore how likely it is for little people to run into the glass.

 

[RogerS]

I'd go for 6mm toughened. Plain or frosted or whatever is down to personal choice. If you don't want a visible toughened glass kite mark then IIRC most glazing companies can get it 'furniture marked' (long time since I got some and so the name might be not quite right).

 

[Dibs-h]

I have no idea but now I'm intrigued and want to know!

I think it makes a difference how high up it is and therefore how likely it is for little people to run into the glass.

I was thinking toughened glass and in 4mm which is available and shouldn't add too much weight to the doors over 3mm float glass.

 

[RogerS]

Yup..toughened is the no-brainer. Guess it depends on how large, are they hinged or sliders etc. 6mm to me gives that little bit more 'heft'...a feeling of 'quality'...but that's only my take. YVMV

 

[Dibs-h]

Guess it depends on how large, are they hinged or sliders etc.

Fair point Rog.

 

[Deadeye]

Thanks all.
I haven't settled on a design, but probably double doors; framed.
I think 6mm is going to make them a bit heavy (it's tall and narrow; ~ a door size) so 4mm toughened sounds like the job.
Presumably I just get the glass cut to 1750x400 (or whatever) and make the frame recess a couple of mm larger?

 

[Dibs-h]

Thanks all.
I haven't settled on a design, but probably double doors; framed.
I think 6mm is going to make them a bit heavy (it's tall and narrow; ~ a door size) so 4mm toughened sounds like the job.
Presumably I just get the glass cut to 1750x400 (or whatever) and make the frame recess a couple of mm larger?

I can't really comment on single glazing as never really done much, but for DG glazing, I've always had the panes\units 5mm smaller in height & width. So, I'd be tempted to use that logic for single glass.

 

[Mike Jordan]

My preference would be laminated glass, it can be cut while you wait rather than ordered in with a wait for the heat treating. Also the laminated glass will remain in place in one piece if you suffer a breakage.

 

[Trevanion]

I'd say Roger is bang on the money with 6mm toughened all depending on size and how it's working etc...

Something else to consider maybe is that if you've got books of significant value, perhaps some kind of UV resistant coating on the glass to prevent the book ends from fading would be a good idea, just a thought.

 

[mbartlett99]

What no one has mentioned - colour. I just ordered 6mm toughened iron free for two 1200mm x 600mm cupboard doors. 6mm is definitely heavy btw but does give definite heft, nothing wrong with 4mm. The iron free glass is clearer ie without colour cast.

 

[MikeG.]

If these are big glazed doors covering multiple shelves, then I agree that laminated or toughened glass is necessary, but would suggest that 6mm was overkill. However, the other way of glazing bookshelves is individually per shelf. I think they're called barristers bookshelves, or something like that, and for those much smaller pieces of glass I would just use ordinary 4mm glass, I think.

 

[Argus]

Something in the faded memory banks suggests to me that if such an item containing glass at low level were made and offered for sale commercially, then there may be some form of safety regulations in effect.

CE marking refers to the governing EU norms on the glass, but will not automatically extend to any structures that it is built into.

Obviously toughened/laminated glass........ but there may be more.
Worth a bit of basic research, maybe.

 

[woodbloke66]

I built a bookcase recently with twin sliding, bronze colour glass doors, 6mm thick, edges ground and polished with a concave finger pull ground in each door. I didn't feel the need to go down the toughened route but even so, there was very little change out of £150 for the pair - Rob

 

[user22161]

Not having children in the house, I'm quite happy to use standard 4mm glass even at low level such as a hi-fi cabinet but, if children around, would use safety glass.

 

[will1983]

As a side question can someone shed some light on the differences between safety, toughened and laminated glass?

 

[Simon_M]

Thanks all. I haven't settled on a design, but probably double doors; framed.
I think 6mm is going to make them a bit heavy (it's tall and narrow; ~ a door size) so 4mm toughened sounds like the job.

A door with a single piece of glass would probably be glazed with thicker glass than a similar door with lots of smaller panes.

A glazing company could advice what is normal thickness for the size and also what type of glass complies with the regulations e.g. to also satisfy your insurance.

Presumably I just get the glass cut to 1750x400 (or whatever) and make the frame recess a couple of mm larger?

You could cover over the edges of glass (and small gaps) by putting glazing bars on the outside of the doors (as a feature) or more easily putting "screwed" glazing bars on the inside (to hide the bars) whilst also allowing a broken pane to be later replaced.

 

[user22161]

Will1983
Wiki explains the differences and I was surprised about strength of Georgian Wired which I had always thought to be much stronger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_glass

 

[Jonathan S]

Doors 4mm laminated
Shelfs 6mm toughened



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[will1983]

Will1983
Wiki explains the differences and I was surprised about strength of Georgian Wired which I had always thought to be much stronger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_glass

Cheers Graham