Glass

School District Settles for $2 Million and Apologizes

I've gotten in the habit of looking at wired glass to see if it has a certification mark for impact-resistance.  Almost none of the existing wired glass that I've seen has the mark, which means that unless it has field-applied film (I haven't spotted any film yet), it is extremely hazardous.  When I see kids running down the school corridors or swarming the exit at the end of the school day, I worry about impact with the glass, and the resulting injuries.  Our kids are supposed to be safe at school, but the majority of schools have traditional wired glass in place.  And if administrators think they are protected from liability, a precedent is being set that indicates otherwise...

By |2013-06-19T01:25:34-04:00June 14th, 2013|Glass, News|11 Comments
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The Clock is Ticking

Last month I posted an article by Kenneth T. Lumb about the liability that schools carry with regard to non-impact-resistant wired glass.  I received a comment from former Oregon State Senator Vicki Walker, who has been an instrumental and passionate force in removing traditional wired glass from Oregon schools.  With her permission, I have posted her comment below (or click here to download a PDF version). 

By |2017-12-07T22:57:14-05:00June 10th, 2013|Glass|0 Comments
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More Wired Glass in the News

A couple of weeks ago I started a series of blog posts about the hazards of traditional wired glass.  I showed you some examples of traditional wired glass installed where it shouldn't be, and linked to some news reports which described incidents involving traditional wired glass.  In case those didn't convince you that we have a problem, here are a couple more:

By |2013-01-28T15:22:41-05:00January 28th, 2013|Glass|2 Comments
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RM Global

A couple of weeks ago I got a notification that someone wanted to connect with me on LinkedIn, and it turned out to be an architect that I worked with on several projects many moons ago, Reese Schroeder.  When I checked out his profile I found that he is the co-founder and Director of Product Development for RM Global.  The company creates and manufactures absolutely gorgeous art glass, including glass doors.  Their secret process results in a resolution of 4,000 dpi at 36 billion color potential - far exceeding the range of the human eye.

By |2016-02-03T10:37:48-05:00August 9th, 2010|Beautiful Doors, Glass|2 Comments
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Glass Door Hardware

I spend a lot of time with architects, and sometimes I'm put in the awkward position of having to talk them out of trying to do something with doors that hasn't been successfully done before.  Many times this involves glass doors, which are becoming more common, yet still have very few options for hardware.  It's tough to make a glass door do anything innovative, when all of the locking hardware is paired with a fixed pull handle.

By |2014-06-27T20:44:33-04:00July 25th, 2010|Doors Gone Wrong, Glass, Panic Hardware|5 Comments
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Glass (and Glasses)

Someone asked me a question recently that I had to stop and think about. In the old days, wire glass could only be used in fire doors. It could not be used in non-rated doors. The question was, "Can the wire glass that meets the impact resistance requirements be used in non-rated doors?"

By |2013-02-09T01:06:14-05:00April 20th, 2010|FDAI, Glass|1 Comment
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Lite Location

When I started working in the hardware industry, we regularly supplied doors with a 10" x 10" vision lite (type V in the Steelcraft graphic below), which was typically installed approximately 63" from the center of the lite to the floor.  This configuration would no longer be acceptable according to some current accessibility standards.  The 2003 edition of ICC/ANSI A117.1 states that if a door has a vision lite or an adjacent sidelite which permits viewing, at least one lite in the door or the sidelite has to be located with its bottom edge not more than 43" above the floor.  There is an exception for lites with their bottom edge more than 66" above the floor, which would apply to transom lites or residential entry doors with lites at the top.

By |2017-05-15T09:22:42-04:00November 9th, 2009|Accessibility, Glass|1 Comment
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Glass Doors with Electric Strikes

I'm currently working on several projects that have glass doors in walls that are acting as 1-hour fire barriers with closely-spaced sprinkler heads above the glass.  The problem with this application from a hardware standpoint is that the Blumcraft, CR Laurence, and Dorma Glas panic hardware that is typically used on glass doors does not have active trim (like a lever handle) to retract the latch from the secure side.  To unlock these doors, you would typically use the dogging feature of the panic device to leave the doors in a push/pull condition, but because they require positive latching, dogging is not an option.  I have searched the world over for a solution to this problem, but the only possibility I've found so far is using fail secure electric strikes to release the latches.  Unfortunately, this application is extremely noisy, as illustrated by the video below.  If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear from you.

By |2020-12-01T14:39:10-05:00April 2nd, 2009|Glass, Videos|10 Comments
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Blumcraft Center Housing

I am running into more and more all-glass doors on my projects, and in the words of one of the contractors I'm working with, "Doors are being asked to do things they've never done before."  I've had large glass panels pivoting at the center, glass doors acting as opening protectives in fire-rated walls, and glass doors with all types of electrified hardware applications - all with invisible wires, of course.  Given the limited options available for glass door hardware, it's often a real challenge to specify hardware that meets the functional and aesthetic requirements for the project.  On one project I specified Schlage mortise locks installed in Blumcraft center housings and it was a great solution.  The glass door manufacturer had no problem accommodating them, the architect was happy with the way they looked, and I had the full range of lock functions to choose from.

By |2014-05-23T22:04:19-04:00March 27th, 2009|Glass, Panic Hardware|0 Comments
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