Frameless Glass Doors and Partitions
A frameless glass wall looks like the simplest of constructions: two profiles and a panel. In fact it is the one interior system where the site has no room to adapt anything. Toughened glass arrives finished and any attempt to correct it destroys it: the whole job is decided in the survey and in the preparation of the bedding line.
Overview
TAV. 00The process covers frameless glass doors and interior partitions, from the instrument survey on completed rough work through to functional commissioning and safety marking. The sequence is rigid for a physical reason: cutting, grinding and drilling must precede the toughening furnace, and after the furnace no machining is possible any more. The site therefore receives an unmodifiable component and has to build a compatible opening around it, not the other way round. The phases follow that logic: first measure reality, then correct the bedding line, then install, adjust and commission. The recurring defects — spontaneous breakage, edge chipping, wedge-shaped joints, doors out of adjustment — almost all come from inverting that order.
The site score
TAV. HThe detail of the craftThe real opening is not a rectangle
Survey once the rough work is done
Frameless glass panels are made to measure and arrive finished: edges ground, hardware holes already drilled, toughening already done. None of these operations can be repeated on site. That is why the survey is not taken from the architectural drawing but from the structure as actually built, after screeds, plaster and suspended ceilings have reached their final level. Every opening is measured at three heights — top, middle, bottom — and out-of-plumb and out-of-square are recorded, because the panel is a rigid rectangle that has to fit into an opening which almost never is.
Instrument survey of the openings once rough work is complete, returning actual dimensions at three points per opening and recording out-of-plumb and out-of-square; production of the shop drawing for each panel.site notebook — editorial synthesis
click a beat · arrow keys ← → walk the site · dashed pauses are the chemistry at work
PLATE 01
Toughening is a point of no return
The furnace closes the list of possible operations. Everything the panel needs — size, edges, holes, cut-outs, printing — must exist before. Afterwards, the site can only install.
The diagram illustrates the logic of the process. Thicknesses, tolerances and performance requirements are to be taken from the design and the applicable product standards.
PLATE 02
The opening is not a rectangle: where the difference ends up
There are always a few millimetres between the drawing and the wall as built. In a frameless system those millimetres do not disappear: either the adjustment range of the profile absorbs them, or they become a visible joint.
Proportions are exaggerated for legibility. Installation tolerances and permitted clearances are to be taken from the design and the applicable standards.
How it ages (and what betrays it)
TAV. PQuestions from the site
TAV. QCan I have a hole drilled on site to add a handle?
No. Toughened glass cannot be drilled after treatment: toughening holds the surface in compression and the core in tension, and the hole releases that energy, shattering the whole panel. If an extra handle is needed, the panel has to be remade with the new holes before the furnace.
Why does the wall cost more when the opening is irregular?
Because every panel becomes a one-off. In a regular opening the panels are identical and can be replaced from stock; in an irregular one each has its own dimensions, and replacing a broken panel means a new made-to-measure production run taking weeks.
Are laminated glass and toughened glass the same thing?
No, and they are not alternatives: they answer two different problems. Toughened glass breaks into blunt granules but falls all at once; laminated glass keeps the fragments bonded to the interlayer and stays in place. Tall partitions and balustrades use laminated glass precisely because the broken piece has to stay where it is.
How much noise does a frameless glass wall actually stop?
It depends almost entirely on the edges, not on the panel. Glass is heavy and stops airborne noise well; it is the ceiling joint, the door closing edge and the path under the raised floor that let sound through. A double partition with continuous seals performs far better than a single thick panel: declarable figures must be taken from the test reports for the specific system.