Guarding

Where glazing is used to form part of a barrier, balustrade or guarding, it must be capable of resisting the loads imposed on it without breaking or, if broken, without allowing a person to fall through.

Relevant standards

BS 6180 — Barriers in and about buildings: Code of practice
BS 6262-4 — Glazing for buildings, Code of practice for safety related to human impact

Design loads

Barriers must resist three types of load:

a uniformly distributed line load applied to the top of the barrier
a uniformly distributed load applied to the infill
a point load applied to the infill.

The values of these loads depend on the occupancy of the building, in accordance with BS EN 1991-1-1.

Specifying glass for barriers

Toughened laminated glass is normally specified for barriers, since it combines the strength of toughened glass with the post-breakage integrity of laminated glass. Heat soak testing is strongly recommended for toughened components used in barriers.

Free-standing balustrades

Free-standing glass balustrades (without a top rail) require careful specification, since the glass alone provides all the structural resistance. Larger thicknesses and higher specifications are normally required.