Glass or Stainless Steel Wire Balustrades? – A Comparison
When it comes to installing modern transparent balustrades, glass is often a popular choice of material. However, stainless steel wire offers another option, and comes with a range of benefits you may not have considered. Here we compare both materials on a range of important factors to see how they perform when it comes to commercial balustrades.
Visibility
- Glass is that it can look great as it is, without interfering with the surrounding design.
- Stainless Steel Wire offers the same quality. It has a very light profile which means it can blend in with surrounding design factors or even the landscape. It can also be coloured to suit any decor.
Transparency and airflow
- Glass is often chosen as it allows in natural light. However it can lose transparency from certain angles once the light bounces off its surface. Glass is also inclined to attract dust and dirt, which interferes with transparency.
- Stainless Steel Wire has approximately 90-95% open area, making it very transparent, and it has no reflectivity issues that interfere with this. This factor also allows for excellent airflow as well – something that glass tends to lack.
Longevity and durability
- Stainless Steel Wire is an excellent performer in this regard, as it can last up to 25 years as a balustrade material and still look bright with a bit of regular care and washing.
- Glass – which while durable, has a maximum lifespan of around ten years.
Maintenance
- Maintenance for Stainless Steel Wire usually only requires an annual inspection to check for any breaks or tears, corrosion or tension issues.
- For glass, maintenance requirements may involve dealing with breakages, scratches and replacing panels. Unlike Stainless Steel Wire, glass tends to need constant cleaning due to the smudges, scuff marks, dust and fingerprints it is prone to attract. All of these can interfere with its appearance and mean there is an ongoing cost to keeping the balustrade looking good.
Span / sheet size
- Stainless Steel Wire can accommodate very large spans (>50M) while being easy to handle.
- Glass, is limited in this respect because of weight a difficulty in mounting and general handling.
Weight
- Glass might have a light appearance, but it is relatively heavy – weighing several kilos per square metre compared to Stainless Steel Wire is just several grams per square meter.
Installation
- Glass is fairly easy to install for a balustrade, but it does require a sub-frame and the sheets can be heavy to carry.
- Stainless Steel Wire however is very quick to install, largely due to its light weight, lack of framing and ability to accommodate larger spans.
Fire resistance
- Glass is that it shatters under high heat. It can be made fire-resistant, but doing so adds considerably to the cost.
- Stainless steel wire balustrades have high fire-resistance, as the material can withstand very high temperatures without losing structural integrity.
Climbability
- To make glass non-climbable, the panels need to be at least 1,200mm in height. This adds to the cost of the barrier and also makes installation more complex due to the weight and size of the panels. It can also interfere with the functioning of HVAC systems.
- Stainless steel wire balustrades can be made fully non-climbable by installing full-height barriers that do not interfere with air conditioning systems. NCC regulations permit its use for both pool fencing and decks (in a mesh, vertical, or horizontal configuration)
Bottom Line – Cost
- Glass costs around $1,000 per metre for rails and $400-$800sqm for barriers. The need for constant cleaning of a glass barrier could also add to ongoing maintenance costs.
- Stainless Steel Wire can be installed for approximately $150-$650sqm – and for much less if all you need is materials and tools.
Want to know more about stainless steel wire balustrades?
If you would like to know more about stainless steel wire balustrades using Webnet, get in touch with our design team – 1300 601 514.