Glass
Floors
Structural units of glass can be used to create walk-on areas of glass for use in a full glass floor or floor light.
The purpose of these walk-on areas of glass is normally to allow the travel of light into below areas that may not receive a lot of light from elsewhere, such as basement spaces or other windowless rooms.
Normally the glass specification required will be a top, walk-on layer of toughened and laminated glass. This is multiple layers of toughened glass that are then laminated together for extra structural strength.
If the walk-on glass floor or floor light is separating two different climates, this laminated structural glass panel can be integrated into a horizontal double or triple-glazed unit to provide the relevant thermal performance needed.
Anti-Slip Resistance
For walk-on areas of glazing, it is normally suggested that some kind of anti-slip resistance be applied to the external face of the glass floor, especially if the walk-on surface is outside and exposed to weather such as rain.
This anti-slip resistance can be created using many different techniques. You could use a sandblasted layer of glass as the outer layer in the glass construction. This will create a slightly rougher external surface to the glass floor for anti-slip properties. You could also use specialised screen printing on the external face of the glass to create a ceramic anti-slip pattern on the surface.
Specialist fire rated glass units can also be used on glass floors if a fire rating is required.