Glass balcony (not sure which forum to post)

I couldn't work out which forum to post this in. Our dream is to have a glass balcony railing but I know this can be very expensive. Does anyone know a cheaper alternative or which type of glass is most affordable for this use? Balcony will most likely be 12m long.

You could DIY if you have a bit of knowledge.

I think you can get 10mm glass for around $70 sqm and 12mm glass for around $80sqm (trade)

Fittings are a bit more expensive depending on if you want frameless with a handrail or semi frameless.

Where are you located and I may be able to point you in the direction of a stocklist or installer.

There is also a fellow on here that knows a lot about glass fencing if you do a search.

Thanks so much. I'm bayside in Melbourne.

Hi - Have you thought about glass and aluminium? We also have 11m of balcony deck and were wanting glass. We haven't got the quotes back yet to see how expensive it is, but we are trying to reduce cost by doing glass and powder coated aluminium (rather than glass and stainless steel). All our other metal work (ie. balcony support posts, roof, windows etc.) are in Woodlands Grey, so that is the colour we have chosen for the balustrade - fingers crossed it looks (and costs) OK!

Thanks for this great tip SunshineT. Could you please let me know what your quote comes in at?

Edited by Forum Support to remove link

Juliet, this is an Australian forum. Plus I don't believe this type of advertising is allowed.

Hi I had forgotten about this. Our quote came to $3642 for 11-12 lineal metres of Glass Balustrading with Aluminium (Woodlands Grey) posts (rather than stainless steel). Supply and install. Our builder, Zen, just showed us the quotes direct without any mark-up themselves. They are good and transparent with this stuff. Balustrade company is Genneral Staircase.

Our frameless glass for the pool fencing came in at $450l/m for 12mm glass, we could have got it a bit cheaper(around $420), semi frameless was about $380 l/m we have about 18m including two gates. T's quote comes in around $300l/m for comparison

Lol i forgot about this also! Thanks so much for letting me know! That is a pretty good price, i was expecting it to be much more! Have you had it installed yet? Do you have any pictures?

Also very good quote. Could you please let me know the company name at all?

I noticed in Bunnings the other day that they now have DIY frameless fencing in set lengths and heights which did not seem all that expensive.
Also it is not that difficult to do. Make sure the glass is toughened or tempered glass.
(I previously owned a glazing company so I have some knowledge)

Thanks so much but with two baby boys, I'd be so majorly paranoid about the safety of DIY. Maybe if it was on the ground but on a balcony i'd have heart attacks each time the boys went there.

generally speaking your balustrade rates will be higher than pool fencing. Different codes apply. Also handrails and waterproofing requirements need to be compliant.

Hi crytally,
We are using glass fx in fivedock

Do you know if handrails are an absolute requirement?

Oh whoops i forgot you were in Sydney. I just assume everyone is in Melbourne lol. Thanks anyway.

these days for balustrade pretty much most applications will require them yes.

But i sometimes see some newly built houses that don't have them. Or is this a law that has just come in?

I *think* if balcony exceeds certain height you must have handrail or at least channel on top of your glass. I think depends on council regs too!

hi, yes pretty much. I mean you drive down beach rd and see every second house without handrails. some may have been legal, some are illegal and some owners just have too much $$ and dont care what the council/building regs are.

basically regarding drops anything over a metre drop will require a handrail. In some applications fixing posts also, depending on spans, heights, wind loads, glass thickness and how many fixing points you want.

We concentrate on pool fencing only, but our subbies do all types of balustrade. I have heard of some applications being able to get away with no handrail. I had one customer in the country that I was explaining the regs to and he was not happy with a handrail. He was installing on a deck that was about 4 metres above ground level. Many months later he sent me a picture of his completed job. NO handrail. I asked how he got around it. He told me his certifier said if he used 17mm toughened he was able to do it.

Basically a balustrade is there so that if any integral component (glass) was to break (ie someone fall through it) that the structure would still stay in place (ie the handrail) so the person has a chance of grabbing onto something.

there are slight variations from council to council, but the main building code AS applies in nearly all cases.