The Properties and Variety of Glass Options for Front Door Units
While using Glass in an entry unit has several benefits, including aesthetic appeal, seclusion, and energy efficiency, solid wood doors also have many advantages. The two most noticeable are to make your door unit seem better and let light through.
There are numerous options for Glass. Over the years, many consumers have chosen plain and vacuum insulating glass manufacturers. This is just your basic single sheet of Glass, which has the advantage of letting the most light through while also being the least expensive choice.
The only thing that sets tinted tempered Glass apart from clear tempered glass is that, as its name implies, it has a characteristic hue. As a result, amber, gray, blue, and green tints are frequently observed.
Tempered Glass
A unique kind of tempered Glass called low emissivity, or low E, takes the reflection of radiant infrared light into account. This Glass has a specific substance, frequently made of a metallic oxide complex, deposited on one or more of its surfaces. While allowing visible light to pass through, it confines radiant heat to the Glass’s side. The result is that it uses less energy. Various “r values,” a stated ratio reflecting the effectiveness of insulation, are obtained from Glass production.
When used as glass panes, beveled Glass is also a type of tempered Glass. This sort of Glass has the same strength advantage as clear tempered Glass and the added benefit of having a “little shine,” adding interest to your door unit. Its edge (not perpendicular) has been honed into an angle. A beveled edge is typically 1 1/4 inches in dimension for the most typical application. True divided light or “French style doors” frequently have bevels.
Another type of tempered Glass is textured Glass. It is created with a surface texture or pattern. It has the same strength as clear tempered Glass and, depending on the texture, can provide some degree of privacy. For example, the shower door in your home is likely made of tempered textured Glass. Glacier, rain, spray lite, and glue chips are a few popular textures.
Tempered Glass can frequently be available in an insulated configuration, which is common and advised. Two pieces of tempered Glass are often cleaned to achieve optical clarity. A spacer is coated with adhesive sealant, and the Glass is then forced against the spacers. Additionally, a desiccant substance is placed between the panes to get rid of any humidity traces. The spacer and desiccant material are combined using unique procedures that some manufacturers have created.
While air is often trapped between the two pieces of Glass, the “value” of the unit can be increased by using an inert gas, such as Argon. Since the 1930s, insulated glass units have been in use, offering superior insulation qualities than a single piece of clear tempered Glass. Insulated glass units also provide acoustic insulation, benefiting homeowners close to an airport or a busy street. An insulated unit can also be made using low E, angles, and textured Glass.
To comply with building requirements found in regions like Miami-Dade County, Florida, hurricane impact glass is an unusually robust (and thick) glass product. To create a glass that will allow the broken fragments to cling to the plastic vinyl lamination layer upon impact, two sheets of Glass that are typically 1/4 inch thick are fused. Low E and colored Glass can be used to make hurricane glass.
Category
Another category includes art glass. It is typically not offered as a tempered product and is used to create leaded glass windows and door inserts. Since the dawn of time, artists have created art glass primarily by adding different metal oxides to molten Glass to create colored or “stained” Glass. Naturally, not all art glass qualifies as “stained glass.” With different textures, most of it is transparent. Each piece of Glass must be individually hand-cut by a glass artist.
Then, using a camping material, usually lead. Still, occasionally brass or copper foil, these pieces are assembled again by hand to create a window with a recognizable pattern or design. Expensive shimmering bevel clusters are frequently integrated into the design to increase the effect. These slopes are smaller than tempered bevels and often only have a one-half-inch beveled edge.
The most significant benefit of leaded Glass is its beauty and sophistication. Since there are an infinite number of possible designs, making a genuinely unique product across the globe is possible.
For centuries, stained glass windows have been made. Stained glass windows from the seventh century in Britain are still visible. Since literacy was not yet widely disseminated, many churches had windows created throughout the middle ages, when the art form was at its height. These windows essentially presented stories from the Bible in pictorial form. The ones that have endured now are regarded as priceless pieces of art.
Final Thought
Leaded art glass by itself is weaker than tempered Glass, but it can achieve the same advantages as insulated Glass by being sandwiched between two sheets of transparent tempered or even low E glass. We make most of the leaded glass inserts we construct in this arrangement, and we heartily suggest it to our customers who live in regions with severe winters.
