The guard you are not supposed to notice.

The glass and the system

Glass is the capability an iron shop does not have, and it is why metal and glass sit in the same name over our door. Both are fabricated here.

Glass

10 mm clear glass + two 0.38 mm clear interlayers + 10 mm clear glass. Laminated, not single-pane tempered: if it is ever broken, the interlayers hold the piece in place.

Fixing

Panels seated in an integrated metal channel. On commercial work the channel is set with a poured cementitious material; on residential systems, with the channel’s own hardware.

Handrails

1 5/8-inch round stainless steel, with brackets and fittings to match. On the Charisma stair that was 95 linear feet of handrail over 86 linear feet of glass.

Hardware

Stainless steel. It is the part that lives in the weather and nobody ever repaints.

Frameless & semi-frameless

Frameless reads as one sheet of air. Semi-frameless keeps a top rail, which most people find steadier under the hand and which carries a longer span.

Where it goes

Interior stairs and landings, balconies, decks, pool enclosures, and the lobby jobs where the guard has to disappear.

What happens after it is installed

This is the part of a glass railing nobody writes down, and the part everyone asks about on the second phone call.

If a panel breaks

It is replaced on its own. The channel system means one panel comes out and one goes in — the run does not come apart and the posts stay where they are.

How long a replacement takes

Laminated glass is cut to the panel, so it is an order, not a shelf item. Call the shop and we will give you the lead time that is true that week.

Cleaning

Glass cleaner and a squeegee, like a window. Outdoors, the thing that actually shows is hard-water spotting from a sprinkler, so aim them away from the panels.

Scratches

Glass scratches do not polish out the way metal does. Nothing abrasive, ever — that is the whole maintenance instruction.

Code

Guard height, opening limits and anchorage follow the Ontario Building Code, measured from the drop below the guard.

Glass we have installed

150 Bloor Street West Toronto · with Tremonte · Interconnecting stair with laminated glass guards and powder-coated handrails.

150 Bloor Street West — landing Toronto · The same system carried around the landing, where the panel lengths change at every turn.

Patio glass guard GTA · Laminated glass on a stone base, so the garden stays in view from inside the house.

Frameless shower enclosure GTA · The same glass capability indoors: measured, fabricated and installed by the same crew.

More projects →