Safety Glazing
Overview
Glazing that is installed in certain 'critical' locations should
be safety glass or guarded to protect people from injury.
Building Regulations Requirements
The following areas are considered to be 'critical
locations':
- Glazing in doors that is wholly or partially within 1500mm from
floor level.
- Glazing adjacent to doors that is wholly or partially within
300mm of the edge of a door and which is also wholly or partially
within 1500mm from floor level.
- Low level glazing that is wholly or partially within 800mm from
floor level.
Glazing in critical locations should either break
safely, be robust or be in small panes,
or be permanently protected.
Definitions
'Break safely' - laminated or toughened Class C
safety glass complying with BS6206, (or if it is installed in a
door or a door side panel and has a pane exceeding 900mm it should
be Class B of BS6206). All safety glazing should be permanently
marked in accordance with BS6206, and the markings should still be
visible after the glass has been fitted and the beading and
pointing has been completed. For double glazing, the rules apply to
both panes. Please be aware that ordinary wired glass may not be
safety glass.
'Be robust or in small panes' - annealed glass
(ordinary glass such as float/wired or rolled glass) can be robust
enough to prevent breakage, if the panes are small and the lass is
thick enough, as detailed in the table below.
| Annealed Glass Thickness |
Dimension Limits |
| 6mm |
Small panes - 250mm maximum width or 250mm maximum height -
overall area not to exceed 0.5 square metres |
| 8mm |
up to 1.1m x 1.1m |
| 10mm |
up to 2.25m x 2.25m |
| 12mm |
up to 3.0m height x 4.5m width |
| 15mm |
no limit |
'Permanently protected' - glazing in critical
locations which does not meet the above criteria ('break safely' or
'be robust or in small panes') will need to be installed behind
permanent screen protection. The screen should prevent a sphere of
75mm from coming into contact with the glazing, be robust and, if
it is intended to protect glazing that forms part of protection
from falling, be difficult to climb.
This webpage was updated on
1/31/2012