Glass stair treads constructed with Innovative Structural Glass
We are redesigning a deck that has one big eyesore right in the middle of it — a pair very ugly bulbous skylights. The skylights do allow a lot of natural light into the room below so we don’t want to lose that feature, but they are old, cloudy, and they date the entire property.
We plan on removing the skylights and will add a piece of structural glass to the deck floor instead. Usually seen in commercial settings, structural glass is thicker than the glass used in typical residential windows. It’s engineered to be quite strong.
Sometimes structural glass ends up in high-end homes as part of a wall, floor, railing, stair tread, or landing, said Manuel Marinos, president and chief executive officer of Innovative Structural Glass. He also said that even in mainstream homes, frameless shower enclosures are commonly made with structural glass panels. Our interior design firm bstylehome specifies this type of shower glass more than any other type of enclosure because of its popularity and strength.
The glass for the skylight needs to be supported with structure around the perimeter and there will be some size limitations. All in all, the skylight will be one large open area as opposed to two smaller vintage bubble lights. Who knew you could walk on glass?
Barbara Schmidt, bstyle, inc., is a nationally recognized interior designer and author whose work is featured in numerous publications, social media and television.
