Safety Glass

[frutbunn]

Isn't that exactly what the completion certificate does?

Yes but to avoid any chance of being accused of missing it at a later date and this has happened, but as it was recorded any recriminations were stopped immediately.

You don't do any reinspections of things you suspect might be changed,

As its not in the legislation, unfortunately you can't make up your own regs even if you believe you can!

 

[wessex101]

It always struck me that this is a glaring error in the Building Regulations and low level or full height glazing to upper storeys (I cannot comment on the Scottish Regs).

All they seem interested in with low level glazing is "safe breaking" so if you fall down the stairs the toughened glass will shatter in a "safe" manner so it wont sever you jugular.

They seem strangely quiet on containment. So you can safely fall through the toughened glass without a scratch but then plummet 2 storeys to your death.

My understanding is that the only way you can achieve the containment requirement is laminated glass NOT toughened but I could well be wrong.

 

[^woody^]

It's not Hollywood. Its a bit difficult to actually fall through toughened or any safety glass, but even so there are requirements for additional guarding in high risk situations.

 

[mrrusty]

Its a bit difficult to actually fall through toughened or any safety glass

especially as it's probably DG and therefore 2 panes. Personally I think applying balcony regs is a bit overkill - a balcony is specifically designed to resist leaning-on and other typical forces, a window on a stairs is a remote tiny risk that might happen once in a blue moon, and even then you would be very unlucky IMHO to break through toughened glass. Shower screens are only ordinary toughened and they are not exactly fragile! As I say, I'd just put up a barrier - perhaps some metal bars, and then remove them later. Seems like box-ticking to me, but what do I know.

 

[frutbunn]

They seem strangely quiet on containment. So you can safely fall through the toughened glass without a scratch but then plummet 2 storeys to your death.

Which would be why the approved document K has an almost identical requirements to the Scottish Standards to prevent falling in the same situation.
Diag 3.1
https://assets.publishing.service.g...achment_data/file/443181/BR_PDF_AD_K_2013.pdf

 

[wessex101]

Which would be why the approved document K has an almost identical requirements to the Scottish Standards to prevent falling in the same situation.
Diag 3.1
https://assets.publishing.service.g...achment_data/file/443181/BR_PDF_AD_K_2013.pdf

Maybe I'm missing something but that perfectly illustrates what I was saying (sorry to hijack the thread but it is one of my pet hates, I'll shut up after this).

Section 3 deals with protection from falling. Diagram 3.1 briefly mentions all glazing at changes of level should provide containment but conveniently glosses over how you actually comply with that. Section 3.2 deals with guarding being able to resists loads and refers to EN 1991 but totally fails to deal with glass balustrades etc. which if toughened can resist a uniformly distributed load but will shatter and fail with a concentrated point load.

It also makes reference to Section 5 where glazing is used as guarding. Paraphrasing Section 5 which deals with protection against impact with glazing says glazing in critical locations must be one of the following .... a/ safe breaking OR b/ robust OR c/ permanently protected. When you go to section 5.5 to look at the requirement for robustness it just talks about thicknesses of annealed glass? Why would you ever want glazing used as guarding to be safe breaking?

Maybe that's why I keep seeing full height glazing and low level glazing to upper storeys, balconies and on stairwells that are only toughened glass without secondary guarding? I was working on a new high rise block of flats recently with low level glazing in the stairwells and a large public building similar to Manchester Arena with full height glazing to the upper circulation areas both only toughened glass. Both potentially could have hundreds if not thousands of people in a panicked fire evacuation situation falling and colliding with the glass. All it would take is for someone to catch the glass with something hard and I hate to think what could happen.

I can't help feeling it will be one of those things like flammable external cladding, timber football stadiums, or large concrete panel construction etc. that just do not register with the authorities until we have yet another national tragedy. But maybe I'm just an old fuddy duddy who thought public authorities and the Building Regulations were meant to protect us citizens from dangerous and sub-standard building practises. Silly me!

 

[KennyCD]

Hi all, thanks for the replies. I got through the warrant. Put up a timber barrier, CLS 3x2. Looked terrible but structurally sound. Had to get an engineer to OK it. Took it down the day I got the completion certificate.