Glass Balustrade installation on brick and block work

[Ty45]

Hello everyone,

I'm wondering if someone out there could help.

We've had a retaining wall built and had it filled with hardcore, this sits behind a double skin wall built with block and brick. We're now in the process of having the Indian stone laid and finally the glass balustrade on top.

Although i've spoken to suppliers they're saying that i'd be able to bolt one of the footplates from the posts to the wall and one to the concrete blocks, i'm highly sceptical as we're in a really windy area and the balustrade would be a 9 meter run with a return on one side of 1m and the other of 2m.

Does anyone else think this wouldn't be adequate and can anyone else offer advice on a better option. I'm starting to think that I may have to take one course of the block work down and create a concrete pad behind the brick work say 8 inch deep and 12 inch wide and mount the balustrade on there.

Thank you all.

 

[RichD1]

How high is the retaining wall above the ground level?

Richard

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

How high is the retaining wall above the ground level?

Richard

You can see its about 1.1m, anyway I think you'll be ok, balustrade wise, with those returns. I'd be more concerned about the wall itself long term, rule of thumb for mass retaining walls is that the width at the base should be 1/3 of the height.

 

[noseall]

How are you finishing the top of the wall?

Incidentally, those look like a poor choice of brick for that situation.

Only glass balustrading I have ever done and it was no fun at all...

15959275423501088099939

• noseall
• 28 Jul 2020

 

[Ty45]

Morning everyone, thanks for your replies.

So wall is the same thickness all the way down and is roughly 1.5m high, there is an old retaining wall which we've left in place about 2 meters back so hoping that helps holding everything back

Speaking to a couple of installers they've said install the Indian Stone first then they come and install the balustrade over the top. Which i'm not expert but I personally don't feel that been strong enough. Agree around the bricks not been the best so was thinking of taking the top course of concrete blocks out and making a pad of concrete all the way along about 12 inch wide and 8-9 inch deep and sit the whole thing on that?

Here's the balustrades i'm after so you can see how they're fixed..

https://bearmetals.co.uk/s/balustrades/alaska-balustrades/

Cheers

 

[oldspark]

Hi. just read your post and wondered what the outcome was as I have just bought a balustrade from this company and it will be installed on top of a retaining wall similar to yours, mine is an original wall thats been rendered and all and i know its red brick because of the age of the house,
I would be curious to know what fixings they used to fix the posts as i'm hoping to install the system myself.
Thanks
OS

 

[robinbanks]

How about installing the balustrade with a zigzag or curve? Even a small zig/curve will go a long way to improving rigidity

 

[jeds]

Given the drop over that edge, I would not be happy bolting a plate to bricks or paving. I specified an almost identical situation in July last year and the concrete base was 450w x 250d.